Adventures of the ‘Wolverine’ Leaker; New York Times, 1/12/10

Michael Wilson, New York Times; Adventures of the ‘Wolverine’ Leaker:

"The man who stole Wolverine opened the door to his Bronx apartment with a grunt, his thin frame hunched at the waist, an unlikely villain with a bad back and pajama pants. “I’m a scapegoat for this,” said Gilberto Sanchez, 47, after flopping down at his desk — the crime scene — and dragging on a cigarette. “I’m gonna get crucified.”

It has been nine months since the theft of the superhero, or more accurately, the superhero’s story. On March 31, someone posted a “work print” — an unfinished copy — of the film “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” on a Web site. It was a full month before the movie, starring Hugh Jackman as the famous mutant, was to open in theaters. Hollywood analysts called the leak unprecedented and speculated whether its free, albeit brief, availability to the public — and the unkind buzz that followed — would dampen its box office draw. Mr. Jackman himself was said by the studio to be “heartbroken.”...

In an interview in his $695-a-month apartment in the Parkchester neighborhood, Mr. Sanchez, who was in and out of city jails in the 1990s on drug charges, told his story...

Wesley Hsu, an assistant United States attorney for the Central District of California, who is supervising the prosecution, said financial gain is not necessarily the sole motive for so-called pirates.

“It’s some sort of Internet prestige thing,” Mr. Hsu said. “That’s sort of how the culture works.”

Mr. Sanchez, who speaks to rehabilitation groups — “I’m Gilberto Sanchez, I’ve been to jail, I’ve been through this, I’ve been through that” — said he has no intention of fighting the charge. “I can’t say no,” he said, pointing to his computer. “That’s like DNA.”

His fate is unclear...

“Wolverine” went on to gross $373 million worldwide, despite mostly bad reviews, and despite the online adventures of a glass installer from the Bronx who, a day after his interview, was laid out flat on the floor of his apartment, the only comfortable position for his back.

He tried to imagine what Mr. Jackman might say to him if they ever met. He hoped it would go something like this: “Hey, you did what you did. You didn’t hurt us.”"

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/13/nyregion/13wolverine.html?scp=3&sq=copyright&st=cse

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

Hollywood aims to block RealNetworks' DVD software - Washington Post, 9/30/08

Hollywood aims to block RealNetworks' DVD software:
"Hollywood's six major movie studios on Tuesday sued RealNetworks Inc. to prevent it from distributing DVD copying software that they said would allow consumers to "rent, rip and return" movies or even copy friends' DVD collections outright...
The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, alleges RealNetworks' RealDVD program, which launched Tuesday, illegally bypasses the copyright protection built into DVDs...
The software locks the copy to the hard drive where it is copied and to the program it was copied with, Kimball said, and he asserted that copying one's personal collection of DVDs amounts to "fair use" allowed by law. "
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/30/AR2008093001308.html?sub=AR