TorrentFreak

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Top 10 Most Pirated Movies of 2009

With 2009 nearing its end, we take a look at the most-pirated movie titles across various categories. Aside from the usual suspects such as Star Trek and Transformers, the list also includes a few surprising entries, and some notable absentees.

star-trek2009 has been a record breaking year at the box office, with more than $10 billion in ticket sales in the US and Canada alone. This, despite increasing piracy rates on the Internet.

The uncontested winner on BitTorrent this year is Star Trek, with well over 10 million downloads, many more than The Dark Knight got last year. The download statistics clearly show that BitTorrent use is still on the up, even though the relative increase is not as pronounced as in previous years.

As we look over the rest of the top 10, we see that there are quite a few differences between popularity at the box office and on BitTorrent. Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs and 2012 are ranked 2nd and 4th based on their worldwide grosses but didn’t make it into the top 10 list of most swapped movies.

On the contrary, RocknRolla is the third most pirated movie on BitTorrent this year, but with a minuscule worldwide revenue of $25 million it was ranked just 168th at the box office in 2008 when the movie came out. Part of the success of RocknRolla is that it was released by the infamous uploader aXXo whose releases are always guaranteed to have at least a few million downloads.

The data for this list is collected by TorrentFreak from several sources, including reports from all the large BitTorrent trackers. All release formats, including cammed versions are counted. Afterward, the data is carefully checked and possible inaccuracies are systematically corrected.

Most Downloaded Movies on BitTorrent, 2009
rank movie downloads worldwide grosses
torrentfreak.com
1 Star Trek 10,960,000 $385,459,120
2 Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen 10,600,000 $834,969,807
3 RocknRolla 9,430,000 $25,728,089
4 The Hangover 9,180,000 $459,422,869
5 Twilight 8,720,000 $384,997,808
6 District 9 8,280,000 $204,570,836
7 Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince 7,930,000 $929,359,401
8 State of Play 7,440,000 $87,784,194
9 X-Men Origins: Wolverine 7,200,000 $373,062,569
10 Knowing 6,930,000 $183,260,464

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  • Matthew

    But i would say Star Trek was not that good

    Avtar in 3D is good but not out online in 3D yet only 2D.

  • Anonymous

    @Matthew
    I think it will be a while before it’s out in 3D on bittorrent!

  • Ace Hall

    Yes, it really does look like by those box office grosses that the movie industry is about to go broke. We really should stop stealing their money from them, they can barely buy a package of Ramen noodles on what they make! Poor things, maybe we should start up a collection or have a telethon to try to save their business model…

    ***Suddenly wakes up screaming from a bad nightmare, and before Christmas!

  • Robert

    Avatar 3-D? BitTorrent? I’m guessing you can just download the glasses too, right?

  • Sander

    What happened to aXXo anyway?

  • duak

    I’am not finding most of those movies good :s
    Didn’t even know that there was a new star trek movie.
    Also did axxo started uploading again?

  • bootytape.com

    I think everyone of those other movies were easier to promote than RocknRolla and State of Play for theater viewing but the internet spreads things viral and has nearly unlimited seating. It sucks when a movie barely breaks even but it’s better than not making what you spent at all.

  • Wade Wilson

    forget the MPAA. they dont know what there talkin about. pirates dont hurt the movie idustry. alot of these movies did terribly well. harry potter almost reached a billion! how much did they lose from pirating that they didn’t gain back from pirating.

  • Ace Hall

    aXXo retired.

    Grand total gross income of just those ten movies above:

    Drumroll please…

    $3,868,615,157

    Must really hurt to have made so little money!

  • Nick Taylor

    I find the phrase (that you hear again and again and again and again and again and again)…. “In spite of widespread piracy” faintly annoying…

    … when it’s just as likely to be “because of widespread file-sharing”.

    How does anyone know that file-sharing isn’t contributing to the buzz? Acting as free advertising, free radio?

  • Ace Hall

    Even though Hollywood made nearly FOUR BILLION on these ten movies, due to “Hollywood Accounting” they are going to have to file for bankruptcy and get a bailout from the US government!

    From Wikipedia…

    Hollywood accounting is the practice of distributing the money earned by a large project to corporate entities which, though legally distinct from the one responsible for the project itself, are actually owned by the same people. This substantially reduces the profit of the project proper, sometimes eliminating it altogether. The effect of this practice is to reduce the amount which the corporation must pay in royalties or other profit-sharing agreements.

    Examples:

    Winston Groom’s price for the screenplay rights to his novel Forrest Gump included a share of the profits; however, due to Hollywood accounting, the film’s commercial success was converted into a net loss, and Groom received nothing.

    Stan Lee filed and won a lawsuit after the producers of the movie Spider-Man did not give him a portion of the gross revenue.

    The film My Big Fat Greek Wedding was considered hugely successful for an independent film, yet according to the studio, the film lost money.

    The series Babylon 5 has garnered more than US$1 billion for Warner Bros., most recently US$500 million in DVD sales alone. But in the last profit statement given to J. Michael Straczynski, who wrote 90% of the episodes in addition to producing the show, Warner Bros. claimed the property was $80 million in debt.

    Peter Jackson, director of The Lord of the Rings, brought a lawsuit against New Line Cinema after “an audit… on part of the income of The Fellowship of the Ring.” Fifteen actors are also suing New Line Cinema claiming that they have never received their 5% of revenue from merchandise sold in relation to the movie, which contains their likeness. Similarly, the Tolkien estate has sued New Line, claiming that while their contract entitled them to 7.5% of the gross receipts, the film studio has refused to pay them any share of the $6 billion hit.

    And they call us thieves!

  • Self Helpless Movie

    Man, all these movies spent money trying to stop people from downloading them. I am hoping we will have Self Helpless on the top of this list for 2010. When will Hollywood learn?

  • ~

    How do you want to watch Avatar 3D on your computer lol, it will never be out in 3D on bittorrent, no consumer technology can run it.

  • Ace Hall

    Your response is awaiting moderation.

    Just so you know Wikimedia has a Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. So quoting from their pages is allowed, if a link is provided back to the original page.

  • Ace Hall

    Dang forgot to close the bold statement. You guys really need to come up with a way for us to edit our posts, please.

    [I've closed the bold for you - Ben]

  • sUpAGee

    …and they are still complainin’ that p2p will kill the music/movie industry! FU MAFIAA!

  • Matthew

    @13 Yes there is i have about 5 3D movies on my pc which use VLC player to watch only have to buy the glasses and you done or less you TV/PC Monitor has the build in Convertor/Screen Cover which allows you to watch the 3D movies with the glasses.

    3D is the next big thing

  • Anonymouse

    Matthew, can you provide a link or name of the glasses, they sound pretty cool?

  • Positron

    Thank you TorrentFreak for this most informative article.

    And…

    Thank you Ace Hall for your most interesting comments here. About that ‘Hollywood accounting’ practice, isn’t that just UNBELIEVABLE?! Maybe actors should just go on strike or something, like the television and movie writers did during the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike.

  • Rick Castle

    Avatar is amazing in 3D, I went and saw it opening night and I only see maybe 4-5 movies a year in theatres (most not worth it). Anyway, I doubt I’ll see another that good for another decade likely.

    I guarantee it’ll be a classic people will be watching 10 and 15 years from now. I honestly can’t recommend it enough.

    For those that don’t know or are thinking about going it’s an action/romance with an easy storyline to follow (humans are mining Pandora, the Na’vi are in the way and Jake Sully is the Avatar that’s supposed to negotiate relocation or at least gather better intel so the humans can kill the Na’vi).

    All the CGI is photoreal and let me tell you, it’s amazing. When it was full CGI I was totally ensconced in the imagery and I hardly noticed when it transitioned between live action and CGI. Also there are some (many?) scenes where it’s both CGI and live action and I never noticed a seam (granted I was too interested in the story to nit-pick, but I usually notice without trying).

    3D effects are used only to draw you in and never as a gimmic. I swear there is this one scene after a huge fire and ash is raining down (in 3D) and I had this urge to brush dust off my leg. For a split second I was completely fooled and had to stop myself from acting on the impulse. That really sold the movie for me.

    I can’t decide if I should see it again in theatres or just wait ’til a good rip hits bittorrent/usenet, but I’ve never seen the same movie twice in theatres and I’m at least considering it with this one.

  • rick roll

    Matthew probably mean the old 3d movie with the red and blue glasses

  • existor

    I downloaded four out of this top ten.
    (In case anyone is interested, LOL)

  • Ace Hall

    Your welcome Positron. I am just sick of hearing these crybaby media na.zis saying how their industry is falling apart because of piratingthievingfile sharing. If they looked at the responses posted here and on the thread about Avatar they would see that people do pay for movies, if they are worth it. Same goes for music as well.

  • josh

    Hollywood at a loss? Get real – it’s called offshore bank accounts, international business companies and in this case money laundering.

    My ISP just doubled my quota for free so now I can download everything in full HD – so personally to you, the studios – you can get f*cked.

  • Armanian

    I’ve downloaded 6 out 10 of those movies.

    I also wont download Avatar, i really wanna go see that in 3D, first time for everything i suppose haha.

  • Rain

    After reading Ace Hall’s comment, regarding the lawsuits against movie making companies, I just wanna shuv that in every 2 bit documentary anti-piracy organization around, theys teal from the producers, the fucking fat companies control and monopolize the markets so that no one can realease a film and have a decent profit if they use the companies, and if they don’t the movies probs won’t get shown nearly anywhere, pisses me off that they go back on their goddamn contracts and deny film makers and original writers their percentage of the income, they’re pirating themselves, using tolken estate’s copyrighted shit, and they get a contract to make it legal, and then they refuse to pay, goddamn leechers…/emorage

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  • Xcel

    @ #9 Ace..

    Dont go spreading rumors about crap you dont have any clue about..

    Axxo has not “Retired”, he has a site that he UP’s to.. nice and quiet..peaceful even…LoL..

    EDue to preying I’s here im not going to post the information..

    But the one man release group *IS still “releasing” and *IS still alive and well.

  • Ace Hall

    Xcel don’t get your knickers in such a twist, that is just what I had read on various forums and was merely trying to be helpful. If I was wrong, then just correct me, don’t be such a biatch about it. K

    P.S. I never said anything about him not being well, that’s your rumor!

  • Rain

    My response has been awaiting moderation forever ><

  • Someone

    In total, they have grossed $3,868,615,157

    Total downloads is 86,670,000.

    Total gross per download is $44.64.

    So, is piracy really a big problem?

  • iFox

    @3
    But they really are going broke! They wont be able to afford that new mustang to replace their 5 other ones..And they might not be able to afford to throw that new dinner party with 3,000 guests at their new villa.

    Pfft. I understand that a movie can cost over a million $ to produce. But most movies are still making at least 50 to 100 million dollars more than the movie cost to make. So even if they are not making as much money in the past (due more to a tanking economy than ‘pirating’) they are still making a lot. Just they might not be able to buy that new 300k villa over in California that they’ll never actually visit.

  • eartotheground

    I’ve read more than one article stating that the industry saves a great deal of money making their movies due to the high level of technology now available. You can bet the industry won’t bring up that subject.

  • Positron

    @ Ace Hall (#23 Dec 21, 2009 at 02:07):

    You wrote:

    Your welcome Positron. I am just sick of hearing these crybaby media na.zis saying how their industry is falling apart because of piratingthievingfile sharing. If they looked at the responses posted here and on the thread about Avatar they would see that people do pay for movies, if they are worth it. Same goes for music as well.

    Yeah, so very true!
    You know, it all comes down to the age-old human short coming called Greed. The people at these companies just won’t ever be satisfied with their gains. Be they gigantic or not, it just won’t ever be enough for them. They’re much like the super greedy Wall Street bankers, who got away with unbelievable amounts of money, for which, as we all know, ultimately the tax payers had to pay with their hard earned money. It’s capitalism gone mad, and I wonder who can come up with a remedy for it, if anyone.

  • mahatma

    I’ve read more than one article stating that the industry saves a great deal of money making their movies due to the high level of technology now available. You can bet the industry won’t bring up that subject. There is no doubt who the real pirates and criminals are and it ain’t us people.

  • Dan

    People who downloaded it illegaly:

    10,960,000

    Who would have bought it if piracy wasn’t there:

    0

    Money lost:

    $0

  • Bryan

    You Ask how much they lost from pirating, which would assume that potential profits is a valid ideology. What about all the people who downloaded movies and would have not otherwise spent money on them? Potential profits is a very broken foundation for an argument to begin with. But yes, I’m sure that what ever arbitrary figure you wnt to come up with was more than compensated for by the people who paid BECAUSE they downloaded first.

  • No Name

    @Reasoned Tard

    You managed to out-stupid yourself. Congratulations.

    Being that you are retarded, let me try to explain something to you. I know it’s beyond your scope of understanding, but it’s worth sharing this with everyone else.

    1) This is in fact a binary of all copyrighted data containing: 00010001 and 10001000

    I decide to compress them instead to: 3131 and 1313

    I replaced the 3 zeros with a three instead. This is called compression.

    I’ve effectively changed the patterns of 0’s and 1’s in to a more efficient equation or form.

    Technically, turning 00010001 and 10001000 in to 3131 and 1313 is NO LONGER an exact copy. The patterns are completely different and are no longer the same.

    I give those 1313 and 3131 to a friend, and I make no profit from it. I am not doing anything illegal, but I am sharing a completely different pattern of the authors copyrighted data. This data under a microscope does not resemble the original copyrighted file any longer in any way, shape or form.

    When you rip a DVD/Blu-ray/CD and compress it to mp3, mpeg-4, xvid or divx, you are reordering and scrambling the original digital data in to something else completely new and original.

    2) I go to a supermarket and I see a sandwich for sale. It’s made of rye bread, turkey, mayo, mustard, lettuce and tomato.

    I buy those ingredients myself and decide to make lots of sandwiches and serve them up to friends at my house; no charge. I never stole that original sandwich from the store. I got the idea and I decided to make it myself. I tell my friends how to make the sandwiches themselves, and they tell their friends, etc. It might resemble the sandwich in the supermarket, but it is not the same sandwich, so therefore I did not steal it.

    In conclusion, the original authors copyrighted patterns of binary 0’s and 1’s are completely altered and scrambled when compressed. It does not resemble anything at all like the original file that it was copied from when examined under a microscope. Just the same, the sandwich in the store and I decided to buy the ingredients myself. It may look like the same sandwich in the store, but under a microscope the two sandwiches are nothing alike.

    It would be preposterous for the supermarket to decided to sue me for theft. According to your “reasoning” I stole the original sandwich from the store and I should go to jail for it.

    If I walked out of the store with that sandwich without paying for it, yes that is theft and it is illegal. Making those same sandwiches myself is not illegal.

    That my dear Reasoned Tard is why you are a complete idiot. If my explanation is ever used in court, the RIAA/MPAA would never win another case again.

  • diarRIAA

    Avatar fell short $10M in projected box office sales.

    Had they released a cammed/TS on bittorrent they actually might have met their mark and possibly even more.

    I think Avatar theatre profits were hurt by it not being pirated.

  • Anonymous

    ‘No Name’ did you post on the wrong thread?

  • Chris

    Its nice to see Twilight, a purely teen girl flick, up there in the top 10. Nice to know it aint just us guys :)

  • Chris

    Its nice to see Twilight, a purely teen girl flick, up there in the top 10. Nice to know it aint just us guys :)

    Avatar is alien-centric sci fi. They rarely do well. I would have bet good money that it wouldn’t make projections regardless of p2p.

  • lol

    @36 ROFL your a complete fvcking fruitcake you can’t compare making turkey subs to distributing copyrighted material though p2p programs, your logic is so full of flaws its just a dream you had while you were smoking something you found in someones trash can. I can just see you in court trying to defend some pirates. Your honor you can’t punish my client/s you must try to see it from my point of view. I will show you what I mean here we have a sub bread some mayo some mustard some veggies and some turkey. Now if I turn these into a foot long sub does that mean I have pirated subway? So you can see how downloading movies is just the same as me making this sub. HAHAHAHAHA you muppet

  • Anonymous

    @lol

    Wow, could have missed the point any harder?

    Try reading No Name’s comment again until your two braincells rub together and you comprehend it.

  • BIOS HazarD

    @No Name
    and anyone else that cares.

    The reason no name’s sandwich argument is flawed is because he purchased the ingredients and they are consumed once. It would be like me taking windows, making it monochrome and then giving it to my friends for free, its stealing.

    Reordering something and giving it to millions for free is stealing.

    There will never be a good reason why piracy or filesharing is an ok thing to do.

    For those who will continue to “pirate” or “fileshare” anything that would otherwise need to be purchased, accept the fact that you are stealing.

    Why should I have to deal with not having something someone else made!

    The ONLY good reason for any of this, is downloading a game to test out before buying it or a song.

    I dare anyone to come up with a good explanation as to why piracy or filesharing of copyrighted goods you would otherwise need to pay for is justified.

    <3 BIOS

  • hi

    Ok mr BIOS Hazard (wtf kind of a name is that, really)

    My arguement would be coming from a socialist perspective, that because I am sharing with the greater population something that I own or have access to, I am in fact being a good citizen, helping my fellow man when they are in need.

    How is filesharing any different from me buying a movie, watching it, and lending it to my friend so they can watch it? He’ll give it back when he’s done with it, and he’s certainly not going to buy it, much like piracy, or filesharing. again, I bet if the RIAA had their way, they’d make it illegal to show movies to my friends (it actually is, if you read the fine print).

    But you won’t accept mine, or anyone’s argument. It’s really all about how you view the situation.

    Believe what you want.

  • hi

    and actually, if you’re looking for justification, I could just say that everyone on the planet is unfit to live here because their genotype does not match mine and are thus impure and unworthy of life, and feel completely justified in murdering everyone.

    I could come up with a million justifications for why piracy is acceptable OR abhorrent. It all depends on what you believe is right and what isn’t. Or what you WANT to believe is right and what isn’t.

    There are billions of reasons why any particular person engages in piracy, if you’re looking for a justification to doing it you’re not looking hard enough. It’s not anyone’s job but yours to tell you what to believe in.

  • Retarded Mind

    You, stop being thieves!

    Regards
    Retarded Mind

  • Retarded Mind

    Record Labels Face $6 Billion Damages for Pirating Artists

    You, stop being thieves! Wada yada!

    Regards
    Retarded Mind

  • BIOS Hazard is a moron

    …by your excuse for logic (and anyone else who calls sharing stealing), if you ve viewed the material (final) for free without paying, even at no cost to the creator, you are stealing. but if you personally have EVER viewed a movie at another person’s house, your parents, a friend, or a stranger, and you didn’t in some way, shape, or form pitch in on it, or make sure that the ‘provider’ of the content saw some money FROM YOU PERSONALLY, then you are in fact a “PIRATE” or a “THIEF”, by your own logic. the end.

  • BIOS Hazard is a moron

    ..if the ‘industry’ had their way, we as consumers would have to pay for every single viewing. this is the extent of their greed.

    i saw a painting one time, and i did not pay the artist to see it. but the artists’ intent was to get paid for it…hmmm. did i “steal” a viewing of this ‘material’? no. and anyone who thinks this is the case is a retard.. sorry to break that news to the retards. it is the same instance in the movie industry. the industry is just mad that its easier to see content now then it was years ago… cry about it.

    if i tell a friend what happens in a movie will i get sued for infringing ‘intellectual property’ rights? the whole concept is absurd…

  • Anonymous

    Well this list is a little surprising. I hadn’t expected those movies to be on there. Especially twilight.

  • Anonymous

    I downloaded The Knowing.
    My ISP refused to give me my bandwidth back.

  • joe

    @Xcel

    Actually thats where you are wrong. aXXo’s home forum is http://darksiderg.com and he hasnt released anything since Mar 10 2009, 05:29 PM

    so he has pretty much retired.

  • Cordelia

    How on earth can you have reliable stats for this??

    I would like to know what kind of data collection methods you use! Do you really have the stats for every private and open tracker in existance? Plus there are hundreds of different torrents for the most popular films.

    These stats must be shaky AT BEST.

    Secondly – Some “clever” Hollywood mafiaa suporter is bound to take the alleged number of downloads, multiply with the average cinema ticket price and announce that piracy of … Star trek alone has cost $[10,960,000 x 8]. I can just see the header or hear the cheezy TV announcement in the news dryout over Christmas.

  • Xcel

    @53…Joe “clueless”

    I *know where Axxo’s home is… I am a member…(now, thanks to you…so do allot of peeps that shouldnt)

    Why dont you research it a little further… the answers are there if you bother to read..

  • Brandon

    Mpaa are little bitches. They cry about the pirates but in essence If someone d/ls a movie and says thats horrible or great then they themselves will go out and get it. They say 2009 they best movie year yet at 10 bill. Piracy is more of a promotional than a detriment. WHY attack your customer… Morons…

  • Some dude
  • [quote]
    Grand total gross income of just those ten movies above:

    Drumroll please…

    $3,868,615,157

    Must really hurt to have made so little money!
    [/quote]

    yeah, poor movieproduction companies ..

  • Cordelia

    Quote from the story that 57 links to.
    —————————–
    Paramount. Last month the studio reported to the FCC that it had tracked more than five million IP addresses that downloaded one of six camcorded copies of the movie over the Summer
    —————————–

    Haha, I did that. But they have nothing but the address to a VPN site that is neither in the EU nor in the USA.

  • Pingback: Top 10 Illegally Downloaded Movies of 2009 « Komplett Ireland

  • Anonymous

    @BIOS HazarD

    Since you have the mental facilities to use a computer and post comments on the internet, you can’t possibly be fucking stupid enough to actually believe what you’re saying.

    I therefore deduce that you are a whore being paid by the copyright industry to post here. If you aren’t, then that’s even sadder. I hope for your sake that you are.

    @BIOS HazarD
    “Reordering something and giving it to millions for free is stealing.”

    No, the non-consensual removal of a belonging from the possession of its owner is stealing.

    Your definition of stealing is kind of amusing, though, in the sense of gawking at how disconnected from reality it is.

    @BIOS HazarD
    “There will never be a good reason why piracy or filesharing is an ok thing to do.”

    You will never be able to make that statement true no matter how many times you repeat it.

    @BIOS HazarD
    “For those who will continue to “pirate” or “fileshare” anything that would otherwise need to be purchased, accept the fact that you are stealing.”

    You want us to accept a total lie and start living in a fantasy world where an act that involves no theft is theft? Sorry. No thanks. Reality isn’t perfect, but it’s better than the delusion you’re urging us to inhabit.

    @BIOS HazarD
    “The ONLY good reason for any of this, is downloading a game to test out before buying it or a song.”

    Oh? I thought there was NO good reason why filesharing was an ok thing to do? There’s someone I want you to meet, BIOS HazarD. This is Contradiction. Contradiction, meet BIOS HazarD.

    @BIOS HazarD
    “I dare anyone to come up with a good explanation as to why piracy or filesharing of copyrighted goods you would otherwise need to pay for is justified.”

    Do you find it kind of funny that you made that dare right after coming up with a good explanation as to why filesharing copyrighted goods you would otherwise need to pay for is justified?

    Hey… Look over there. Who is that? I think it’s Unintentional Comedy! Yes, it is! Come over here, Unintentional Comedy! Meet Contradiction and his good friend BIOS HazarD. Welcome to the party.

  • Capn

    You could just drink a litre of whiskey and watch the 2D version of Avatar, same sort of effect right?

  • www.dupedb.com

    lol so many movies ‘xsaimex’ (from thepiratebay) was first to upload.

    TF should make a list of best public tracker uploaders of 2009.

  • Ace Hall

    Copyright infringement is not theft. Theft involves permanent deprivation. Infringement does not!

    Some definitions for all who think copyright infringement is stealing…

    The actus reus(guilty act) of theft is usually defined as an unauthorized taking, keeping or using of another’s property which must be accompanied by a mens rea(guilty mind) of dishonesty and/or the intent to permanently deprive the owner or the person with rightful possession of that property or its use.

    In English law, theft was codified into a statutory offence in the Theft Act 1968 which defines it as:

    “A person is guilty of theft, if he dishonestly appropriates property belonging to another with the intention of permanently depriving the other of it”.

    Copyright infringement (or copyright violation) is the unauthorized or prohibited use of works covered by copyright law, in a way that violates one of the copyright owner’s exclusive rights, such as the right to reproduce or perform the copyrighted work, or to make derivative works.

    Every time I try to watch a DVD or go to the theater to see a film I have to watch the ads and the FBI warnings, these warnings do not always give a fair picture of the purchaser’s legal rights, which in the US generally include the rights to sell, exchange, rent or lend a purchased DVD. I can’t even fast forward through them, and even though forcing people to watch irrelevant and deliberately misleading trivia isn’t technically a crime, that time has been taken away from me, permanently, and for THAT, theft is an entirely valid argument.

  • Pingback: Rekorde im Film-Business: Sowohl bei den Studios – als auch bei den Piraten | Basic Thinking Blog

  • NathronGul

    Creepy Picture…

    Pointy Eared Sylar is STARING INTO MY SOUL!!!!! GAAAAAAAAH!!!!

  • GARY

    Excellent, but the studios are full of BS :-) There is no better promotion than piracy. If the next star trek movie does indeed double the numbers from the first one it will be because of piracy and piracy alone.

  • General Snus

    DiAMOND also released RockNRolla….

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  • Anonymous

    This thread has just inspired me to dl Rocknrolla! Will hunt a 720p/1080p rip

  • Rboy

    Shows you who pirates movies. Make a sci fi/action or fantasy flick and will be pirated. Make some cheesy chick flick and it won’t be touched.

    Sorry Gals

    Merry Christmas and happy file sharing in the year to come!!!!

  • Pingback: Las 10 películas más descargadas de 2009 en BitTorrent [EN]

  • whoo FLung Dung

    @ Ace Hall.
    Valid arguments possibly, but really just semantics.

    Read ACS:Law’s site and when you get a ticket to pay up or goto court. I’d be interesetd in your reply.

    Whatever is happening in UK/America will happedn across Europe too.

    They have even covered the “My Wirless was unsecured, honest Gov!” excuse that you’d like to use.

    See http://acs-law.org.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=76:unsecured-wireless-network-liability&catid=1:latest-news&Itemid=50
    This result is excellent news for copyright owners wishing to enforce their rights on file sharing networks – those who consider themselves ‘innocent’ may not be so innocent after all. The illegal distribution of a copyrighted work is outright theft and should not be tolerated by the creative industries, even if it is not for commercial gain. The courts are evidently looking favourably on these types of cases and are sympathetic to copyright holders. Those wishing to join our forever growing list of clients should get in touch without further delay.

  • whoo FLung Dung

    So ACS:Law do consider this as outright theft. It could be FUD but if they do have the law on their side, these shysters may well be seeing you in court as they are desperate to get a court appearance as, apparently, some pesky filesharers have inconveniently “paid up” after being threatened.

    “We are pleased with the results on the initial batches of issued claims, as we have found that 80% of all defendants opt for settlements outside of court, for amounts more than originally claimed”
    “Copyright infringers generally buckle when litigation is formally initiated. Our experience shows that most will seek an out of court settlement and offer to pay costs to date. It has always been our intention to set a favourable precedent and whilst it is disappointing that these settlements mean that a fully contested case has yet to reached the courts, our client’s have been successful in recovering monies lost to piracy.”

  • Izkata

    At the earliest posts: I remember reading on some news site that Avatar 3D is a completely absurd size, something like 10+ GB.

  • Anonymous

    #70: It would be just double in size so the 2D version of the same source must be 5GB.

    The term 3D is stupid and misleading. Do you call stereo audio “3D”? No?

    Because that’s just stereoscopic vision, not “3D”. It’s STEREO video, like STEREO audio we’ve grown accustomed with.

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  • Fnoot Hoot

    What a crappy year for movies. They all sucked. (But I haven’t yet seen Avatar.)

  • Anonymous

    Looks like Reasoned Mind has a new name, whoo FLung Dung! And just like the monkey you are your pulling sh1t out your a$$ and flining at everyone around you! I have four letters for you… Shut The Fvck Up!

  • Ace Hall

    Well whoo Flung Dung/Reasoned Mind another quote for you on the use of language in the Law.

    The use of language is crucial to any legal system — not only in the same way that it is crucial to politics in general, but in the special respect that lawmakers typically use language to make the law, and courts typically use language to state their grounds of decision.

    As to the ones that buckle, look at who they choose to sue, students with no money, single mothers, retired people, printers with no means of support at all! If this is the same ACS:Law that is sending out the extortion letters, wait until they try to sue someone with money and a set of balls, then lets see who buckles!

    Give up idiot, you can not win!

  • BIOS Hazard is a moron

    ..and consider this:

    the law very rarely has to coincide with the concept of right and wrong. as is the case in big corporations/copywrong bribe cases. the same lack of anti-intuitive lawmaking can be seen in mandatory car insurance/seatbelt laws, contempt of court charges, and the way the law tacks on many redundant charges that boil down to the same crime to try and strong-arm a guilty plea/plea bargain (e.g. a burglary case that includes charges of grand theft, petty theft, possession of stolen goods, breaking and entering, and conspiracy to commit theft, and perhaps trespassing thrown in for good measure.) the crime in question is STEALING. the other things are thrown in to try and intimidate and guarantee a conviction. purely unethical. and in the case of “piracy”? if you use critical thinking skills (and i mean YOU diseasedmind or whatever your dumba$$ is calling yourself), then you will realize that they are spending MILLIONS if not billions chasing and prosecuting people for WATCHING MOVIES!!!!! its craziness..

    and anyone moron who wants to cry that the industry is LOSING money because of this can fk off… dust off your brains.

  • ???

    @ 1 and 2
    idiots you cant watch that kind of 3D on your shity screen…

  • BIOS Hazard is a moron

    ..dammit. i meant lack of intuitive law-making OR anti-intuitive law-making…and i mashed that all up in my haste.

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  • Name

    It is acceptable to download movies cause it’s more environmental then millions of plastic cases with some optical disks that need to be shipped and whatnot. Accept it, it is the future how we, the majority of young people want it. Their media products are not sustainable, don’t get me started on digital drm downloads. Or sony implementing trojans on music releases. They failed, hard. Digital media is the only future possible, and why not make it virtually free, maybe some poorer kids could actually learn as much as spoiled brats who get it all for free cause their society is doing better.
    Fuck all of you speaking down on someone that’s pirating. With that sorta mentality you would probably also agree with cutting someone’s hand off when he’s grabbing something to eat from a store.

  • George

    First 2 movies have the ~same downloads, but the second has 2x more money. It is obvious which one was deemed worthy to pay for. If it is good, they pay. If not, they don’t.

  • Anonymous

    “This, despite increasing piracy rates on the Internet”

    s/despite/thanks to

  • wow

    what a weird list..

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  • BIOS Hazard is a moron

    huh? wtf? why was my previously accepted post (right before 76– thus me writing “…and consider this”) erased? and after it had been approved and posted??? anyone? anyone? mods? buellar?

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  • DigDeeperYouMightFindChange

    i do not condone breaking the laws. i am a law abiding citizen in Europe. and know that this world is all about greed. while the small fish get bitten with the worst financial deals in the end. with lay offs, homeless, n hungry. because of the developed world runs the rest of us in the ground. w/ min wage which doesnt do squat. the U.S. in last in gross nation product. China still owes the U.S. from awhile ago, as well as other countries. and if people would stop being cheap n out sourcing maybe. this world would be better off. on all levels great n small. governments w/ carelessly slacking in work ethic, parties that don’t really are needed. the amount of money that is pumped into our minds of things we dont need but seem “cool” to have. when in a year from now, they seem like it wasn’t worth it. just to feel accepted, to get a hd tv. when all of that stuff seems booming for movies, tv service n internet. it’s already outdated n the new thing is coming out in 2 years anyone to replace the blu-ray. 3d hdtv’s which are out on the market now. right out of the box. entertainment n the media is like a.d.d. u will once forget it n move on to the next “fix”. i know people need to make money n product to help out the next guy. but i think there is to much money going in the wrong direction in this world. and lobbyists n the big money makers have the ultimate say w/ payoffs n bribes everywhere. it’s a bigger issue then the small fry downloading say a mp3 song. that they person may or may not own. how can you tell whether a file that says “britney spears – womanizer” is in fact that. it could be a tracker bogus file, or a virus, etc. it’s unproven and like fishing in a barrel with a bunch of dead fish floating. it’s a lost cause and going in the wrong direction.

    in the end. laws or no laws set aside. these instances have a silent voice and it’s growing stronger by the masses everyday. that people have a choice and are standing behind a decision that breaches a global scale over international waters. where a virtual space has no boundaries anymore. thank you.

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  • wahhhhh wahhhhh

    the media has always been shaking in there boots. from the beginning of communication on a larger scale. of every type n industry. first it was the radio, then it was television. and this is before you have decent ways to say tape your wed. night show cause you are going out or had plans. then after tv came out in b/w. film cameras. it was the record industry w/ 78 vinyl records, that didnt want to go through with that. (side note, u can make a hypnosis contraption out of. of a 78 record player or new one that uses that rotation setting). anyway. w/ the power of the consumer market getting the outdated technology, the bigger guys start to shake in there boots. the cassette tape (sony’s beta or vhs a little later). personally Beta rules! still got the the indiana jones trilogy n star wars trilogy w/ box art still intact. and those run better (sound n video) then my old REAL VHS tapes. the beta tapes being about 20 years old. and these vhs tapes like 10 years. now the internet which was a NASA project i believe to connect computers on a network at the start. n now it’s global. if u have a computer, or can get to one. most likely it has internet.

    this is like drug dealing. they go for the small time fish. n most of the time w/ these cases they can’t get to the big fish. now states are changing there drug laws for the person who gets caught with a small amount n taking action to save both the person caught. with a smaller fine, time in court n overall spending less money keeping the jails less occupied.

    this situation of privacy and invasion of your homes is unjust. Bush didn’t help out with the patriot laws. where someone in the law field can say whatever they want and don’t need warrants as much anymore like these people getting in trouble for picking names out of a hat.

    they are spending to much money in all the wrong places. it’s like showing up to an underage drinking party w/ alcohol n drugs. and only one police officer gets there and want’s to do the “right” thing. A) will the cop try and tackle people or B) only target one person and give them something minor. B is always the answer. unless u put up an unjust fight w/ no basic for cause or argument.

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  • Observer

    To those of you saying there’s no consumer electronics to get a good 3D experience at home; http://www.nvidia.com/object/3D_Vision_Main.html

    Not that expensive either, imho… only reason I haven’t got those glasses yet is that it requres Windows Vista / 7, no Linux drivers… as usual.

  • Ahmed1337x

    I haven’t seen any of them movies ^^ lol

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  • John

    yeah… we are killing the movie industry…
    heres a little budget vs grosses (based on info from wiki)

    startrek 275% profit
    transformers 417% profit
    the hangover 1312% profit (yeah we are so stoping them from making money)
    twilight 1040% profit
    harry potter 375% profit

    they say they dont make enough money to keep the industry alive but i believe a simple 120% would be enough to keep it going

  • Think about it

    @ 44 Dec 21, 2009 at 07:37 by BIOS HazarD

    It has never been offered for sale or marketed for release.

    Copyright holder has encouraged free distribution.

    Creative commons.

    Illegal copyright of public domain (just sto singing Happy Birthday! Your stealing from Warner Bros.)

    The list goes on and on – or maybe we should just dump all the media in the upper New York Bay so that no one can watch it like what happened to the Du Mont programming.

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  • Anonymous

    These numbers were taken from http://boxofficemojo.com/yearly/chart/?view2=worldwide&yr=2009&p=.htm

    Star Trek (2009)
    Production Budget: $150 million
    Worldwide Gross: $385.5 million
    Net Gain: $235.5 million
    157% Profit

    Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
    Production Budget: $200 million
    Worldwide Gross: $835 million
    Net Gain: $635 million
    317% Profit

    RocknRolla
    Production Budget: $18 million
    Worldwide Gross: $25.7 million
    Net Gain: $7.7 million
    42% Profit

    The Hangover
    Production Budget: $35 million
    Worldwide Gross: $459.4 million
    Net Gain: $424.4 million
    1212.5% Profit

    Twilight: New Moon
    Production Budget: $50 million
    Worldwide Gross: $636.7 million
    Net Gain: $586.7 million
    1173.4% Profit

    District 9
    Production Budget: $30 million
    Worldwide Gross: $204.6 million
    Net Gain: $174.6 million
    582% Profit

    Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
    Production Budget: $250 million
    Worldwide Gross: $929.4 million
    Net Gain: $679.4 million
    271.8% Profit

    State of Play
    Production Budget: $60 million
    Worldwide Gross: $87.8 million
    Net Gain: $27.8 million
    46% Profit

    X-Men Origins: Wolverine
    Production Budget: $150 million
    Worldwide Gross: $373.1 million
    Net Gain: $223.1 million
    148.7% Profit

    Knowing
    Production Budget: $50 million
    Worldwide Gross: $183.3 million
    Net Gain: $133.3 million
    266.6% Profit

    My math skills must be terrible, because I can’t seem to find where the film studios are losing money!

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  • cjr

    While everyone has a good argument here what I challenge is this data. I think this is just a cheap publicity stunt by this site to score some hits.

    There is much more data out there which is not counted like IRC, FTP, HTTP and so on. These numbers just don’t prove a thing…

  • Sean

    Well, A ‘hollywood reporter’ has covered this and now the story is on Yahoo.

    http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20091224/film_nm/us_startrek

  • boris

    I’m sorry I don’t seem to get it, but how can you download something in 3D? Do you have a 3D projector at home? Are there any 3D projectors for home entertainment systems?

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  • Natasha
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  • Hyper

    Guys, why aXXo is considered to be “infamous” in this passage?

    Is it because he was fake or something?

    Can anybody explains this, thanks!

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  • G Makin

    Movies cost more than the production budget – you have to add advertising and distribution, which doubles that. Plus, theaters take a big cut from the profits, so the people who think there’s massive profit up front are wrong. But the studios do okay down the line with TV and DVD sales/rental (though DVD profit is in decline).

    Star Trek was the best of that bunch. Easily.

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  • Unkown

    #95 he is infamous because he has good quality and alot of ppl download from him, he probobly ends up showing on the top 3 in google serches for what he uploads so he gets millions of downloads.

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  • Kickass_Sid

    RnRolla and star trek show that torrent users still go for the cult movies!

  • Wanderer

    Just curious if any of you are past criminals. I don’t like paying $8 for a movie ticket, but I’m also raising two children and trying to teach right from wrong.

    No matter how you look at this, you are in the wrong. Just because you drove 90 miles per hour one time and didn’t get caught doesn’t mean you didn’t break the law – you just didn’t get caught.

    You talk about the corporate greed but you fail to talk about your own stealing. Come on already: be hot, be cold, but quit being lukewarm.

    Go ahead and tell me how self-righteous I am and call me an idiot and whatever else makes you feel better about yourself. In the end, you cannot explain, excuse or bash your way out of being wrong.

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  • Jizzbot

    Studios are crying over nothing, and they spend more money fighting so called piracy then the so called pirates cost them.

    I’ve stopped going to the movies all together because in the city where I am there’s a huge bed-bug problem. You want to talk about something costing studios money, who is ever going to go to the movies once they bring bugs home? Even the scare of them. Fuck that, I’d rather download a movie or wait for the dvd.

    And a lot of these studios need to cut back on what they’re spending to make a movie. Harry Potter cost $275mil to make, and Avatar supposedly cost $400mil to make. The big hits make their money back, but the ones that don’t kill the studios.

    You also have just all around greed when it comes to actors/producers/writers etc. Everyone wants their cut, which leaves very little left for the studio.This is all the studios fault too. They give certain talent everything they ask for. You take a guy like will smith who makes about $30mil a movie, great actor, but $30mil!? Come on, you can find new talent when the old talent becomes to pricey. The bulk of a movies cost goes to paying the actors. Look at district 9, great movie, great effects, cost 18mil to make. How much would it have cost if it was Directed by spielberg and stared Smith, bruce willis, and harrison ford? You’d be looking a $200mil movie.

    Hollywood needs to get its head out of its own ass.

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