8 ms·
At 92, Movie Bootlegger Is Soldiers’ Hero
- lusr 15y agoSeems like such a simple thing for the movie studios to do - legally - and generate some positive PR for a change... but no.
- option_greek 15y agothey did mention that they send reels and projector but I suppose that's a long time after the release.
- dgabriel 15y agoIt also must be much harder to actually watch reel-to-reels. You can just pop a DVD into any computer at any time without worrying about the additional logistics of space, trained projector operators, and time constraints.
- adavies42 15y agodo people actually refer to celluloid movie prints as "reel-to-reel"? i suppose the term is technically accurate, but i've never heard it used for anything other than the pre-cassette magnetic tape audio format (or i suppose very occasionally its data-tape derivatives).
- johnpowell 15y agoI was a protectionist during college and your number one enemy with film is dust and dirt. I would imagine the prints would be unwatchable after a dust storm in Iraq.
- chris11 15y agoThe military actually does run it's own movie theater chain. I'm not sure who pays for it, but the showings are free. Although I think the movies are released a month or two after the normal release date. And I doubt that the military actually has a theater somewhere in Iraq or Afghanistan http://www.mwrguam.com/company_detail.php?keyword=movies http://www.mwrguam.com/company_detail.php?keyword=movies
- rdl 15y agoActually a lot of the bases had movie theaters in Iraq and Afghanistan (not the little 10-1000 person bases, but the big ones like Balad, Bagram, etc. which have >10k people).
- MichaelGG 15y ago"“It’s not the right thing to do, but I did it,” Mr. Strachman said, acknowledging that his actions violated copyright law." What an odd quote. It seems like he thinks it was the right thing to do (as do some of the recipients), or he wouldn't continue to spend so much time and effort doing so.
- timjahn 15y agoI think he's more acknowledging it's not the "right" thing to do as in the legal thing to do, but he understands that beyond the law, it's the moral right thing to do.
- mvanga 15y agoI think he was contrasting what he knew was legally wrong with what he felt was personally or morally right.
- Jun8 15y agoI think he's alluding to the (in this case, unfortunate) difference between moral and legal rightness. Whenever there's a large difference between actions prescribed by these, there's a problem either with the law, because it has to mirror current communal understanding of morality.
- carbocation 15y agoAn excellent example of the distinction between malum in se vs malum prohibidum. It seems that he is acknowledging that what he did is prohibited, yet he also feels that the act is not wrong in itself.
- tomc1985 15y agoAnd since when do people always do the right thing?
- rexreed 15y ago"I don't have the right to do it, but it is the right thing to do"
- timjahn 15y agoHollywood can't even provide a convenient solution for overseas American troops to enjoy a favorite American past time. The same American troops that are helping protect the lives of the Americans that watch all of Hollywood's entertainment offerings. At least they've (so far) decided to let this guy do some good without going after him.
- jeremyarussell 15y ago“We are grateful that the entertainment we produce can bring some enjoyment to them while they are away from home,” Mr. Gantman said. I really hope the MPAA decides that they can let one slip. The real interesting thing is what the politicians will say. It's a catch 22 if I've ever seen one. (Can't be mad, he's helping the troops, can't be happy, he's doing something "illegal".) The answer is that something like this shouldn't be illegal, but who knows if that'll ever happen.
- sliverstorm 15y agoProbably the best thing to do, IMO, is to simply not talk about it. If I was a politician caught in such a catch 22, if feasible, I'd try to pretend I'd never heard of it.
- roc 15y ago"I don't recall"... sounds familiar.
- jetti 15y agoAt least they've (so far) decided to let this guy do some good without going after him. This actually presents a really big challenge to the MPAA. By not actively protecting their copyright (which they aren't if they let this guy off the hook or turn a blind eye) they risk losing other cases because of it. At the same time, if they go after this guy they look awful.
- timjahn 15y ago
- PetrolMan 15y agoI generally don't have time to read enough of the news to find gems like this so I love the fact that I can come to Hacker News and catch a little bit of everything. I know this has been said before and contributes little to the conversation but it's nice to see stories like this along with everything else.
- J3L2404 15y agoWell this guy makes a much better hero than the fucking ridiculous Kim Dotcom.
- gee_totes 15y agoYou don't think that soldiers watched MegaVideo too? Or downloaded new music from MegaUpload? Just because the New York Times didn't write a story about it, doesn't mean it didn't happen.
- res0nat0r 15y agoI don't think Kim's mansion in NZ and ridiculous antics were his way of helping out soldiers overseas.
- gadders 15y agoWhat a lovely man.
- excuse-me 15y agoIronically this would be perfectly legal if the army was doing it. Recently a musician attempted to sue the Army for its use of his music played at very high volumes to 'interrogate' prisoners at Guantanamo. The case was rejected because the US government has a blanket right to use any US copyright material for national security. So the Army is presumably free to pirate all the copies of 'Two and a Half Men' it needs to keep it's troops in a fighting mood.
- tjr 15y agoEven if it weren't the military doing it, how would playing a recording at high volumes in this manner be copyright infringement?
- interurban 15y agoIf a group of people heard it could be considered a public performance, something not permitted by most licenses to music that we purchase.
- keithpeter 15y agoIn the UK the relevant authorities have I suppose purchased a music playback licence. Cafes and community centres have them. It isn't a big cost.
- akc 15y agowas this musician John Tesh, by any chance.
- ck2 15y agoI'm sorry but war should never be comfortable or have entertainment. Don't feel good for him doing this while we can shop at the mall. The solution is those people should be watching it at home in the comfort of their own homes. When we have a draft for every military action declared by a single person in charge, then I'll change my mind.
- rexreed 15y agoIn a volunteer army, these people serve by choice (albeit perhaps not always for altruistic reasons). It is also the choice of this fellow to make their horrible experiences less so. While certainly I don't support endless war, I think this story is an uplifting one - a singular act of selfless kindness to add humanity to what is otherwise an inhumane situation. Certainly no one is coercing or paying him to do that. In fact, quite the opposite.
- davidf18 15y agoMany of the people go into the army to get a college education because their parents or they can't afford it compared with perhaps most of the readers of HN whose parents paid their way....
- ck2 15y agoIt's pretty horrible to make someone decide they need to go to war to pay for their education. How about giving the well-off the same risk by enacting the draft for all college students when we decide to go to war? Bet we wouldn't be in another war this century.
- rexreed 15y agoGuess again - war is a huge business. And it's very complicated. You'd be surprised how much of the US economy is derived from waging and supporting war. If you were to take that away, the cost would be surprising economic depression and joblessness. Way too many businesses are in the direct or indirect business of supporting war-faring. And that's terribly unfortunate, but a reality. Forcing the draft won't do anything to stop war making. You'd have to remove the economic incentive, and that's too painful for anyone to do. Indeed, a Senator would probably sacrifice their own son if it meant keeping the coffers filled. Perhaps that's worth the cost, but at this point, I would hesitate to say that it is a Complex Problem, which would necessitate a Complex Solution. Intractable, maybe?
- tomc1985 15y agoI'm curious as to what's going to happen now, being that he's admitting to copyright infringement on page A1 of the New York Times....
- oz 15y agoSomething about this story just warms my heart. Particularly image # 7: A 92 y.o. veteran leaning over his flat-screen monitor, performing a labour of love for his comrades thousands of miles away. With an old-fashioned alarm clock on his desk.
- keithpeter 15y agoActually, the images are really nice. Pity they don't provide hi res (I'd pay). You don't see photo stories like this too often now. This chap reminds me of the volunteer hospital visitors we have in the UK. People go into their local hospital (known to staff) and just sit with the ones who have no visitors that day and engage them a little.
- oz 15y agoI'd hardly be described as sentimental, but it's the small things like this that give me hope for humanity. It's amazing, the things we can do to-or for-one another.
- K2h 15y agoThe best part.. he sends to the _chaplain_ to then distribute to the troops! He starts with purchasing boot leg from vendors on the street. That made me say "NO!...". Is it wrong of me to want to step in and show him how to do it right? This was great story.
- spinchange 15y agoI wasn't alive then, so this probably me romanticizing, but the Hollywood of the WWII era I grew up learning about would have been sending these films over to the troops on their own.
- w1ntermute 15y agoEven if they were doing so, the situation was very different. You couldn't easily copy movies, and either way, people in general weren't as dependent on Hollywood entertainment as they are now.
- spinchange 15y agoMy broader point is that there's a lot of talk surrounding the legal/piracy implications of what this man is doing, and yes, the world is far different now that it was some 70 years ago, but in his era a comparative act to this - if there is one - wouldn't have been met with nearly as much (potential) "controversy" I think. Hollywood used to do quite a lot to show it's support to the armed services/government. (Disney sidelined projects to work on what was essentially free propaganda films among many others)
- pdw 15y agoThere were the WWII Armed Service Editions: "Over the life of the program, over 123 million copies of 1,322 titles were printed. This makes the ASE program one of the largest wide-scale distributions of free books in history."
- davidf18 15y agoIronically, this story would itself make a great movie. One can only imagine how much this old man, who our society would write-off as "no longer productive", raised the morale of our troops who were otherwise lonely from their families. For the amount of money spent on the war, the DOD could have purchased the rights to the films and made their own copies to distribute to the troops.
- kijin 15y agoIf the DoD had tried to purchase DVD distributions rights, Hollywood would have insisted on some sort of DRM so the DVDs could only be played on military-owned computers located outside of the United States. That would have been, er, doubleplusunconvenient.
- driverdan 15y agoThis enrages me. Unequal application of law is an injustice to everyone. How can teenagers be bankrupted and have their future damaged by sharing a few MP3s via P2P yet this guy can bootleg 300,000 current release movies and the industry hardly flinches? This guy gets a free pass because he's old? Because he's supporting US troops? Bullshit. When kids can have their future ruined because their situation doesn't "warm your heart" and this guy can bootleg for 5 years you know the system is broken. Note: I'm not defending USA's IP laws. They are very, very broken.
- icebraining 15y agoIt's civil law; they only sue if they want to. Which is good, since a lot of times a lawsuit isn't the best way to solve an issue (for example, in GPL violation cases the FSF often gets the infringer to comply without suing).
- timurlenk 15y agoI'm surprised that after 75 comments nobody remarked this quote: "You’re shocked because your initial image is of some back-alley Eastern European bootlegger — not an old Jewish guy on Long Island,” Captain Curran said. I may not be so familiar with the north american culture, can anybody clarify this for me: Is it a generally accepted fact that bootleggers are east europeans and old jews would never do such a thing?
- lotharbot 15y agoBig-time organized bootlegging/piracy is often associated with communist and former communist areas (Russia, China, the Ukraine, etc.) in popular consciousness. Not just in terms of movies, but in terms of knockoff Rolex watches, Coach bags, and so on. It's some combination of low respect for capitalism, high corruption, pockets of general lawlessness, cheap labor, and powerful criminal organizations. I certainly have a hard time picturing my 90 year old, very religious, WWII American Veteran grandpa being interested in piracy.