"Star Trek" The Most - Pirated Film Of 2009; New York Times, 12/

Reuters, via New York Times; "Star Trek" The Most - Pirated Film Of 2009:

"Paramount's worst fears are confirmed: "Star Trek" was the most pirated film of 2009, according to a new report.

In October, the studio told the Federal Communications Commission that "Star Trek" had become a hot commodity in piracy circles. Illegal file-sharing had advanced from "geek to sleek," Frederick Huntsberry, the studio's chief operating officer, told officials.

Now, according to data from TorrentFreak, "Star Trek" was downloaded nearly 11 million times this past year, just edging "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" (10.6 million). The films were among the biggest of the year at the box office.

At the other end of the box-office scale, "Sherlock Holmes" director Guy Ritchie's "RocknRolla" ranked No. 3. It grossed less than $26 million worldwide.

Interestingly, for all the fuss about the "Wolverine" leak, the film came in at No. 9 with 7.2 million. The FBI earlier this month charged a man with violation of federal copyright law, alleging he uploaded the film to the Web last spring.

The list was rounded out by "The Hangover" (No. 4), "Twilight" (No. 5), "District 9" (No. 6), "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" (No. 7), "State of Play" (No. 8), and "Knowing" (No. 10)."

http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2009/12/24/arts/entertainment-us-startrek.html

Seizing mobile phones in cinemas will not win the war on piracy; Guardian, 7/22/09

Cory Doctorow via Guardian; Seizing mobile phones in cinemas will not win the war on piracy: Studios are concerned at critics pirating movies, but the data on the phones they are asked to surrender is far more sensitive:

"If you go to a preview screening in Leicester Square – a privilege given to press, entertainment industry VIPs and punters who win phone-in prizes – you'll be asked to leave your mobile phone in a bag behind a counter at the front of the cinema.

The film industry says this is a necessary precaution against the hypothetical losses that would result should someone use a mobile phone to "camcord" (record from the audience) a pre-release movie and leak it online. The film Wolverine (panned by 63% of critics, according to Rotten Tomatoes, which also reports a $177,288,905 box office gross to date) is often cited as an example of how a film can be harmed by pre-release leaks. Also cited is Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) research claiming the majority of pirate movies on the internet and sold on the street start as camcordered movies.

Which brings us to the other theoretical risk of leaving hundreds of phones in the safekeeping of a cinema, out of your sight for two or three hours. From sim cloning (copying the sim so other phones can listen to your voicemail and make calls billed to you) to data theft, the risks are enormous. Think of the data storage on your phone - that potential 64GB on a postage-stamp-sized SD card. That's enough to carry around libraries' worth of information. Add contact information - personal phone numbers for all the people in the lives of everyone at the movie, including ministers of state and other VIPs who are routinely invited to previews. Then consider confidential diaries, photos, voice memos, your search history ..."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/jul/22/piracy-film-mobile-phones

Wolverine': Experts Weigh In On Effects Of Leak; MTV.com, 5//4/09

Via MTV.com; 'Wolverine': Experts Weigh In On Effects Of Leak: 'X-Men Origins: Wolverine' nabbed $90 million at the box office, but that doesn't mean online piracy is harmless:

"The general public, however, seemed to have less exposure to the leak. "I think what really helped 'Wolverine' overcome the piracy issue [was] the people who went out to see it were probably more casual moviegoers than just the comic people," said Edward Douglas of movie site ComingSoon.net. "Which is why 'Wolverine' ended up opening so much bigger than 'Watchmen,' " which made $55 million during its debut weekend in March. Douglas added that a lower running time and a PG-13 benefited "Wolverine" too...

Will the remarkable $90 million opening for "Wolverine," despite its illegal online exposure, have other studio execs breathing a sigh of relief? Don't count on it, Poland said.

"If the 'Wolverine' leak is only the beginning, then the film industry has a major, major problem," he said. "Anomalies are always given too much attention, but when anything becomes standard, it has a very different impact.""

http://www.mtv.com/movies/news/articles/1610564/story.jhtml

In digital age, can movie piracy be stopped?; CNN.com Technology, 5/2/09

Via CNN.com Technology: In digital age, can movie piracy be stopped?:

"Greg Sandoval, who covers media and digital entertainment for CNET News, said that in the digital age, thieves can gain access to near-perfect advance copies of films on DVD that have greater potential to undermine a movie's box-office prospects.

And even studios' attempts at safeguarding their products against piracy, such as by encoding DVDs with digital watermarks that allow authorities to trace individual copies, aren't enough, Sandoval said.

He said tech-savvy thieves have figured out how to strip such watermarks from DVDs.

"When you're talking about digital content ... it's impossible to lock it down completely" from theft, Sandoval said. "These hackers are very creative. Sometimes, they're one step ahead of the security experts."...

John Malcolm, director of worldwide anti-piracy operations for the Motion Picture Association of America, said digital piracy can take many forms, including peer-to-peer file sharing and streaming.

Malcolm said the association is conducting a lot of outreach to universities and Internet service providers to help them address piracy that occurs over their systems.

The issue is global, Malcolm said, as evidenced by pending litigation in France that would shut down Internet accounts of illegal downloaders."

http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/05/01/wolverine.movie.piracy/index.html

Digital Piracy Spreads, and Defies a Fix; The New York Times, 4/6/09

Via The New York Times: Digital Piracy Spreads, and Defies a Fix:

"Less than a week after a pirated copy of the unreleased movie “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” popped up on the Internet, federal legislators and entertainment executives presented an extraordinarily bleak picture of the damage digital piracy can inflict, and the grim prospects for limiting it.

At a Monday morning Congressional field hearing here, lawmakers and executives both described a deteriorating situation in which $20 billion annually in copyrighted movies, music and other entertainment are being lost to global piracy networks that are tolerated or encouraged by countries like China, Russia, India and — in a case that drew special attention — Canada."

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/07/business/media/07piracy.html?_r=1&hpw

FBI called in over Wolverine leak, BBC News, 4/3/09

Via BBC News; FBI called in over Wolverine leak:

"The Hugh Jackman film was downloaded an estimated 100,000 times from file-sharing websites on Tuesday.

20th Century Fox confirmed the copy had now been removed and the FBI informed.

The studio behind Wolverine stated: "The source of the initial leak and any subsequent postings will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law."

"The courts have handed down significant criminal sentences for such acts" the studio noted...

Fox called the leaked movie a "stolen, incomplete and early version"...

The studio added that because their content is forensically marked they should be able to trace the person who uploaded it."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/7978379.stm

Wolverine Film Leaked on the Internet, ComicBookResources.com, 4/1/09

Via ComicBookResources.com: Wolverine Film Leaked on the Internet:

"Word spread last night over Twitter and other social networking sites that "X-Men Origins: Wolverine," the hotly anticipated 20th Century Fox film based on Marvel Comics' X-Men characters, had been leaked to the internet for illegal dissemination. Directed by Gavin Hood and starring Hugh Jackman, the film is not due to be released until May 1.

As of this writing, a DVD-quality workprint version of the film is available on numerous file-sharing websites, with hundreds of thousands of users illegally downloading the various BitTorrent files. This version of the film is missing completed special effects shots and most likely other material that will be in the final version of the film, but as a consequence of the leak, early, spoiler-filled reviews have been posted across the Web.

Naturally, security questions are at the top of everyone's list. Who leaked the film, and how?"

http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=20635