Hollywood's major film studios lifts its screener ban

October 26, 2003

GristyMcFisty and DamnedIfIknow both used our news submit to tell us that Hollywood's major film studios have lifted a ban that they placed three weeks ago that bans sending out video tapes of movies competing for Oscars. With this ban in place, the MPAA would send out watermarked tapes only to the Oscar voters and each copy would be traceable should it be leaked out on the Internet or be illegally copied or sold. This created opposition as even other groups including those who give out awards were not entitled to copies.

The ban has also been opposed by Independent filmmakers, actors and film critics as they claim it that it would affect which movies gets the awards due to restrictions on who sees the screeners. They also claim that it would make it more difficult to compete against the bigger film studios. Finally, any member whose screener got illegally distributed would be expelled from the Academy.

Hollywood`s major film studios have lifted their controversial ban on sending out videotapes of movies vying for Oscars, but the plan met new criticism from groups who feel cheated in the annual race for the U.S. film industry`s top awards. The ban, instituted by the studio-backed Motion Picture Association of America more than three weeks ago, stemmed from concern the tapes would be illegally copied, or pirated, and sold on the black market or distributed free on the Internet. Under a compromise, the MPAA will send specially encoded tapes to Oscar voters but not to members of other groups that also give out film awards, thus sparking fresh opposition. The MPAA is waging a major battle against piracy, which it says costs the industry billion a year. Last year, illegal copies of half of the Oscar tapes, or "screeners," were sold, according to MPAA. But the deal between the MPAA and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which awards the Oscars, prompted new outrage from independent filmmakers, actors and film critics who claim the ban created an unfair playing field in the Oscar race, and the field remains tilted in the studios` favour.

They argue the low-budget, art-house films need early critics awards and honours like the Hollywood Foreign Press Association`s Golden Globes to build momentum for Oscar victory. They claim that because so many movies vie for awards, watching screeners is the only way to see all the films.

Long-time MPAA head Jack Valenti told Reuters on Thursday that for the past few weeks he has sought a middle ground, and he added dealing with complaints from the likes of directors Norman Jewison and actors Sean Penn and Susan Sarandon, has been "the single most agonising time of my whole career."

"So many of my dear friends were in such virulent opposition to this and made it known to me," he said.

Valenti said the compromise came to him from Academy President Frank Pierson, who said the 6,000 Academy members would agree their screeners could be coded in a way that if illegally copied and sold, the source could be traced.

Read the full source here.

Unreleased movies started popping up across the Internet, the black market and P2P networks many years back. The movie industry reckons that this type of distribution costs them billions each year. Over a week ago, Universal began watermarking its movie distributions starting from the studio and it would not be surprising if many others follow Universal's approach in the future.

I reckon that leaked movies and even music would not affect the industry as much as they they assume. For movies it would just give consumers the ability to preview a movie before deciding to go out to the theatre. The film studios likely do not want the consumers to preview their movies as if the consumer discovers that the movie is not so good after all, they will not go to the theatre to watch it!

Source: BT openworld