Biggest U.S. BitTorrent Lawsuit Ever

Lüt said:

The company thought they would be cute and sue 1,337 users

Did they arrive at that figure by accident or is it a coded message. :D

DeathevokatioN said:

It's pretty low putting a title like that up and expecting men NOT to download it. But then again that's pretty much the point I guess.

Zombie Strippers is another fav of mine.

Phew. It's a good day to not "believe" in torrents and having paid to see a disappointing film when it was in theaters.

Coopersville said:

Phew. It's a good day to not "believe" in torrents and having paid to see a disappointing film when it was in theaters.

I don't go to the theater much these days, but when I do it's always disappointing to sit through half a dozen or so long previews, with a bunch of ads and junk in between. I mean, hey I'm paying to see the movie, not all that spam... Oh, and that reminds me:
http://www.thebuzzmedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/why-people-pirate-movies-steps-to-watching-video.jpg

hex11 said:

Oh, and that reminds me:
http://www.thebuzzmedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/why-people-pirate-movies-steps-to-watching-video.jpg

And that's why you either play your DVDs with a shady player that lets you skip anything (getting more rare) or through a computer with VLC installed.

Using VLC is also the only way to play most DVDs on my computer. They simply won't play through any commercial stuff. The DRM error always says it's a problem with either my video drivers, my optical drive, or the codecs. It never says which.

hex11 said:

Oh, and that reminds me:
http://www.thebuzzmedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/why-people-pirate-movies-steps-to-watching-video.jpg

I've only ever seen that crap on a small number of DVDs. But yeah, it's pretty stupid when it occurs.

hex11 said:

http://www.thebuzzmedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/why-people-pirate-movies-steps-to-watching-video.jpg

To be fair, store editions (the ones you buy and own forever) keep these to a minimum, as do newspaper/magazine bundles. However rental versions are a whole new story, as the distributor will slap in all the trailers and sales pitches they can.

I don't mind watching adverts at the cinema, its all part of the experience but the ones on DVD's are annoying, however I find that you can usually skip all the adverts except the anti-piracy things.

I agree that there is too much advertising when you go to the cinema. I used to enjoy watching the upcoming attractions, the truth is though that these days, most of the previews aren't good anymore. And, a lot of the time, the ones that are good, show the only good parts of the movie. I only go to the movies about 3 or 4 times a year now. Used to be around 10. IMO movies have gotten progressively worse over the last 20 years. If they start making good movies again, maybe people will shell out some money for them.

Television is free except you pay by being brainwashed with commercials.

Cinema/movies cost money and you pay by being brainwashed with commercials.

Humanity's greatest most valuable product is brainwashing eachother.

DoomHero85 said:

IMO movies have gotten progressively worse over the last 20 years. If they start making good movies again, maybe people will shell out some money for them.

Are you sure? I think some of the best movies are from the past 20 years. The problem in Sweden is that 1 big corporation owns almost ALL of the cinemas in the whole country (except from a few small non-profit cinemas run by film-interested people). They tell you exactly what you should watch, and it ain't good I tell you. The big box-office movies that goes well in the U.S. is fed to us in Sweden, while there are ALOT of great movies from all around the world who deserves attention.

Maybe it's just me having a different taste in movies than the usual movie-goer. I just think that it's wrong to claim that good movies aren't made anymore. You have to look beyond the big cinemas, at festivals for example.

Black Swan though, is shown at all the big theaters in Sweden, wich is a bit suprising since it's a bit "artsy". It's very fun to listen to people who have seen Black swan and now think they are some kind of smart-ass movie genius cause it was a bit different compared to Avatar.

Don't get me wrong, good movies still come out. It just seems like things that can be considered "classic" no longer come out. Like the same movie keeps being made over and over again rather than new material being explored. I mean nothing revolutionary like "The Exorcist" or "Alien" or "Scent of a Woman", y'know anything with a really good story seems to comes out much anymore. That may be because all the good actors and directors are getting old now and they're out of material.

I also think that movies get too many sequels these days. Pirates of Caribbean was great. The second one was okay, but should have been its own story rather than a continuation, and the third was an abomination. And this obsession about remaking old classics like Transformers, The Day the Earth Stood Still, War of the Worlds, and anything like that needs to stop. Write some new stories people.

Okay I'm done ranting now.

gggmork said:

Television is free except you pay by being brainwashed with commercials.

Cinema/movies cost money and you pay by being brainwashed with commercials.

Humanity's greatest most valuable product is brainwashing eachother.

Oh fuck. You've just wrote a post short enough for me to be able to read.

I noticed in the theatres here all the commercials and trailers run exactly 15 minutes past the official start time. Gives me room to be late, especially if I'm going to a movie in a near-empty theatre.

dannebubinga said:

Black Swan though, is shown at all the big theaters in Sweden, wich is a bit suprising since it's a bit "artsy". It's very fun to listen to people who have seen Black swan and now think they are some kind of smart-ass movie genius cause it was a bit different compared to Avatar.

I thought Black Swan was an empty piece of crap. I don't know how the view started that it was some amazing piece of art, but it seemed to take hold quickly enough that almost everyone jumped on the bandwagon for fear of people thinking they were a philistine, and anyone who was less impressed simply kept quiet.

So what was meant to be so good?

• The fact that there were ballet sequences? Go watch a real ballet if you want that - the quality will be better.
  
• The fact that the principal actresses weren't ballerinas, but made a pretty good fist of it? OK, and kudos to them, but does this make the film better to watch?
  
• The fact that there was a quasi-lesbo scene? Watch a porn film - you'll see much more.
  
• So that leaves the fact that the main character went nuts. That's really it, for the whole film? This has been done better in any number of films. A Beautiful Mind, for instance, made a better and more convincing job of showing how reality seems to someone who has lost his grip on it, and had more much involved in its plot.

Grazza said:

Black Swan disparaging

Eh, I thought it was a good movie. Not "an amazing piece of art" level of good, but very watchable nonetheless. I enjoy films which make me think a little bit about what I just watched. I don't see what's pompous about that.

A Beautiful Mind is one of my all-time favourites, however. That was a masterpiece.

Grazza said:

Black Swan

I agree with every point you made.

The only thing I can think of that allowed it to get it's "artsy" status is simply that Hollywood, as a general rule, doesn't do artsy. So, in comparison to the usual Hollywood swill, it seemed artsy to a lot of people. Combine that with the emperor's new clothes effect that you mentioned and you have an instant art classic.

However, as you said, it really is just a pretty empty piece of crap.

hex11 said:

Oh, and that reminds me:
http://www.thebuzzmedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/why-people-pirate-movies-steps-to-watching-video.jpg

Wasn't one of the selling points of DVD when they first came out that people wouldn't have to sit through this crap? Hell, with VHS you at least couldn't be restricted from fast-forwarding through it.

DoomHero85 said:

Don't get me wrong, good movies still come out. It just seems like things that can be considered "classic" no longer come out. Like the same movie keeps being made over and over again rather than new material being explored. I mean nothing revolutionary like "The Exorcist" or "Alien" or "Scent of a Woman", y'know anything with a really good story seems to comes out much anymore. That may be because all the good actors and directors are getting old now and they're out of material.

[...]And this obsession about remaking old classics like Transformers, The Day the Earth Stood Still, War of the Worlds, and anything like that needs to stop. Write some new stories people.

Of course "good story" movies are rare, the average moviegoer would rather sit through a shitty movie filled with flashy CGI and digital colour correction and special effects than one that involves a lot of story and character interaction. (At least, that's the US moviegoer. Your mileage may vary in other nations.)

(I left out the section about sequels because anything more than "I agree" would be completely redundant.)

As for the remakes, yes. Especially considering that the remakes are almost always

a shitty movie filled with flashy CGI and digital colour correction and special effects

and terrible terrible modern culture references.

Now that I think of it, Netflix really needs to expand its instant queue library. While wholly connection-dependent, I do like the very small amount of pre-movie [FBI WARNING #1/25] + [crappy trailers for movies you probably don't care about] + [unskippable warnings]. (In fact, I don't remember any movie on the instant queue having that nonsense other than one warning and company logo on Insomnia. Then again, a lot of movies I watch are Russian or old enough to have been around before copyright and FBI warnings were as big a deal as now.)

Grazza said:

I thought Black Swan was an empty piece of crap. I don't know how the view started that it was some amazing piece of art, but it seemed to take hold quickly enough that almost everyone jumped on the bandwagon for fear of people thinking they were a philistine, and anyone who was less impressed simply kept quiet.

So what was meant to be so good?

• The fact that there were ballet sequences? Go watch a real ballet if you want that - the quality will be better.
  
• The fact that the principal actresses weren't ballerinas, but made a pretty good fist of it? OK, and kudos to them, but does this make the film better to watch?
  
• The fact that there was a quasi-lesbo scene? Watch a porn film - you'll see much more.
  
• So that leaves the fact that the main character went nuts. That's really it, for the whole film? This has been done better in any number of films. A Beautiful Mind, for instance, made a better and more convincing job of showing how reality seems to someone who has lost his grip on it, and had more much involved in its plot.

I totally agree with you. I think the fact that Black swan got so hyped was because of the director Aronofsky (?) decided to cast Portman (who for some reason is hyped). Aronofsky actually made some very decent films before BS, like Pi. But I highly doubt that alot of people know about his previous films (at least here in Sweden were more alternative films is rejected from theaters).

I thinks it's hilarious that people claim to like BS becuase they don't want to be seen as less cultivated, because it shines through so damn well if that is the case. You want to watch what makes you happy or whatever, and that differs from person to person, nothing to be ashamed about.

The fact that the smaller films don't get a chance to be shown is very bad for the future of film I think. A bit off topic from OP but interesting.

I have a thing for old kung-fu flicks and cheesy scifi/fantasy (typical material for MST3K). I'm guessing those are fairly safe to download over bittorrent, so long as no "remake" or other franchise-milking is going on. A friend of mine got some cease & decist notices from MPAA about a year ago when he was downloading the entire series of Dr. Who over his FIOS line (yeah, ALL the episodes), which they recently re-released on DVD or something. Just be aware of what you're downloading. :)

While we're on the subject of good vs. bad movies. Here are a few movies I've seen recently that did have good story/actors etc.

El Espinazo del Diablo (The Devil's Backbone) Directed by Guillermo Del Toro if anyone cares.

The King's Speech (It was really good)

The Seventh Seal (1957) I really hope they don't remake this one. The bleak black and white fits it perfectly.

Xeros612 said:

Wasn't one of the selling points of DVD when they first came out that people wouldn't have to sit through this crap? Hell, with VHS you at least couldn't be restricted from fast-forwarding through it.

Probably. I'm not much into DVDs personally, as I'm also not that much into modern movies. ;)

But I do know that basic cable subscription was supposed to do away with ads, and now you have to buy special movie channels (HBO, Cinemax, etc.) and spend even more money to avoid ads.

Movie tickets are ridiculously expensive now. You have to REALLY make sure the movie is worth all the money you're paying for it anymore. That being said, Tron: Legacy was definitely worth the $13 I payed to see it in 3D.

It's not just the tickets. Their drinks/popcorn are crazy high. At least it's optional, and so I usually pass on that stuff. But a lot of guys don't want to seem cheap on their dates, so they grin and bear it. Their total for the theater experience might end up around $40 for a couple (that's in addition to what they already spent on fancy dinner, etc.) And if it's a whole family there, kids and all, the theater makes a killing on the deal.

hex11 said:

It's not just the tickets. Their drinks/popcorn are crazy high.

The prices aren't so bad if you choose your times carefully. At most local ones I know of, it's $5 before 5 pm, and popcorn is just $1 on Tuesday.

hex11 said:

It's not just the tickets. Their drinks/popcorn are crazy high. At least it's optional, and so I usually pass on that stuff. But a lot of guys don't want to seem cheap on their dates, so they grin and bear it. Their total for the theater experience might end up around $40 for a couple (that's in addition to what they already spent on fancy dinner, etc.) And if it's a whole family there, kids and all, the theater makes a killing on the deal.

I go to the dollar store located in the same mall and stuff my pockets full of chocolate bars. It's better paying a couple bucks for several bars than a couple dollars a bar.

Grazza said:

The prices aren't so bad if you choose your times carefully. At most local ones I know of, it's $5 before 5 pm, and popcorn is just $1 on Tuesday.

I was a semi-regular cinemagoer when they had half-price Tuesdays, they've long since disappeared and apart from the odd "adults at kids prices" session I'll have to wait until I'm old enough for the "seniors" sessions if I want to save a few dollars.

Black swan is one of those movies where 'scary' stuff happens so randomly, I guess with the intention to appear dream/nightmare-like, that you just kind of have to roll your eyes at the lack of cohesiveness which is almost at the level of my word salad posts.

New paragraph, even though the previous paragraph was just one sentence. Oh, I know, when someone turns on the faucet.. BLOOD will come out for no reason! Because there's totally a circulatory system inside the series of tubes. And then, hmm, when someone looks at their foot, omg, their toes are all stuck together for no reason! WTF, am I living in a bizarro world? You open the refrigerator and see a severed head; open again and its no longer there! Bla bla bla, yawn, I'm pretty sure 'drag me to hell' was like this too. All 'suspensful' long unresolving music tones have been so anticlimatic that I've come to associate them with kittens.

I guess a beautiful mind got good toward the end because I sure hated all of the beginning and didn't watch the rest. You need fucking subtitles to watch a movie with russell crowe because all that billionaire idiot does is mumble. Some people get paid a dollar for working all day in a slave labor camp and russell crowe gets paid billions for occasionally mumbling. And these type of old fucks get hot girls even when they're 75 years old just to be sure that they can dominate the gene pool as well as the economy. Probably the only reason old people like Michael Douglas and Kurt Russell star in stuff like death proof is an excuse to hang around and kiss hot chicks, like nice legal prostitution for 'elites' paid for by their media monopoly of shitty movies. Yeah!

Have you noticed how new movies have a policy of making all music 10x louder than the dialogue? I have to use the remote to turn down and up the volume whenever it alternates. Hombre, with paul newman, is a good movie because it was made 80,000 years ago in singularity-time when people used to have souls.

Technician said:

I go to the dollar store located in the same mall and stuff my pockets full of chocolate bars. It's better paying a couple bucks for several bars than a couple dollars a bar.

You must like chocolate bars more than the average person. I'd be sick if I ate pocket-loads of them.

My mom brings her own popcorn and a six pack of beer. I regularly bring pop from the dollar store, or my fridge. Best thing I ever took was chocolate mousse. :D

Haven't even been to a movie theater in years. The only types of dvds I've even bought in the few past years are series collections of a few tv shows, If there's anything else I want to watch I just borrow it from a friend that has it or I do without.