Pirated 'DVD Screeners' Will be History After Next Year's Oscars
The Academy announced this week that DVD and Blu-Ray screeners will be banned after the next Oscars ceremony. This marks the end of a long-standing tradition. Not just in the movie business, but also on pirate sites where the DVDscr tag is closely watched. Although Oscar DVD Screeners may soon be history, this doesn't mean that screener leaks will be thing[s] of the past.
[...] This year, plenty of discs will be shipped too but, after the upcoming Oscars ceremony, that will be a thing of the past. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced this week that physical screeners will no longer be allowed in 2021.
"[T]he 93rd Awards season will be the final year DVD screeners will be allowed to be distributed; these mailings will be discontinued starting in 2021 for the 94th Academy Awards," the Academy writes.
The Oscars follow the same path as the Emmys, which already made the switch this year. According to the Academy, the transition is part of its sustainability efforts. This also includes a ban on physical music CDs, hard copies of screenplays, paper invites, and other things that possibly hurt the environment.
[...] Whether piracy was considered as a factor at all remains a guess. Some insiders believe that digital screeners are easier to protect and therefore more secure, but that is up for debate.
There may be fewer leak opportunities in the distribution process, but it's common knowledge that streaming platforms can be easily compromised. In fact, we have already seen several screeners being leaked from online sources. This was corroborated by pirate release group EVO last year.
"We had access to digital screeners and they are indeed easy to leak. The DRM on it is a joke. We had an account last year with three screeners on it and they were pretty much MP4 ready to encode," the EVO team informed us at the time.
Related: First Leaked Screener of the Season: Unreleased Louis C.K. Film "I Love You, Daddy"
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The first DVD screener of the Oscar season has been released, and it's for a film that may not have seen the light of day otherwise:
Today the first leak of the new screener season started to populate various pirate sites, Louis C.K.'s "I Love You, Daddy." It was released by the infamous "Hive-CM8" group which also made headlines in previous years.
"I Love You, Daddy" was carefully chosen, according to a message posted in the release notes. Last month distributor The Orchard chose to cancel the film from its schedule after Louis C.K. was accused of sexual misconduct. With uncertainty surrounding the film's release, "Hive-CM8" decided to get it out.
"We decided to let this one title go out this month, since it never made it to the cinema, and nobody knows if it ever will go to retail at all," Hive-CM8 write in their NFO.
"Either way their is no perfect time to release it anyway, but we think it would be a waste to let a great Louis C.K. go unwatched and nobody can even see or buy it," they add.
Nominees for the 75th Golden Globe Awards were announced on December 11. Nominees for the 90th Academy Awards will be announced on January 23, 2018.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Sunday May 03 2020, @08:54AM (15 children)
Imaginary people, pretending to be other imaginary people, all dreamed up in an imaginary city, on imaginary stages, with very nearly no attachment to reality. Drama, drama, drama. Best case scenario? Hollywood just shuts down. It can become a ghost town, or it can be developed into a heavy industry center, or it can even be turned into a reeducation camp. So little of value comes out of Hollywood, we can just burn it down, and let nature reclaim it.
If Hollywood were to disappear, maybe more Americans would get off the couch, and lose a few pounds.
“I have become friends with many school shooters” - Tampon Tim Walz
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 03 2020, @08:59AM (3 children)
>> or it can even be turned into a reeducation camp
implying
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Sunday May 03 2020, @10:40AM (2 children)
I didn't mean to imply anything, really, but there are a helluva lot of Democrats in California.
“I have become friends with many school shooters” - Tampon Tim Walz
(Score: 5, Interesting) by PartTimeZombie on Sunday May 03 2020, @10:29PM (1 child)
At one point the president would begin his speeches with "My fellow Americans" and he would mean all Americans.
I suppose now that Fox News has decided half of the country is your enemy, you'll need to start sending them off to camps, or killing them or something.
There is a choice though. You could think about the people who own Fox News, and think about whether your interests are the same as theirs.
They're not by the way.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 04 2020, @10:53AM
Obviously they should be getting their news from Disney, Comcast and Turner Broadcasting.
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Sunday May 03 2020, @10:12AM
Yup! Haven't watched in something like 45 years and nothing of value has been missed.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. I have always been here. ---Gaaark 2.0 --
(Score: 4, Insightful) by BsAtHome on Sunday May 03 2020, @10:45AM
It is how you pasify the masses. Give people entertainment so they do not go to the streets to show their frustration. Just like the old Romans, bread and circus.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday May 03 2020, @12:18PM
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 03 2020, @01:04PM (5 children)
As long as you do the same with the music industry (all of it, including conservatard country music), I agree.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Sunday May 03 2020, @02:29PM (4 children)
When you say "music industry", I have to pretty much agree with you. But, we need to leave room for music, for singers, and for musicians. Music, and dance, satisfy some powerful human needs. Without them, we would be something less than human.
Conservatard country music? I guess you don't realize that country music died long ago. It survived the death of folk music, but not for long. And, what does conservatism have to do with country? I guess you were just trying to be insulting. Whatever, music is important, music industry can die off tomorrow and I won't miss it.
“I have become friends with many school shooters” - Tampon Tim Walz
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 03 2020, @03:09PM (1 child)
And we must also leave room for actors, directors, writers. Room for good, creative, intelligent, tought-provoking, enternaining cinema. In other words: Everything Hollywood isn't.
As for "conservatard country music", yes, I was being slighly trollish. But you must not have visited any of the red states recently. Country music is far from dead there. It's basically all you hear, everywhere, all the time.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 03 2020, @07:56PM
no, what he was saying is that that twangy pop shit you hear in tractor supply is not fucking country music.
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Monday May 04 2020, @01:16AM
How to destroy the music industry while promoting music, in 3 steps:
1. Support non-record-giant musicians that you like financially. Chip in to their Patreons, buy their swag, go to their shows if they're performing locally, buy their CDs, hire them to perform if you're in a position to do that. That will enable musicians to stop trying to get signed with the record giants: Know that almost all of the musicians I've ever come across hate the record execs with a passion at least as great as The Pirate Bay, and will gladly avoid signing if they knew for sure they could make a good living without doing so.
2. Ignore whatever music is likely to find its way onto your radio. Don't buy it, don't watch it on Youtube, don't stream it on Spotify, don't even watch TV or other media talking about it. Because nothing kills them faster than lost profits.
3. Encourage everyone you know to do steps 1 and 2.
And sure, the RIAA weasels will start trying to pretend they're the first kind of musician. It won't work, because the proof will be in the legalese.
"Think of how stupid the average person is. Then realize half of 'em are stupider than that." - George Carlin
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 04 2020, @01:33AM
One of my dad's friends was a perpetual alcoholic from his teens until he died in his 60s. He embodied country music in the same way that Johnny Cash and company did, we have a few reels of songs he did. But none of his material ever got published. He spent most of his life working for the state with a passionate side-gig working at a public radio station where he played country, bluegrass and folk music both classic and from aspiring bands. Bluegrass is still surviving also, although it's mostly in its own holdout niches and music festivals that take place in different parts of the country.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Acabatag on Sunday May 03 2020, @02:16PM (1 child)
Its amazing how many people don't realize that almost all of television and cinema is actors faking something. The whole operation is an extended social scene of those annoying 'theatre' people we couldn't stand in High School.
People swim in the depths of fantasy. If you watch 'the show' with the least amount of cynical skepticism it all falls apart and you realize it's just a bunch of those preening theatre types.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 03 2020, @09:05PM
Can't say that about "The Apprentice".
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 03 2020, @08:59AM (1 child)
I toast myself in the bath tub as I piss into the air and catch it into my favorite wine glass.
I lap at the urine as a nomad would, having traveled miles from a desert only to find a small
farm with a willing cow to let him suck her udders.
KIM YO-JONG IS STILL A POSSIBLE SUCCESSOR!
(Score: 2) by gtomorrow on Sunday May 03 2020, @10:12AM
Wow! At the same time? Or do you play the banjo first, then ejaculate into a wine glass?
No matter. Thanks, Zippy for that poetic piece of absurdism! You made my day!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 03 2020, @09:39AM
Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damm about the academy awards.
You don't have to concern yourself with me.
Dontcha wish everyone felt the same way?
(Score: 2) by looorg on Sunday May 03 2020, @02:50PM (1 child)
I really dont see how this will change much of anything, they can't be so stupid as to believe that their won't be leaks -- they even done half the job already pretty much since you will no longer have to get hold of the discs and rip content -- they will just be files online that might have to be decoded/crypted. The quality as far as image/audio will probably improve.
I guess the only thing they could probably do would have to have required monitored screenings, no cams allowed -- but then there will always be other intercept points such as the post-production companies etc.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Sunday May 03 2020, @03:13PM
Depends on how all parties handle the streaming. It could end up looking like compressed crap compared to good quality Blu-ray encodes.
But having a bad webrip is still better than having only a CAM copy available.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2, Insightful) by fustakrakich on Sunday May 03 2020, @09:35PM (7 children)
All the good movies have been made already.
Now they just make everything with the chroma cranked up to 11
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Sunday May 03 2020, @10:24PM
All the good movies have been made already.
Now they're just remaking everything but worse.
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Monday May 04 2020, @01:21AM (5 children)
The reason you think movies from today suck compared to those of the past is that most movies from the past sucked too, but the movies from the past that sucked were either forgotten completely or had Joel/Mike, Crow, and Tom Servo making them funny instead of unbearable. For every Casablanca there were dozens if not hundreds of films trying and failing to be something like it.
"Think of how stupid the average person is. Then realize half of 'em are stupider than that." - George Carlin
(Score: 2) by toddestan on Monday May 04 2020, @02:15AM (4 children)
Back then they also made a lot more small, low budget movies. Sure, they cranked out a lot of garbage, but when the stakes aren't very high you can also experiment and take chances. Sometimes it works out and you get a gem, sometimes it's still okay, other times it's MST3k fodder.
Today movies are all about big budget tent pole movies. The investors sinking that kind of money into a movie don't want to take a risk. That's why everything is the same play by numbers, risk-adverse, take no chances, formulaic garbage, dumbed down so it is easy to translate for the foreign markets, and watered down to make it past the Chinese censors, and has to be part of some already well established (and beaten to death) franchise.
It's not that movies from the past didn't suck, it's that today's movies suck.... differently.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 04 2020, @03:18PM
No, indies still exist and in about the same proportion. Once every year or three one of them really rises to prominence, and one can usually find a decent small budget production available if you know where to look and how. They've gotten outshouted by the 9000 pound gorilla that are the MCU, DCAU, and the rest of the Disney machine, but they exist.
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Monday May 04 2020, @05:27PM (2 children)
Counterpoint: Everybody and their kid brother own a camera, and some of them use it to create low-budget films. I agree those don't get much by way of audience attention usually, and many of them aren't feature-length, but it's not like low-budget films aren't happening.
For instance, a friend of mine was a zombie for a low-budget remake of Night of the Living Dead.
"Think of how stupid the average person is. Then realize half of 'em are stupider than that." - George Carlin
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 04 2020, @06:01PM
Wait, even the low-budget nothing-to-lose films are doing remakes? That's not going to help...
(Score: 2) by toddestan on Tuesday May 05 2020, @01:35AM
That's true, and I'd rather spend 2 hours watching random stuff on Youtube than try to watch what passes for most Hollywood movies nowadays.
However, as far as the Academy is concerned, none of that stuff counts and they've been fighting any attempts that might get it included. Of course, that really only matters if you actually care about the Oscars, which I really don't.
(Score: 2) by darkfeline on Sunday May 03 2020, @10:30PM (2 children)
> Some insiders believe that digital screeners are easier to protect and therefore more secure
The first D in DVD stands for digital.
Join the SDF Public Access UNIX System today!
(Score: 2) by takyon on Monday May 04 2020, @04:30AM (1 child)
"Digital screener" is just a name for a streaming replacement for screener discs. From an older article:
Studios Are Slow to Switch to Online Screeners Despite Better Security, Economy [variety.com]
So they make this switch, and if it leaks, they could know exactly which celebrity or Hollywood pro is responsible. It might even be worth it to sue them.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 04 2020, @05:49PM
Or at the least boot them from the Academy.
(Score: 2) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Monday May 04 2020, @03:25PM (1 child)
The copying of screeners, DVD or streaming, only affects a very short window of time for films that want to be considered for an Academy Award and before same movie is released on Blu-Ray or DVD. The real story is that it is apparently good for the environment while saving money. But the news is coming from Torrentnews, so it overfocuses on the piracy angle.
This sig for rent.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Wednesday May 06 2020, @03:07AM
We're in a dire moment for movie theaters, optical discs are being phased out in favor of streaming, and the streaming market is fragmenting as all the big media corporations want a piece of the pie. The
piracyillicit distribution angle is extremely relevant. We'll probably see some truly draconian legislation intended to protect Hollywood soon.[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]