FOR all the effort that goes into preventing film piracy, most pirate copies of new movies circulated online are the result of industry leaks rather than illicit copying at home or in cinemas.
A team from AT&T Laboratories in Florham Park, New Jersey, and the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia created software that alerted them when movies in the US box office top 50 were uploaded to digital file-sharing networks between January 2002 and June 2003. These networks are primarily used to share music but the growing number of consumer high-speed internet connections has made it possible to share entire films. The team then downloaded the film and analysed it visually, looking for clues to its origin.
Of the films investigated, 77 per cent apparently originated during production or distribution. Some simply appeared online before their cinema release, meaning they must have been leaked. Others were posted after their cinema release but included text that indicated they were made from a pre-release review DVD. Some even appeared to be unedited, with microphones appearing in shot, for example. Most films also appeared online very early on 鈭� 95 per cent were available prior to a film鈥檚 DVD release.
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鈥淲e had some idea there were a lot of insider leaks, but the extent of it surprised me,鈥� says Lorrie Cranor at AT&T. She adds that industry leaks may pose the greatest threat to a film鈥檚 profitability because they provide high-quality copies when demand is at its greatest. 鈥淭he more you can delay the appearance of these copies, the better it鈥檚 going to be for the industry.鈥�
Pirated VHS and DVD copies of films cost the industry an estimated $30 billion each year. Some studies suggest file-sharing already costs a further $3 billion a year in lost profits.
The researchers say it may be necessary to tighten production and distribution security. They suggest tracking every copy issued for editing and post-production, and even issuing reviewers with tamper-proof viewing systems. 鈥淚n many cases you鈥檙e talking about a $100 million piece of content and it needs to be treated as such,鈥� says Patrick McDaniel, also at AT&T.
Film studios鈥� most noticeable efforts to tackle piracy have involved stopping people making recordings in cinemas and at home. This includes arming cinema attendants with metal detectors and night-vision goggles to catch video cameras, and creating DVDs that self-destruct soon after being taken out of air-tight packaging.