TorrentFreak Email Update |
- Paramount Pictures Partner With BitTorrent Release Movie
- White House: Streaming Should Be a Felony, Wiretap Infringers
- Ubisoft ‘Pirates’ Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood Music From Demonoid
| Paramount Pictures Partner With BitTorrent Release Movie Posted: 17 Mar 2011 02:34 AM PDT
The Tunnel is a story based in the real-life networks of tunnels under Sydney, Australia. Created many decades ago, the tunnels were originally intended to house a rail network but construction was discontinued and they later became U.S. General Macarthur's headquarters during the Second World War. Although the tunnels were later abandoned, a film crew decided to go down there, and so the story begins. From the trailers available, it looks pretty eerie. In a little over 2 months, The Tunnel will be released worldwide and, true to the plan from the beginning, that premiere won’t take place in bricks-and-mortar, admission-charging theaters but on BitTorrent – for free. Simultaneously, The Tunnel will also be released on DVD which will include two hours of exclusive footage including an alternate ending and a behind the scenes documentary. Distracted Media have just secured a physical distribution deal for that product but considering the movie’s key BitTorrent model, one of the companies now partnering them will certainly raise an eyebrow or two. Transmission Films and Paramount Home Entertainment Australia, who work together on film acquisitions, have just confirmed they will be backing what they describe as “the film that captured the imaginations of internet users globally.” TorrentFreak caught up with producer and editor Enzo Tedeschi and asked about this interesting partnership, particularly since Paramount – like most Hollywood studios – have shown much hostility to BitTorrent over the years, particularly in the recent and ongoing AFACT v iiNet case in Australia. “Our experience with Paramount has been positive, and we’re impressed with how forward-thinking they’ve been on considering our specific project,” Enzo explained. “From day one we’ve maintained that The Tunnel is not supporting or condoning piracy, but instead trying to incorporate a legitimate use of peer-to-peer in our distribution strategy internationally.” While some might be suspicious of Paramount given their track record, the Internet community in particular constantly calls for change and for the studios to embrace – not fight – new ideas and distribution models. Being associated with The Tunnel project certainly seems like a step in the right direction. “So much of the debate at the moment is caught up around what has been happening in the past, but that’s not what The Tunnel is about,” co-producer Julian Harvey told us. “We’re trying to look ahead. We have a film and we’re trying to find an audience.” The Tunnel will do just that, May 19th on a BitTorrent tracker near you. |
| White House: Streaming Should Be a Felony, Wiretap Infringers Posted: 16 Mar 2011 07:39 AM PDT The Obama administration’s IP Enforcement Coordinator, Victoria Espinel, has finally released her list of proposals for changes in intellectual property law. While there is a strong presence in her white paper for action against counterfeit pharmaceuticals, it is likely that readers’ focus will be drawn to suggested measures for cracking down on the streaming of unauthorized media. While in some cases the former will undoubtedly endanger lives and therefore carries a considerable gravity when considering legislation, the fact that the latter is even mentioned in the same breath is an immediate cause for concern. In respect of sites offering streaming content, Espinel voices concern that their delivery mechanism of choice could be considered, under current law, to be more akin to a public performance. For copyright holders viewing from a deterrent perspective, this lower scale offense is problematic. It is therefore proposed that streaming – or other new technological methods serving the same purpose – should be reclassified as the “distribution of copyrighted works” and, therefore, a felony. With this upgrading to felony comes some other perks, notably in surveillance. While the FBI and other agencies are able to tap phones, Internet connections and other methods of communication as they investigate the most serious of crimes, copyright infringement is not currently one of them. If Espinel has her way, that will change. “Wiretap authority for these intellectual property crimes, subject to the existing legal protections that apply to wiretaps for other types of crimes, would assist U.S. law enforcement agencies to effectively investigate those offenses, including targeting organized crime and the leaders and organizers of criminal enterprises,” the paper reads. As always, there are some concerns. While at first view the recommendations appear to be aimed at site owners (or the apparent preferred term “criminal gangs”), by classifying “streaming” as a felony there is the potential to suck in innocent victims. As streaming becomes more popular and sites utilize the upload bandwidth of viewers in order to distribute content to others (such as PPLive), do those viewers then become “streamers” too? Then of course, one is naturally drawn to the recent case of 32-year-old Texan Bryan McCarthy, who was arrested for criminal copyright infringement for his alleged operations at ChannelSurfing.net. McCarthy was charged with criminal copyright infringement for "reproduction and distribution" of copyrighted material, yet Southern District of New York Attorney Preet Bhara said that McCarthy “sought to profit by intercepting and then streaming live sporting events.” So, if McCarthy “streamed” and that’s a criminal offense already, why is a change in the law required? Furthermore, it’s believed that he did not stream content, but merely embedded other people’s streams in web pages on ChannelSurfing. So streaming or not streaming, distributing or not distributing (embedding) are all criminal offenses? As usual, there are more questions than answers. The full paper can be downloaded here. |
| Ubisoft ‘Pirates’ Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood Music From Demonoid Posted: 16 Mar 2011 06:09 AM PDT PC gamers who pre-ordered Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood in advance of tomorrow’s release in the United States are getting some extra goodies with the so-called ‘digital deluxe’ version of the game. In addition to two new single player maps, two extra multiplayer characters and a new skin for the Ezio character, it’s also packaged with a map of Rome, behind-the-scenes video and the game’s soundtrack. But there’s a more interesting extra too. Reddit user ‘plginger‘ already downloaded the soundtrack and immediately noticed something unusual, as illustrated by the screenshot below.  In the comment column it clearly reads “Encoded by arsa13″ – and arsa13 is a member of the semi-private BitTorrent tracker, Demonoid, who uploaded the Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood soundtrack to the site more than 4 months ago.  But maybe ‘plginger’ is messing around, and retagged the files he downloaded from Demonoid for the lulz? While it’s possible, it seems unlikely. When arsa13 created his original torrent somehow a track was left out. The missing track is called Apple Chamber and, perhaps not coincidentally, the same track in the first screenshot above is the only one not tagged ‘arsa13′, suggesting it came from a separate source. While arsa13 uploaded FLAC files which were ripped from AC3 files included on a console bonus DVD, it appears that Ubisoft have not only used these torrented tracks as a source, but reduced their quality down to MP3. This latest event seems to be deja-vu all over again for Ubisoft following its 2008 usage of a so-called ‘No-CD’ crack from warez scene group RELOADED to fix its game Rainbox 6: Vegas 2. The publisher is yet to offer an explanation. Can there be any better endorsement of BitTorrent, that people find it easier to access their own content through a torrent site than via their own internal methods? |
Distracted Media’s Enzo Tedeschi and Julian Harvey first hit the BitTorrent conciousness in mid 2010 when trying to | 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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