From: "Rich Gauszka" 

Well they can't blame the true pirates, industry insiders and movie reviewers

http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/1656/159/

n recent weeks, Canadians have been subjected to a steady stream of reports
asserting that Canada has become the world's leading source of movie
piracy. Pointing to the prevalence of illegal camcording - a practice that
involves videotaping a movie directly off the screen in a theatre and
transferring the copy onto DVDs for commercial sale - the major Hollywood
studios are threatening to delay the Canadian distribution of their top
movies.

While the reports have succeeded in attracting considerable attention, a
closer examination of the industry's own data reveals that the claims are
based primarily on fiction rather than fact.  In the best Hollywood
tradition, Canadians have been treated to a show from the Motion Picture
Association of America (MPAA) and its Canadian counterpart (the Canadian
Motion Pictures Distributors Association) that is much ado about nothing,
featuring unsubstantiated and inconsistent claims about camcording,
exaggerations about its economic harm, and misleading critiques of Canadian
law.

First, the camcorder claims have themselves involved wildly different
figures.  Over the past two weeks, reports have pegged the Canadian
percentage of global camcording at either forty or fifty percent.  Yet the
International Intellectual Property Alliance, a U.S. lobby group that
includes the MPAA, advised the U.S. government in late September that
Canadians were the source for 23 percent of camcorded copies of DVDs.

Not surprisingly, none of these figures have been subject to independent
audit or review.  In fact, AT&T Labs, which conducted the last major
public study on movie piracy in 2003, concluded that 77 percent of pirated
movies actually originate from industry insiders and advance screener
copies provided to movie reviewers.

Moreover, the industry's numbers indicate that camcorded versions of DVDs
strike only a fraction of the movies that are released each year.  As of
August 2006, the MPAA documented 179 camcorded movies as the source for
infringing DVDs since 2004.  During that time, its members released
approximately 1400 movies, suggesting that approximately one in every ten
movies is camcorded and sold as infringing DVDs.  According to this data,
Canadian sources are therefore responsible for camcorded DVD versions of
about three percent of all MPAA member movies. "John Beamish"
 wrote in message
news:op.tr45jrx6m6tn4t{at}dellblack.phub.net.cable.rogers.com...
> Duh ... that's cause the screeners (busily being processed in China)
> aren't in French.  But the camcorded movies (notice -- though not in this
> particular article -- that many references were being made to a Cineplex
> in Montreal) have limited distribution and appeal.  They are, however,
> easy to identify:  the sound track is so often a foreign language (well,
> "foreign" to Americans ... hmm, well, English is too, sometimes).
>
> Anyway, the real reason is that Bush-lite (Stephen Harper) has an agenda
> that makes this (incredibly minute) part of the piracy industry an
> appealing target.  Bev Oda (I went to school with a Bev Oda and she's the
> right age but her bio doesn't mention growing up in Lorne Park or
> Clarkson, Ontario) is somewhat challenged as a Minister and seems to take
> advice from lobbyists and industry flunkies.  If you ever hang out on
> Boing Boing you'll see stories about her making an ass of herself every
> month or so.
>
> [/rant]
>
> On Wed, 09 May 2007 23:33:55 -0400, Rich Gauszka
>  wrote:
>
>> Go Canada go
>>
>> http://www.syfyportal.com/news423614.html
>>
>> If you live in Canada, you will not be able to see previews of the
>> upcoming
>> "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" and
"Ocean's Thirteen."
>> With potential summer blockbusters poised to premier, Warner Bros. plans
>> to
>> cancel all preview screenings of its movies in Canada, in an attempt to
>> clamp down on "rampant" film piracy.
>>

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