Piracy Documentary: On Piracy & the Future of Media
Written by Ernesto on March 04, 2007“On Piracy” is a detailed and insightful documentary about picacy, DRM, copyright law, and digital media, with views from both sides of the fence. And the good thing is, the DVD can be downloaded for free.
The documentary is produced by Julien McArdle, a 21 year old independent film-maker from Canada. He started interviewing people about their views on piracy and digital rights in November 2005. The resulting documentary is now available on DVD, and can be downloaded for free.
McArdle wanted to take an in-depth look at piracy today, and how it will evolve. “despite all the media frenzy on the piracy crackdowns, there’s been very little attention to the topic itself. At the very best, news reporters regurgitated the contents of an industry press release. There was nothing of substance, which is where this documentary fits in: we wanted to cover the issue in-depth,” we read on the documentary website.
McArdle interviewed several people including: a member of a scene release group, Susan Harper from Microsoft Canada, Michael Geist, Canada Research Chair in Internet and E-commerce Law at the University of Ottawa, Graham Henderson from the CRIA, and many others.
Shooting this documentary made McArdle realize that the piracy issue is not as black and white as many people believe. “This is such an incredibly complicated issue, and the scope of it goes really beyond pinning the blame on just one thing or whatnot”, he said, in an interview.
You can watch the documentary on Google Video (1 & 2), but I recommend to download the DVD. Not only does not only have better video quality, but it also includes many extras, such as commentary form the director, and several easter eggs worth watching.
The official documentary website is over here, and don’t forget to donate if you like what you see.
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20 Responses (Add yours or TrackBack)
damit couldn’t he have made it an .avi
yeah. me want it inna .avi! .avi is .nice!
[quote comment="58456"]damit couldn’t he have made it an .avi[/quote]
I’ll see if I can make a rip, and upload an .avi, not today though.
ISO will play with several image programs and VLC… whats the problem?
[quote comment="58478"]ISO will play with several image programs and VLC… whats the problem?[/quote]
For some people the size of the .ISO is a problem. They prefer 700MB AVIs.
You’d be surprised how many issues I’ve had trying to get to make this into an XViD. I always end up with audio-sync issues about 3/4 of the way through.
If anyone wants to rip it, I’d welcome it. I’m rendering a few batches of other stuff right now, which means I won’t be able to revisit creating XViDs until later this week.
I’m surprised people still want files that fit on cds, whoose got time to burn cds when dvds hold 7 times the capacity!
[quote comment="58925"]I’m surprised people still want files that fit on cds, whoose got time to burn cds when dvds hold 7 times the capacity![/quote]
The thing is that cds are totally ubiquitous (not everyone has DVD burners), cds are dirt cheap, and the dvd might hold 7 times more, but it takes 7 times longer to download.
[quote comment="58456"]damit couldn’t he have made it an .avi[/quote]
you can steal the .avi’s from Google Video.
Part 1:
Part 2:
Julien, thank you for making and sharing this.
Look forward to it, a 700MB version would definitely help.
Just downloaded and watched this with Daemon Tools. Great job. Most all points of view are represented. All except this one:
1. Digital copies of materials are so widely available these days that I don’t even save things anymore after downloading them.
DRM will always be cracked, so I have taken for granted that this media will always be available at one time or another, whenever I want it, as long as the internet exists.
2.A library’s content is only limited by their budget and donations from the community. For example, I can check out a copy of ‘Pirates of the Carribean’ today if I wanted to and keep it for a week.
3.If I am not saving or copying the material, what is the difference between “checking out” media online and deleting it, and checking it out from the library and returning it?
Are we going to outlaw libraries now? Make them pay crazy fees?
R
Format doesn’t bother me. Just waiting for it to finish downloading. If its good, I will probably even donate :D
The stupid background music spoils the whole documentary.
The XViDs are ready:
http://thepiratebay.org/tor/3634649
There’s only one seeder, but as soon as more people hook on, the situation will get better.
Good news, Julian - that will attract a lot more attention. Posted a note at a major documentaries fansite about it for you. ;)
Thanks for the documentary. It’s good.
For the XviD Rip there are no seeders till days.
It would be great to reseed it.
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