Oscars Veteran Resigns Over DVD Screener Piracy Threat

Written by enigmax on January 05, 2008

Academy member: Sign this legal document. By breaking this seal you agree to our terms. If any unauthorized copies are traced back to you, you risk civil and criminal penalties. FBI. Prison. Interpol. A 17 year veteran of the Academy has had enough of being treated like a criminal. Enough is enough - he resigns.

warning2 Successful actor and Academy member Britt Leach says he was “so very proud to be a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences” when he was accepted over 17 years ago. How things have changed.

“I’ve always been very happy to receive these screeners; they have made me feel very important.” says Britt. “The Academy Awards! I would sit in front of our TV and play the tape or DVD and make notes on a legal pad; I would write the name of a film or actor that might deserve to be nominated. And then when the ballots came I would vote.” He admits to taking his “responsibility very seriously” - a great member it seems.

Then people got more paranoid about piracy: “So a legal document was sent out to members of the Academy that we all had to sign. By signing it we promised that we would never allow anybody to take possession of our screeners for any reason, and that we would be very careful with them.” He continues: “Anyway, I signed it even though it made me feel strange, like a criminal or something. Like “Academy Member” equals “criminal.” It was insulting, but I signed it.”
Interpol

Also, the DVDs and packaging carried threatening messages, mentioning FBI, Interpol “and detailed how the individual screeners were watermarked and how all their ‘industry colleagues’ had better be careful or face severe penalties.”

Here is the rest of the sad tale, in Britt’s own, unique words:

Fear Factor

“I mean what would happen to me and my family if one of my screeners got into the wrong hands and was duplicated and they were able to trace it back to me? Would Interpol, the FBI, come and get me? What about my wife? My cats? It made me very worried. I could go to prison. I mean what if somebody broke into my apartment? Or what if somebody who happened to be working here one day decided to steal one of my screeners? I could go to prison.”

Drastic Anti-Piracy Measures
camera
“I began to explore security measures. Here’s a surveillance camera. It cost around $180.00. I thought about putting it above the étagère where I store my screeners. I would attach it to some kind of video recorder, the kind they have in convenience stores to record robberies. But then I thought what if the power went out and the camera stopped working and a screener thief got in during the power blackout? So it came to me that in those situations I could really use a good guard dog.

The life and tragic death of ‘Screener Dog’

“A really good German shepherd guard dog that is already trained and would kill or seriously maim a screener thief. Such a dog costs about $7000.00 (seven-thousand dollars). The dog itself isn’t that expensive but the training is, and to complicate things the dog understands only German. So I would have to learn German in order to communicate with my screener dog. That’s even more expense—for the German lessons. Dog
But then I thought that a dog can get sick or even poisoned or made very drowsy. I mean what if somebody who knew that I had screeners and knew also about my screener guard dog came to my apartment and broke a window and threw something in, piece of meat, with some dog sleeping stuff on it or even worse, poison? Put my screener guard dog to sleep or killed it, broke in and stole my screeners? So in addition to the trained German Shepherd I thought about a full security system for my apartment.”

Digital locks re-enforced with physical DRM

“A company called ADT is very good I hear so I contacted them and found that their service cost $850.00 for starters. plus the safe they recommended for my screeners. Yes, I forgot to mention that ADT recommended that I buy a safe and keep my screeners in that safe until I wanted to watch one, return it immediately after watching. And a good screener-sized safe costs between five and seven-hundred dollars.

So that’s the cost of a surveillance camera, guard dog, German lessons,a safe, plus ADT, making a total of $8730.00 as an initial, screener-security investment plus my Academy dues of $250 per year. And who knows how much yearly maintenance of all that would cost. Dog food, vet bills.”

DRM Puts Britt on the brink

“That’s a lot of money for us, We live on my actor’s pension and Social Security plus Cathy’s paycheck. So I was thinking that maybe I would need to get a job to support screener security and Academy membership. And it seemed that going back to acting might be a choice, but at my age the only parts open for me are for very sick people or cadavers. And there are already so many old character actors out there looking for those jobs that I don’t think that I could make enough money to support screener security and Academy membership, too much competition. So acting was out.

And anyway we only have one car and Cathy needs it to get to work so it wouldn’t be available to get me to interviews.

$9000.00 for starters plus yearly maintenance. I just couldn’t figure out how to do it. Even if we moved to a smaller apartment. Even if took a job managing an apartment building again; I just couldn’t figure how to do it.”

DRM woes end in misery for Britt, huge loss for the Academy

“And I have reluctantly come to a decision. So that I won’t contribute to film piracy by inadvertently allowing one of my screeners to fall into the wrong hands, pirating hands, thereby costing the film industry millions of dollars (not to mention putting me in prison), I will not renew my membership in the Academy.

It makes me sad, but I’m also happy in a way. Because without those screeners being delivered to my vulnerable little home, with its multiple and human inefficiencies, I know that it will no longer be possible for me to harm the studios, my industry colleagues and the Academy. Yes, so by resigning from the Academy I will contribute to saving the film industry, and I have to be happy about that.”

I guessed they dumped DRM just a little too late to keep Britt.

The full post (it’s quite long!) by Britt Leach is available here.

Saved in: Anti-Piracy Gangs, DRM and Other Evil

Previously: When Pirates Pay, They Pay Good

Next: How To Share Torrents With BitTorrent Illiterates

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97 Responses (Add yours or TrackBack)

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1 Jan 05, 2008 at 18:00 by SS4Real

Screener dog…lol! Good for him, get out before they lynch their own.

2 Jan 05, 2008 at 18:01 by Anonymous

I think this guy is overreacting a little bit about security.

3 Jan 05, 2008 at 18:02 by KyleB171

To be honest, it sounded to me like he was one of the DVD Screener dupes. I’m not saying anything more just my opinion.

4 Jan 05, 2008 at 18:24 by Rex

One single action won’t change anything. If EVERYONE resigned then we would have something major.

5 Jan 05, 2008 at 18:26 by Mikle

Why not buy a safe-deposit that ways 500kg. Then there will be a easyer target ;)

But sad the industry has to treathen peoble. But that is general.

6 Jan 05, 2008 at 18:28 by Anonymous

agreed, way over exaggerated, it sounds like he’s being an ass

7 Jan 05, 2008 at 18:40 by Spanky69

Ever heard of sarcasm?

Good for him.

8 Jan 05, 2008 at 18:40 by peter

lol - what a paranoid pirate.

simple anti-piracy measure to wipe out the weak ones.

in this case it probably prevented us from some shitface fuked up extremely low-quality rips ;)

9 Jan 05, 2008 at 18:45 by Anonymous

For the morons above who don’t get it: he’s no overreacting, he’s *kidding*!

10 Jan 05, 2008 at 18:46 by Xlooterx

Ya sounds like many of our screenrs came from him lol.

I think he over-reacted aboutt he whole security thing. I mean we (pirates) get those type of warnings everyday and we dont go all out on security.

Anyway better for him to get out before the find something on him.

11 Jan 05, 2008 at 18:55 by Anonymous

It’s satire.

12 Jan 05, 2008 at 19:11 by serrebi

It’s eather satire, or he’s a crazy pirate!

13 Jan 05, 2008 at 19:18 by peter

this crazy pirate can shuffle his weapon of wit up his ass. *satiring*

14 Jan 05, 2008 at 19:43 by Roel

Satire.

15 Jan 05, 2008 at 19:45 by Anonymous

I think he more of saying a msg to them, its too much for something not worth it.

I mean what if, is a major subject, and he might be right, if something get stolen! wouldn’t it be bad for him to be in all this fuss for nothing.

but he’s really funny, it truely made me laugh ;)

16 Jan 05, 2008 at 19:49 by Rex

That guy should register http://www.screenerdog.com and put his own torrentsite on it! ;)

17 Jan 05, 2008 at 20:11 by anon

They never try to trace the screeners that get uploaded to the net. They only go after the ones with questionable backgrounds ie; pirates. They can go after webservers but none of their members are being questioned even though the screener-recipient-suspect-pool is easier to check than filing a lawsuit in another country.

18 Jan 05, 2008 at 20:12 by Wibble

LOL.. Screenerdog FTW.

19 Jan 05, 2008 at 20:22 by Guido

got paranoia?

He’s so worried about getting caught he was probably the guy leaking all the screeners… lol

20 Jan 05, 2008 at 21:04 by Avarik

How can anyone be gullible enough to take this satire seriously…I mean, the part about learning German to speak to a German shepherd?

21 Jan 05, 2008 at 21:10 by zarathustra

[quote comment="255946"]I think this guy is overreacting a little bit about security.[/quote]