TorrentFreak Email Update |
- Spanish Academy Awards Tainted By Anti-Piracy Law Controversy
- Top 10 Most Pirated Movies on BitTorrent
- Crysis 2 Leak Fails To Result in Massive Download Fest
- Is The President of Turkey a Movie Pirate?
| Spanish Academy Awards Tainted By Anti-Piracy Law Controversy Posted: 14 Feb 2011 02:51 AM PST In recent months a controversial piece of legislation aimed at shutting down file-sharing sites has resulted in massive opposition from all corners of the Spanish nation. Protests last year appeared to have been successful when the House of Representatives rejected the proposal, but the good news was short-lived. In late January the Spanish Government resurrected the law with some cosmetic changes, a move that succeeded in further outraging the public who were joined by many artists and creators. But perhaps the most prominent opponent of the law came from an unlikely corner. President of the Academy of Cinema, Álex de la Iglesia, criticized the so-called Sinde law (named after Minister of Culture Ángeles González-Sinde) as "a law that does not suit anybody." In fact, so strong is Iglesia’s opposition, he said he would resign his position in protest, stepping down today, the day after the Goya Awards, Spain’s equivalent to the Academy Awards. Supporters of the law, such as eventual Best Actor winner Javier Bardem, were reportedly booed and eggs were even thrown, but no such treatment was reserved for the outgoing President.  Iglesia, whose own movie A Sad Trumpet Ballad was running with fifteen nominations including Best Film and Best Director, picked up just two awards in the end – Best Makeup and Hair and Best Visual Effects – but his acceptance and departing speech will probably overshadow these achievements. Iglesia spoke of how a quarter of a century ago, around the time of the Goya Awards creation, no one in the movie business predicted the effect the Internet would have on the industry. “The Internet isn’t the future; it’s the present and the way for hundreds of thousands of people to enjoy movies and culture. The Internet is the salvation of our cinema,” he said. Watched intently by Minister of Culture Ángeles González-Sinde, Iglesia added: “Web surfers don’t like to be called that; they’re actually people, the public. The public that we have lost because they don’t go to the movies anymore because they spend their time sitting in front of a computer screen.  “Change is needed to come up with a new model for the film business. We have a moral responsibility to the public. We make movies because citizens allow us to make them and we owe them respect and our thank you.” Iglesia said he wanted to use his parting words as president to send a message that there is nothing better than to be free to create. “We must be up to this privilege that society offers us,” he said. “If we want them to respect us, we must respect them first.” a | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Top 10 Most Pirated Movies on BitTorrent Posted: 14 Feb 2011 01:08 AM PST
The data for our weekly download chart is collected by TorrentFreak, and is for informational and educational reference only. All the movies in the list are DVDrips unless stated otherwise. RSS feed for the weekly movie download chart.
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| Crysis 2 Leak Fails To Result in Massive Download Fest Posted: 13 Feb 2011 12:58 PM PST
“Crytek has been alerted that an early incomplete, unfinished build of Crysis 2 has appeared on Torrent sites. Crytek and EA are deeply disappointed by the news,” the post begins. Indeed, a beta of the PC version of the game has been doing the rounds on torrent sites since Friday and although clearly unfinished and requiring varying levels of hoop-jumping to keep it running, it’s getting a pretty good reception from those who have downloaded and played it. The fact that it has leaked, however, has caused gaming blogs to go into overdriven condemnation of the anticipated rampant piracy of this much awaited game. In particular, Destructoid editor Jim Sterling has gone postal with a passionate four-letter-word-littered tirade aimed squarely at pirates. While some of Jim’s points are debatable, he makes some good points and is clearly absolutely passionate about games. As a former 8bit coder and gamer of more than three decades myself I can respect that. People love games. They appreciate the work that goes into them. While it’s rare to hear people complain about movies or music leaking onto the Internet in file-sharing circles (in fact such situations are largely relished), games are a bit different. This leak of Crysis 2 appears to show that there’s something, even in piracy circles – I’m not sure what – that elevates the connection people have with games and their creators over the connection people have with those behind movies for example. As both EA and Crytek plead with people to wait for the March 22 release date for Crysis 2 they appear to be supported, not just by those who never pirate, but also those who do. Despite the beta being widely available, TorrentFreak stats show (completed) downloads of just 10,000 on public BitTorrent trackers. And that’s not because this title isn’t popular with gamers. Indeed, given the current mood, it’s not unthinkable that these low download numbers may well be a result of it being quite the opposite. While some people are clearly happy to get an advance copy, it’s eye opening to see people on torrent sites encouraging others NOT to download it. Sure, there is the usual crowd throwing a middle finger up to the publishers while delighting in their juicy booty, but so many others are pleading with people to support Crytek by putting their hands in their pockets next month instead. That said, there are others who aren’t heeding the advice but are treating this download as a demo to be deleted in due course, having grown tired of waiting for an official one to be released. Perhaps there’s a lesson to be learned there. High profile game leaks don’t have to result in the doomsday scenario feared by their creators – unless they’re terrible games of course. Rewind back to October 2003 and a beta of Half-Life 2 was also leaking onto the Internet, a full 6 months before its release date, putting this 49 day advance copy of Crysis 2 in the shade. HL2 went on to do staggeringly well, selling 12 million copies to date. Personally, as upcoming games in this genre go, I had my eyes mainly on Epic’s Bulletstorm but having seen the various videos on YouTube recorded by people playing this leaked beta, all of a sudden March can’t come soon enough. Crysis 2 looks absolutely gorgeous and while I don’t feel much warmth towards EA, I’m happy to support Crytek. But why, when the game is sitting right there for free? Do gamers really have more empathy with studios than their movie-going peers? Why are great games so special? What’s your take on this leak and how it should be handled? Are these download stats low because people are doing ‘the right thing’ or is fiddling about with betas just too much hassle? We’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments. a | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Is The President of Turkey a Movie Pirate? Posted: 13 Feb 2011 05:52 AM PST
As President he met with all the major world leaders but Gül also likes to keep in touch with the public, for which he started to use Twitter a while ago. Gül, who has a verified account on Twitter, occasionally tweets his thoughts about national and international politics, and also shares more personal stuff from time to time. One tweet in particular caught the attention of many of his 185,000+ followers yesterday. Before wishing everyone a good weekend, Gül mentioned how he enjoyed watching “The King’s Speech” at home with his wife the other day. “Watched The King’s Speech at home with my wife the other day. Really a very beautiful movie,’ he tweeted.  The Turkish President is not the only one who enjoyed the film of course. With twelve Oscar nominations it is considered to be one of the best movies of 2010 by many people. However, the tweet nevertheless resulted in a small uproar among his followers. The big question is how he could have possibly watched the film at home, without breaking copyright law. The King’s Speech is not available on DVD anywhere in the world, and the film has not even premiered in Turkish movie theaters yet. There is, however, a good copy of the film available on BitTorrent, Usenet and various other file-sharing platforms (and on the streets). This led many of his Twitter followers to conclude that their President is in fact a movie pirate. How else would it be possible for him to watch the movie at his home in Turkey? In a response to the tweet many people asked Gül where he downloaded the movie, and whether he prefers Usenet or BitTorrent. Thus far, the President has not replied to the inquiries, but if he does we will add the response here. Perhaps Gül can do something about the Turkish Pirate Bay block now? I assume many of his followers would also like to grab a copy of The King’s Speech following this shining presidential endorsement. Update: Without going into detail Gül said in a response “an illegal film would not be given to me.” Perhaps his staff managed to get a super-exclusive deal to show a private screening to the President? We’d love to hear more about it. a | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
This week there are three newcomers in the list. Tangled is the most downloaded movie of the week.
Type ‘Crysis 2′ into Google and the first result you get is the official site. The second result is a post from publisher EA’s blog titled ‘Crysis 2 Leaked’
Abdullah Gül is a political heavyweight. He previously served as Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs in Turkey, and in 2007 he was elected as the 11th Turkish President. | You are subscribed to email updates from TorrentFreak To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
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