Georgia Negotiates With Internet Movie Pirates
Written by enigmax on September 29, 2008Georgia had been in the headlines recently for its military confrontation with Russia. Before hostilities engulfed the country, however, it was celebrating 100 years of film-making. But, with no laws protecting the movie industry from piracy, how does Georgia cope with the Internet pirates?
Straddling both Eastern Europe and Southwestern Asia, Georgia hit world headlines recently for its conflict with South Ossetia and ultimately the Russian Federation. Rather than scenes of war dominating visual media, 2008 should have been a year of celebration for the Georgian movie industry. Before the hostilities it was marking 100 years of cinema in the country.
As Georgia struggles to return to some sort of normality, life goes on for businesses in the region, including the movie industry. However, the Georgian movie industry has to face some unique challenges. According to a report, along with other sites, two of the most popular Geogian movie download sites gol.ge and avoe.ge are able to operate freely. Unlike in the US, Europe and many other places around the world, there are no laws in place in Georgia to deal with unofficial movie sites.
This lack of legislation means that the movie industry has to deal with the issue in ways which differ from those of their US and European counterparts. In moves which will seem largely alien to most readers, the Georgian movie industry actually tries its best to keep on friendly terms with the unauthorized download sites in order to reach agreements with them.
Devi Gvaxaria, Manager of the Marketing Department at Cinema Rustaveli told The Financial that they deal with a unique situation in Georgia. “We are happy to have good relations with the main movie sites of Caucasus Online, who consider our request not to put films on the Internet at the same time as their first showings in the theatres,” he said, adding “But these are only some of them, there are different sites which are out of our control.”
Gvaxaria notes that most of the unofficial sites get their movies from other pirate sites internationally, but there is the language barrier, since most Georgians would prefer them in their native ‘Kartuli’. Of course, these technical limitations prove minor stumbling blocks for the resourceful.
“Several times hackers have rewritten the verbal part of a movie from our cinema,” says Gvaxaria. “They put a Dictaphone into their pockets before entering the film, which is impossible for us to stop. We can’t just check each and every person who enters our cinema.” Clearly Mr Gvaxaria hasn’t been to a big movie at a US theater recently.
Natia Meparishvili, PR and Marketing Manager of Cinema Amirani believes that the best protection against piracy is the tradition among the people of going to the cinema. However, it appears that negotiations with the unauthorized providers to keep brand-new movies off their sites for a while gives the theaters a little breathing room to make enough profit during the opening weeks.
Negotiating with pirates is something we have covered before, but it seems unlikely that US movie companies will follow this lead. Indeed, this interesting situation in Georgia will probably change too, as the article notes that the movie business is going to change “their friendly relations” with the unofficial sites and modify the discussion to be based around “the language of law”.
It sounds like Georgia is getting into a Western state of mind, in more ways than one.
Previously: Top 10 Most Pirated Movies on BitTorrent (wk39)
Next: The Pirate Bay Clashes with Book Publishers
35 Responses
Good article. Thanks for the information, negotiating with pirates…definitely a new one!
Heh, lets hope all goes well :P
i didn’t get this article
does it just mean that georgia can have any website on movie and stil lbe legal in georgia
Seems like the Georgian system is superior. With all the media spin on the issue of “piracy” in the United States, people just can’t seem to reason clearly about the issue anymore.
Roze
http://www.28chan.org/apstdt/
Yeah your right number 3.
Basiclly they are just showing us how everyone would be doing it :)
yes, there are no laws against it :)
Have they been declared a “pirate haven” as yet… if not, i’m willing to bet its just a matter of time.
Fat white rich corrupt guy: Yes, my dear friends, Georgia is the new pirate haven costing honest people jobs and irreparably hurting the local economy and the movie industry…. blah de blah de blah de blah thus I saw we cannot allow this to continue…
Now excuse me because just like everyone in my organization (MAFIAA) i have to go have sex with animals.
Cheers!
http://www.eZee.se
“seems unlikely that US movie companies will follow this lead.”
as i dout TPB will follow Georgia’s movie sites lead, and al the other torrentsites
Georgia, Get the F**k out of this world.
We even don’t count you as a country LoL.
Georgia = A-hole dumbs.
Isnt Georgia a state? its not a country you dumbasses.
for you it’s a state, but for us that live outside U.S. it’s a country and a state
Hahaha number 9=idiot
number 11 you are wrong. go back to school. But yeah, i like the idea of negotiating with pirates…
Well that is all fine and good, but I wouldn’t start packing to move there just yet.
Vids and news of the strife….
http://www.fetchmp3.com/search.php?Term=Georgia+russia&searchbutton.x=0&searchbutton.y=0&Module=YouTube
J.
Since you mention Russia in this article, I got to point out, that one of the biggest torrent trackers in Russia – torrents.ru, also negotiates with the copyright holders,and takes torrents down, when asked.
Still, the whole concept of being “friendly” with “pirates” is actually pretty cool.
Holly Crap :-P
I live in Moscow, i don’t think Georgia is a part of Russia LoL.
IT WAS ;) – not NOW!
Georgia GOV doesn’t have money to eat like a normal human then how the F**k they will negotiate with with piracy SH*T, they should concentrate to fix their life first, then jump on internet technology.
Georgians doesn’t know what’s INTERNET :PPPPPPPPPP
I Love Georg, Oh sorry, you mean Georgia :PPP
Georgia Showing the world how its done =P
Negotiation is good, but the whole point of file-sharing is for some kind of “free spirit.” Yes, some sites can try to “go friendly” with the industry, but the whole idea is for people to do what they want freely, rather than to submit to the industry. Something like letting every person do their own thing, as a personal choice.
So, of course, this Georgian system is superior – going along with the industry should be more of a voluntary basis.
OMG people are taking this piracy nonsense WAY too seriously. What a joke!
Jiff
http://www.privacy.es.tc
@19
No, copyright law is definitely not a joke. It is a serious issue to contend with, and to fight to change. Get a clue.
Heh, so Georgia has NO copyright laws any yet they still have better relations between the movie industry and the public than most western countries do.
Nice.
Remind me again why we have these copyright laws in the first place?
If they dont have copyright laws
than we should have lots of trackers from Georgia.
We do have copyright laws, nobody cares about them though…
There is one big tracker, because our global connection is low.
Those movie theatre officials are dickheads, nothin more.
Oh yeah, forgot to mention, Georgia is sovereign and exists before any Russian appeared to the earth
BTW: Fuck All The Russians Who Try To Justify their invasion
FUCK RUSSIA
F***ING Mongols (Russians) should try to fix their own mothers before talkning about other mighty nations, such as Georgia
http://youtube.com/Gioware
Ahaha, WTF Devi gvaxaria?
They show pirated movies in movie theatres themselfs in Georgia
WTF?
The name is written wrong, it’s Gvakharia.
short-Bus
Isnt Georgia a state? its not a country you dumbasses.
sigh..
Do I have to remind you all… that Georgia was a part of the Soviet Empire? 1922 to 1991
But also a part of the Czarist Empire since 1717? Learn your damn history you bloody arses!
Would you allow South Carolina to be free?
hahah, oh wait, you pwned them and FORCED them into your Union, burning down all plantation houses in your wake, and twisting rail road tracks into little bows…
way to be Hippocrates…
Georgia invaded Russia, with US “Support”, but as usual, false promises and no military support followed.
Mikheil SAAKASHVILI should be charged for war crimes against humanity for the slaughter of their own citizens wanting to return to what they think is their home. They we pressured by Karl Rove and Dick Cheney themselves, to plunge into a war that was doomed in the beginning, all to benefit the US Election. (which failed) Americans want Money, dont’ care about war until it directly effects them.
I am afraid of all you idiots who fall hook line and sinker, actual might have some sort of influence over your peers… but then again most of you are under 15.
Georgia is a quasi-democracy, that is coasting of the former technology of the Soviet Union. You don’t think those 1951 coal fire power plants will last forever, will you?
I love how his thing is “not during the first showings.” I believe that most of us can agree that would be fair. Maybe wait a week before downloading it.
And, honestly, pirates don’t stop going to the cinema. Most of us prefer a cinema to a 11-24 inch screen.
lol georgia is sh1t hole how da f@ck they are seeding ??? 56psdn modems :P
and dont forget some of they biggest file sharing is going on in russian
and in greece they was never a arrest for downloading and file sharing stuff
I live in demn stupid country – Russia.
Putin is so stupid they unleashed war against Georgia. Lots of Russians dead, but I dont care about them, they deserved it
Russia are f@cking idiots, loaded with sh1t. They don’t care about anything but to le@ck Putins @ss
yep this sites is very popular in Georgia and you number 9 MR avganistan you and your poor people has no country this is piece of …..haa haa lol I hope U.S.A will bomb your country and you and your family(mother,father, and hot whore sister) will die love U all bye
we have 5mb/s local internet speed if U don’t believe don’t care :))our internet coming from Bulgaria and England. 56psdn modems?!that we have in 1998-99 LOL :)and we export internet in Armenia and Azerbaijan :)check out what is “CAUCASUS ONLINE” and it becomes evident:)yes we have this sites and there is such games,movies and music that you never heard,you all must buy them and we have it absolutely free :) who is the poor now?:)) L O L
:-/ so… this means i can rent a dedicated server from there and be ok :D
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