Oscar Voters May Get Marked Screeners

from the take-two dept

Last week everyone was talking about Jack Valenti's decree that the movie studios would no longer send out "screener" DVDs to Oscar voters, because he believed those copies were ending up online. As some people stepped back and pointed out just how silly this was (he was even banning screeners for movies that will be out on DVD soon anyway), they say the real reason for the ban is to help big studio pictures win the Oscars over independent films that have been winning more awards lately. However, the backlash is making Valenti reconsider, and he is apparently talking about a compromise where the studios could send out video tapes (not DVDs) that include special watermarks on the prints. This way, if they did get online, they could easily be traced back to which voter put the movie there.