7 ms·

Leaked DVD Screener of The Social Network A BitTorrent Hit

30 points by Garbage 16y ago

citricsquid 16y ago
is this film worth going to the cinema for?
- speek 16y ago
  I'd recommend it, though it's not your traditional "you need to see this in a cinema" movie.
- cschep 16y ago
  I was definitely hesitant, but it got extremely good reviews. http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the-social-network/ http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the-social-network/ 97% is incredibly high for RT.
  - ashconnor 16y ago
    I normally agree with RT ratings but this film inparticular is over ranked.
RBr 16y ago
It's not a big surprise to realize that mass-market movie theaters will soon have the same fate as local movie rental shops and chains such as Blockbuster. The only people who don't seem to understand that digital distribution will soon be the only way to make money on media are large content marketing companies. It's an "all or nothing" battle where folks who understand that this is the future of media distribution also know that a few rogue firms, films or artists won't be able to solve the problem of piracy. If every firm, every artist, everyone who is currently making any money from content understood that new ways to monetize digital content existed, we could move beyond leaked DVD Screeners and the current state of piracy. People will pay for content... but today, they will pay on their own terms. It doesn't mean giving it away for free, it means changing the current model.
- tvon 16y ago
  I don't see why any of this would affect piracy, beyond perhaps saving someone the step of ripping a Screener DVD.
- nopal 16y ago
  I don't know, theaters still have a period of exclusivity, and it's possible for studios to implement tighter controls for things like screeners, so it's not quite the same as an example where a business has to compete against a studio-sanctioned digital release. I personally still enjoy going to the theater, and I don't mind paying for the experience. I think theaters are going to have to focus more and more on the experience in the future. If studios ever do start to do digital releases on the same day as theatrical releases, then all the theaters will have is their ability to provide a first-rate experience. It's like a lot of things, making a customer happy can and will bring in business.
  - RBr 16y ago
    I enjoy going to a theater as well... but eventually, the only theaters that will exist will be high-end, classy joints like Gold Class Cinemas (http://www.goldclasscinemas.com/ http://www.goldclasscinemas.com/). When I want to see a movie in a theater, I want to receive the best experience possible. If the movie isn't worth seeing on a high-end screen, with high-end sound in a high-end facility, I want to download (and pay for) a good quality copy of the movie. Recently, I've seen Inception, Avatar, and a couple of other movies that between the sound and the picture deserve an experience. The Social Network is a great movie that does not deserve an experience. It's a entertaining mockumentary that I really enjoyed watching - I did not miss anything by foregoing the theater. When the DVD comes out, I'll buy it.
    - toolate 16y ago
      "I enjoy going to a theater as well... but eventually, the only theaters that will exist will be high-end, classy joints like Gold Class Cinemas (http://www.goldclasscinemas.com/ http://www.goldclasscinemas.com/)." Think of teens and parents. They're not going to pay for classy cinemas. Any both go for reasons other than just seeing the film.
dangrover 16y ago
I've been trying to find it on usenet since I saw it in theaters a month ago. But then I saw that the pirate DVD lady in my neighborhood in Brooklyn had it this morning. Went back, found it!
- cmars232 16y ago
  1st rule
  - jiganti 16y ago
    What does this mean?
    - CamperBob 16y ago
      http://www.google.com/search?&hl=en&source=hp&q=First+Rule+of+Usenet http://www.google.com/search?&hl=en&source=hp&q=...
      - dangrover 16y ago
        I was just posting because I found it funny that such a low-tech thing ended up being an indicator of availability of information online. I'll keep quiet about usenet now. :)
recurser 16y ago
In Japan, cinema releases are regularly 9-12 months behind DVD-quality bittorrent releases. I recently saw a rental DVD in the 'new releases' section which I'd rented 3 years earlier outside of Japan. Similarly, my wife loves Desperate Housewives, but Japanese releases are 18+ months after the American release. I have two choices - I can download a movie right now in around 10 minutes without getting off the couch, and watch it in widescreen/surround in the comfort of my home, or I can wait a year or more to pay $22 to see it at the cinema. By the time that year is up, if I've somehow managed to avoid reading spoilers online, and waited months after the rest of the world has stopped talking about the movie, there's a chance I might even enjoy the trip to the cinema. I would love to be able to pay $10 to get a decent quality download at the same time the rest of the world is watching a movie. Hell, I'd probably pay $20 if it was something I really wanted to see - it'd still be cheaper than the cinema. If iTunes Japan had a rental section (or if the local online rental stores were up-to-date with the rest of the world) I'd probably be spending hundreds of dollars a year on it. I realize it's probably fiendishly complicated to take an English-language movie, negotiate multiple foreign release dates, translate it, subtitle it, market it in the local language etc, but it seems like it should be fairly easy to allow a non-US English-speaker to buy a (DRMed if necessary) downloadable copy of a movie online a reasonable time after it's been released in the states. It takes the production companies a year, yet two days after a new episode of Lost has aired in the states there'll be multiple fan-subbed versions doing the rounds on Japanese p2p networks. I have no idea how to fix the current system (and I'm sure smarter people than me have tried and failed), but I can't help but feel these companies are missing a huge opportunity internationally.

30 points by Garbage 16y ago

citricsquid 16y ago

is this film worth going to the cinema for?

speek 16y ago
I'd recommend it, though it's not your traditional "you need to see this in a cinema" movie.
cschep 16y ago
I was definitely hesitant, but it got extremely good reviews. http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the-social-network/ http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the-social-network/ 97% is incredibly high for RT.
- ashconnor 16y ago
  I normally agree with RT ratings but this film inparticular is over ranked.

RBr 16y ago

It's not a big surprise to realize that mass-market movie theaters will soon have the same fate as local movie rental shops and chains such as Blockbuster. The only people who don't seem to understand that digital distribution will soon be the only way to make money on media are large content marketing companies. It's an "all or nothing" battle where folks who understand that this is the future of media distribution also know that a few rogue firms, films or artists won't be able to solve the problem of piracy. If every firm, every artist, everyone who is currently making any money from content understood that new ways to monetize digital content existed, we could move beyond leaked DVD Screeners and the current state of piracy. People will pay for content... but today, they will pay on their own terms. It doesn't mean giving it away for free, it means changing the current model.

tvon 16y ago
I don't see why any of this would affect piracy, beyond perhaps saving someone the step of ripping a Screener DVD.
nopal 16y ago
I don't know, theaters still have a period of exclusivity, and it's possible for studios to implement tighter controls for things like screeners, so it's not quite the same as an example where a business has to compete against a studio-sanctioned digital release. I personally still enjoy going to the theater, and I don't mind paying for the experience. I think theaters are going to have to focus more and more on the experience in the future. If studios ever do start to do digital releases on the same day as theatrical releases, then all the theaters will have is their ability to provide a first-rate experience. It's like a lot of things, making a customer happy can and will bring in business.
- RBr 16y ago
  I enjoy going to a theater as well... but eventually, the only theaters that will exist will be high-end, classy joints like Gold Class Cinemas (http://www.goldclasscinemas.com/ http://www.goldclasscinemas.com/). When I want to see a movie in a theater, I want to receive the best experience possible. If the movie isn't worth seeing on a high-end screen, with high-end sound in a high-end facility, I want to download (and pay for) a good quality copy of the movie. Recently, I've seen Inception, Avatar, and a couple of other movies that between the sound and the picture deserve an experience. The Social Network is a great movie that does not deserve an experience. It's a entertaining mockumentary that I really enjoyed watching - I did not miss anything by foregoing the theater. When the DVD comes out, I'll buy it.
  - toolate 16y ago
    "I enjoy going to a theater as well... but eventually, the only theaters that will exist will be high-end, classy joints like Gold Class Cinemas (http://www.goldclasscinemas.com/ http://www.goldclasscinemas.com/)." Think of teens and parents. They're not going to pay for classy cinemas. Any both go for reasons other than just seeing the film.

dangrover 16y ago

I've been trying to find it on usenet since I saw it in theaters a month ago. But then I saw that the pirate DVD lady in my neighborhood in Brooklyn had it this morning. Went back, found it!

cmars232 16y ago
1st rule
- jiganti 16y ago
  What does this mean?
  - CamperBob 16y ago
    http://www.google.com/search?&hl=en&source=hp&q=First+Rule+of+Usenet http://www.google.com/search?&hl=en&source=hp&q=...
    - dangrover 16y ago
      I was just posting because I found it funny that such a low-tech thing ended up being an indicator of availability of information online. I'll keep quiet about usenet now. :)

recurser 16y ago

In Japan, cinema releases are regularly 9-12 months behind DVD-quality bittorrent releases. I recently saw a rental DVD in the 'new releases' section which I'd rented 3 years earlier outside of Japan. Similarly, my wife loves Desperate Housewives, but Japanese releases are 18+ months after the American release. I have two choices - I can download a movie right now in around 10 minutes without getting off the couch, and watch it in widescreen/surround in the comfort of my home, or I can wait a year or more to pay $22 to see it at the cinema. By the time that year is up, if I've somehow managed to avoid reading spoilers online, and waited months after the rest of the world has stopped talking about the movie, there's a chance I might even enjoy the trip to the cinema. I would love to be able to pay $10 to get a decent quality download at the same time the rest of the world is watching a movie. Hell, I'd probably pay $20 if it was something I really wanted to see - it'd still be cheaper than the cinema. If iTunes Japan had a rental section (or if the local online rental stores were up-to-date with the rest of the world) I'd probably be spending hundreds of dollars a year on it. I realize it's probably fiendishly complicated to take an English-language movie, negotiate multiple foreign release dates, translate it, subtitle it, market it in the local language etc, but it seems like it should be fairly easy to allow a non-US English-speaker to buy a (DRMed if necessary) downloadable copy of a movie online a reasonable time after it's been released in the states. It takes the production companies a year, yet two days after a new episode of Lost has aired in the states there'll be multiple fan-subbed versions doing the rounds on Japanese p2p networks. I have no idea how to fix the current system (and I'm sure smarter people than me have tried and failed), but I can't help but feel these companies are missing a huge opportunity internationally.