p2pnet has a list of the top 10 illegal movie downloads.
The number one movie on the list, War of the Worlds, was downloaded 781,960 times. No wonder the movie studios are freaking out about copy protection and piracy.
The data was compiled by research firm BigChampagne. From the BigChampagne FAQ:
Does BigChampagne collect and report information about unauthorized or illegal P2P file sharing?
Yes. Like it or not, the vast majority of online entertainment media is now acquired for free on P2P file sharing networks, and BigChampagne is committed to providing information about consumption, not just sales.
Big brother is watching.
via Cinema Minema.
so, 782,000 x $10 (prime-time ticket price) = $7.82 million =Maximum amount of money that War MIGHT have lost due to online piracy, correct? Assuming that everyone who downloaded a copy would otherwise have gone to see the movie during the highest-priced ticket time? Also assuming they specifically didn't go to the movie after downloading and will not be buying/renting it on DVD.
Posted by: whatever | August 18, 2005 at 01:43 PM
I'm curious how they verify what's being downloaded. How is actual content differentiated from say... spoofs?
Posted by: kim | August 18, 2005 at 02:12 PM
Big Champagne is a huge joke in the industry. I wouldn't put much stock in their numbers. They just don't have the technical means for the accuracy they claim to have.
Posted by: kim | August 18, 2005 at 02:26 PM
BC's numbers are a sample (probably a reasonably representative one, assuming a random selection of people join the network they monitor), so they're useful for comparison purposes, like which files are more downloaded than others. But the absolute number is completely meaningless, since it's some fraction of the total activity and nobody has any idea what fraction that is.
Posted by: sidereal | August 18, 2005 at 03:46 PM
How many of those are people who saw the movie in the thater, and don't want to wait until DVD to see it again? How many will buy the DVD when it comes out?
I've said this before, and I'll say it again: the majority of those downloading pirated movies are the industry's BEST CUSTOMERS.
I know LOTS of people who download LOTS of movies. Some of these movies they never in a million years would have watched in the theater, or even rented. MOST of these movies, though, are blockbusters they just can't wait to own...like SW Ep. III when it first hit the 'net. Every single person I know who downloaded SW Ep.III saw it in the theater, and most saw it multiple times. Every single person I know who downloaded SW Ep. III will also own the DVD, and most have already pre-ordered it.
These facts are LOST on the dolts running the entertainment companies. They'll keep trying new forms of DRM, which will be easily broken by the tech geeks, but will PISS OFF the average joe as soon as they hit a snag.
Posted by: Tony | August 18, 2005 at 05:35 PM
Maybe I totally DL'd and burned "SW ep 3" (almost perfect DVD quality version) and even made a case for it,,, to act as a placeholder, because.. you know what, I AM STILL BUYING THE DVD THE DAY IT COMES OUT!
These companies need to worry more about producing better stuff that heavy entertainment consumers (like me) are willing to buy, rather than going after kids who don't have any money in the first place!
Posted by: z3r0kool | August 19, 2005 at 02:19 AM
I avoid buying DVDs if they have any forced content (copyright warnings, trailers, etc), or if they have prohibited operations (like not being able to switch audio or subtitles on-the-fly while the movie is playing). I'd rather copy and have a non-crippled copy. I also blank out everything on the disc that I don't want. VobBlanker, Shrink, PGC Edit... You can make your own DVD that's better than what the studio sells. Why? Because it does not have the annoyances and hassles.
Here's my message to the RIAA/MPAA A-holes. Stop treating your customers like thieves. Sell me a DVD with NO ENCRYPTION, NO REGION CODING, NO FORCED CONTENT, NO ANIMATED MENU TRANSITIONS, NO PROHIBITED OPERATIONS. And sell it at a reasonable price. $5-10. Your dreams of DRM and treacherous computing do not add value for your customers. They only hinder and annoy your customers.
FUCK YOU. My DVDs are better than yours. I will keep buying from myself if you refuse to make a quality product that's uncrippled and user-friendly. DVDs should go right to the movie or the main menu when you insert them in the player. And when you click play on the menu, it should jump straight to the movie. NOT a stupid copyright warning, like "Sin City", for example. I will not purchase "Sin City", because of crap like that. I'll copy it. FUCK YOU, HOLLYWOOD. Your crippled DVDs are worth less than my DVD+R Dual Layer Verbatims. Damn you. Go to hell, bastards.
Posted by: Singavae | August 19, 2005 at 09:03 AM
Here's a clue for the MPAA fools. Those same movies that are "Most Downloaded" will be #1 sellers at Amazon when they're released - if they're not already, due to pre-orders. It's just collossal greed. They will cripple hard ware, and sell us crippled discs rather than reduce their prices and get rid of all their annoying CRAP that they put on DVDs. Sell me DVDs that are FUNCTIONALLY perfect and I do not need to take the trouble of AnyDVD, DVD Decrypter, DVD Shrink, Vob Blanker, and PGC Edit to make my DVDs user-friendly.
Posted by: | August 20, 2005 at 07:27 AM
"so, 782,000 x $10 (prime-time ticket price) = $7.82 million =Maximum amount of money that War MIGHT have lost due to online piracy, correct? Assuming that everyone who downloaded a copy would otherwise have gone to see the movie during the highest-priced ticket time? Also assuming they specifically didn't go to the movie after downloading and will not be buying/renting it on DVD.
Posted by: whatever | August 18, 200"
umm, wrong. it is safe to assume that downloaders would burn a dozen copies for their friends and other physically close downloaders. since it takes about five hours to downlod a full dvd film, people tend to share and trade alot once the thing is take off the net as well.
While p2p might sound exotic to a fewe here, trust me, there is an entire generation of under 30's (and many under 40's) who are as familiar with it as microwaving a bag of popcorn. downloading a PERFECT copy of a film takes about as much effort as well, and way less time than waiting for a Netflix or heading to the Blockbuster.
It is the way of the future.
Posted by: | August 23, 2005 at 03:56 PM
What about fair use?
I buy a lot of DVDs and i have some of them that i paid big money because are collector or rare editions, i don't want to have a 50 buck dvd in my car under the sun or in my backpack with lots of stuff, i would rather have a legal copy (since i own the original)that worth 3cents but due to the greed and stupidity of Hollywood geniuses i can't copy them. As said before pirats still getting their stuff done and sold, the only ones annoyed with copy protection, DRM an all that bullshit are the real customers like me.
It seems that movie bussines is going down thats why you see actors and directors asking change on the streets and living under a bridge.
Posted by: DJkrugger | November 28, 2005 at 01:54 AM
Stupid movie studios and directors that make billions of dollars yearly are not going to miss their less than 1 million downloaded copies of War of the Worlds or any halfway successful movie for that matter. They made about $100,000,000.00 at the box office and probably will only make 50,000,000.00 - 100,000,000.00 more in dvd sales and on movie antiquities all of which after taxes they will most likely still have over %65 of.
I feel so bad for them when I spend all fucking week long just to make $350.00 and $280.00 of that is mine after taxes. Boo Hoo for the poor fucking filthy rich bastards of Hollywood fuck people who whine about movie piracy laws being broken. It might make some since if they were all people from Hollywood but some of these people aren't even from Hollywood why the hell do they care they aren't even getting any money from these movie makers and if they are then fuck them all the more. On top of all that over 70% of the stupid Hollywood rich whiny bastards have enough money to live the rest of their lives as filthy stinking rich as they want to and never make another movie again. An average American (disregarding the rest of the world which makes horribly less amounts of money) makes anywhere from $20,000.00 - $45,000.00 a year an average Hollywood actor/actress makes $3,000,000.00 - $20,000,000.00 so I'm not shedding any tears for the terrible crime of movie piracy as far as I'm concerned anyone participating enjoy and please share on any and all p2p networks. In my opinion people should spend time to help the whole of society instead of helping a few people become very wealthy that do nothing for society except help us become lazier by watching them act out some guy's thought out idea of a story.
Signed someone who can see complete and utter injustice when it's clearly in front of our faces.
Posted by: DMF | December 16, 2005 at 07:11 PM
I agree with DMF's post. There are many points which Hollywood does not seem to get a grip with. I bought the pink panther classic cartoon collection and to my surprise instead of seeing the usual stupid FBI warning i saw a mini video clip (which you cannot skip) regarding illegal movie copying and piracy (mainly videos of street vendors selling pirated products) and the message ends with MPAA ridiculous I (Inappropriate rating). It took almost 2 minutes of watching this pure shit. I paid 40 dollars for this DVD set. It shows how disrespectful the MPAA and movie studios for that matter of their customers and they are treated as criminals and pirates regardless.
Now the a**holes at sony are wondering why people are not buying their PSP UMD movies. Who in their right mind would buy this shit (heavily DRM'ed, compressed video and proprietary format not to mention being overpriced !!!!). The way to go is P2P, no drm great quality or use one of your software to take all the shit out of commercial DVD and have your nice custom made DVD with movie only. No one needs fluff and crap all over the place.
I think the MPAA should have the M rating (M stands for MILKING the consumer by trying to sell them the movie 20 times on VHS, then DVD regular, super, extended, extra special or collector editions, then HD-DVD, then PSP) same shit goes with RIAA try selling the same music over and over again on tape, CD, 8 track- vinyl, Minidisc and the likes and now their super strong heavily copy protected SACD/DVD-Audio which I think will be a total failure if it already has not been
Posted by: AcneVulagris | February 22, 2006 at 03:59 PM
I agree Who wants to pay $15-$30 for a movie when you have to watch 20 minutes of bullshit first??? and half the time when you rent it thier full of scratches and end up skipping??? it makes no sense people!!
it's easier to just stay home download it and burn it and it's alot cheaper!!
I have 4 kids at home and it's alot cheaper for me to buy the 100 DVD's for $30 than it is to rent them for $5.75 each movie
As for it being "stolen" as they claim then why the hell do they sell the programs to burn DVD's and the DVD's to burn them on and make the DVD players play them? LMAO it's just stupidity and something for the rich asswipes to bitch about!!
they like to bitch about evevrything like someone above said they have enough to live comfortably for the rest of thier lives but they don't stop to think of those of us who work our asses off all week and want to sit down and relax on weekends and watch a movie only to have to buy one for $30 or rent a scratched up peice of shit for $5.75 then after you finally get through the 20 minutes of bullshit you find out it's skipping only to say well fuck it and just watch tv lol i'd rather just burn them and have it the way i want!!! we are not thieves and i'm sure they make enough money off of the damn movies anyways!!
Posted by: Lisalina | October 31, 2007 at 11:30 AM
i love this site
Posted by: gee nesta | January 22, 2008 at 09:21 AM
Yea most PSP's do contain illegal downloads.
Check this out http://www.sendspace.com/folder/rg3muw
Posted by: Vince Hott | April 16, 2008 at 04:57 PM
earn money by clicking
http://bux.to/?r=gowtamakrishna
Posted by: red | May 25, 2008 at 03:19 AM
There are so many good points on this site I could cry for at least 2 weeks strong and hard! The beauty of the internet is that it EMPOWERS each one of us! Now, there are many wealthy pricks out there that do not want millions EMPOWERED through the net watching whatever they want when they want.
I love the fun and freedom we have on the net! Watch movies and listen to your music loud! Yeah! I saw Lindsay Lohan at MovieDownloadMatrix.com winking at me, did I like it? Of course I did!
Peace
Posted by: MovieNutCase | June 02, 2008 at 11:16 PM
there rich im to poor to buy there movie so i download 4 free from vince hots' sendspace folder
Posted by: helly ya i agree fuck those ritch dicks | August 27, 2008 at 04:14 AM
there rich im to poor to buy there movie so i download 4 free from vince hots' sendspace folder
Posted by: helly ya i agree fuck those ritch dicks | August 27, 2008 at 04:16 AM
why u gott put vincent shit on blast plus it aint just him jr ravi but learn keep shit under ya cap noob
Posted by: akuma | October 12, 2008 at 01:15 AM
then might as well steal an ipod apple is making a ton of money why dont you steal some gas the oil companies will never notice its stealing
Posted by: ao | December 12, 2008 at 11:11 AM
its still stealing whether there rich or not
go rob a bank there rich as hell so whats the diference its still stealing
Posted by: ao | December 12, 2008 at 11:14 AM
does anyone know any good psp sites to download movies
Posted by: rioakita | February 09, 2009 at 10:16 AM
Yea, stuff is Illegal.
Check Out My Site: http://vincehott.xpmob.com
Posted by: Vince Hott | November 11, 2009 at 02:02 PM
Well, I'm confused. Everyone is saying they don't like the warnings, etc. before the movie starts. So, when I made my first movie (which has only been on the market for 4 weeks and being pirated ALREADY)I had it made Region 0 and NOTHING before it starts. Only a menu to either watch the film or see the special features. Hell, just stick it in the DVD player and go.
I'm an independent filmmaker who is scraping by, I'm not Hollywood, I don't even live anywhere near Hollywood, I'm over 1000 miles away. Why is MY movie being pirated?
Posted by: Lee | December 27, 2009 at 01:25 AM
Lee, I think I can answer your question partly at least..
Though your movie may well respect the buyer and viewer by allowing them to bypass extra material and watch the movie, and by not inputting a region, most of the people who hear about your movie and want to see it have no idea that you did these things. They are people who grew up downloading movies. That's how they acquire movies. They don't go and buy it first. They download it. The ENTIRE industry is going to be affected by piracy because of the foul play of the big guys. If you are an independent movie maker I feel bad that your movie is being pirated but I guarantee you nobody is doing it because they think you are disrespectful. On the contrary, they just aren't paying much heed to the way you operate in the first place.
It is kind of the same as underground music artists who self-produce instead of going to record companies. I download their music just like I download all my music. If I can afford to (sometimes can, sometimes can't) I drop by their sites and buy some merchandise or donate to them, to support them. I'll never donate to those who sold out to the record industry. It's no longer about sales. It's about loyalty to the art.
Posted by: Mike | January 08, 2010 at 09:46 PM
Very good answer Mike, and it does make sense. It just seems that they might check it out first, then again...
Not that this will help much, but I have since lowered the price. Who knows. Thanks for the input.
Posted by: Lee | January 30, 2010 at 01:27 AM