[IP] more on BitTorrent Facilitating Illegal File Swapping of Star Wars On Day of Opening
Begin forwarded message:
From: Dewayne Hendricks <dewayne@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: May 23, 2005 1:02:27 AM EDT
To: Lauren Weinstein <lauren@xxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: lynn@xxxxxxxxxxx, dave@xxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [IP] more on BitTorrent Facilitating Illegal File
Swapping of Star Wars On Day of Opening
On May 22, 2005, at 8:11 AM, Lauren Weinstein wrote:
I find this scenario regarding the new "Star Wars" film unlikely in
the extreme. Do we seriously believe that there was some sort of
problem for Lucasfilm in terms of not getting enough free PR "buzz"
and income potential for the film, without secretly releasing a
"pirate" copy? The media has been saturated with "Star Wars" for
weeks, if not months! Let's try to keep the conspiracy meter within
reasonable bounds.
I would agree with you notion of keeping the conspiracy meter
dialed down except for several curious things about the workprint
that appeared on the Darknet. They are:
o The workprint came out in DVD format. You could take the file
and burn it directly to a DVD. This is not usually the case for 'pre-
release' films like this that show up on the Darknet.
o The workprint was processed to downgrade its resolution and
aspect ratio. By this I mean is was not the quality that you would
expect from a true workprint. The aspect ratio was also 4:3 instead
of the normal 16:9 for a print like this. A workprint that was
simply stolen would have been full rez and aspect ratio.
o The workprint showed up on the Darknet about 12 hours before the
first midnight showing of the film last Wed. night. Just enough time
for a reasonable number of copies to be downloaded and the word to
get out to the Darknet community that the film was available.
So, like I said, nothing conclusive enough to label it a
deliberate move by Lucasfilm to build buzz for the film, etc., but
enough to at least raise my eyebrows a bit.
-- Dewayne
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