Just thought I would pass this on.
Watermarked DVD-R's have replaced VHS tapes for screening copies sent out at this time of the year (Well ok, Novemeber-ish time of year). The DVD-R disks have individual and unique serial numbers. Deluxe supposedly shipped out 100,000 DVD screeners with 95% of them being in DVD-R format.
For the IFP awards another method was used - NetFlix. No watermarking of any kind but because members had to "order" the DVD's there was a record of everyone who got one and because the DVD's get sent back they didn't have to make so many screeners. Some films did not have any DVD's available because they were still in theatres - NetFlix pressed screener DVD's for 6 films at their own expense. The others the studios created DVD-R's of and sent out on their own.
And the big thing that you all want to know - lawsuits? Yep - in November Carmine Caridi was ordered to pay Warner Brothers and Sony $600,000 because he gave his screeners of The Last Samurai and Big Fish to someone who in turn copied them and in turn bootlegged them. He was also kicked out of the academy because he had been giving away his screeners for the last 3 years. Also note that supposedly other films out on the net also coudl be traced back to screeners given to Carmine - Mystic River , Master and Commander, thirteen and Calendar Girls.
So what was my point in this? I found it interesting for one thing. While it won't fully prevent someone from making a copy of your film or music the unique serial number and watermarking could help greatly in tracking down just who did do it, but could also come back to haunt people. How many people here have garage sales or use a site like e-bay to sell off old DVD's and Cd's? Or even footage libraries or music libraries? Imagine if the "non-transferable" part was *really* enforced? Because you could sell your copy to someone who gives it to someone who then gets robbed and the robber in turn sells it for drug money and so - at some point it turns up being "bootlegged" and you get this knock on your door. Hmmmm...ok, so lets open the floor to debate this one. :)
Watermarked DVD-R's have replaced VHS tapes for screening copies sent out at this time of the year (Well ok, Novemeber-ish time of year). The DVD-R disks have individual and unique serial numbers. Deluxe supposedly shipped out 100,000 DVD screeners with 95% of them being in DVD-R format.
For the IFP awards another method was used - NetFlix. No watermarking of any kind but because members had to "order" the DVD's there was a record of everyone who got one and because the DVD's get sent back they didn't have to make so many screeners. Some films did not have any DVD's available because they were still in theatres - NetFlix pressed screener DVD's for 6 films at their own expense. The others the studios created DVD-R's of and sent out on their own.
And the big thing that you all want to know - lawsuits? Yep - in November Carmine Caridi was ordered to pay Warner Brothers and Sony $600,000 because he gave his screeners of The Last Samurai and Big Fish to someone who in turn copied them and in turn bootlegged them. He was also kicked out of the academy because he had been giving away his screeners for the last 3 years. Also note that supposedly other films out on the net also coudl be traced back to screeners given to Carmine - Mystic River , Master and Commander, thirteen and Calendar Girls.
So what was my point in this? I found it interesting for one thing. While it won't fully prevent someone from making a copy of your film or music the unique serial number and watermarking could help greatly in tracking down just who did do it, but could also come back to haunt people. How many people here have garage sales or use a site like e-bay to sell off old DVD's and Cd's? Or even footage libraries or music libraries? Imagine if the "non-transferable" part was *really* enforced? Because you could sell your copy to someone who gives it to someone who then gets robbed and the robber in turn sells it for drug money and so - at some point it turns up being "bootlegged" and you get this knock on your door. Hmmmm...ok, so lets open the floor to debate this one. :)