Oscar Screener Copy Found Online... But How?
from the bad-reporting dept
The whole mess over Jack Valenti's decision to ban screener DVDs (later blocked by a judge) is about to get even messier. An Associated Press report out this morning is trumpeting the fact that, now that screeners have been allowed again, one of them "surfaced on the internet". Of course, in a stunning display of bad reporting, they don't explain what they mean by "surfaced on the internet". Is the movie available for download? Is it for sale on eBay? Is it for sale via PayPal on someone's own page? The article doesn't say. They just use the entire article, which looks to be planted by the MPAA, to blame the fact that screeners were forced on the industry for letting yet another movie get "online". They even know exactly who put the copy online - though, again, they don't explain how. It's a 69 year-old actor that the industry is now likely to sue. Meanwhile, the movie in question, "Something's Gotta Give," is doing quite well at the box office - suggesting that this hasn't exactly impacted sales. Update: Reuters has now written up their report and they claim that the movie was available for download, but still don't give many details. This still smells like a planted story to support the notion that screeners should be banned.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
No Subject Given
No offense to 69-year olds and their AARP bretheren, but how many 69-year old actresses would you imagine to be able to digitize and distribute a videocasette? 0.00001%
Guessing it was stolen off her front porch.
[ link to this | view in thread ]