"The generation of random numbers is too important to be left to chance." - Robert R. Coveyou

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More sloppy news reporting by the local media; they are too used to summarising press releases from ministries as "news", so when the MPAA gives them press releases they only know how to summarise them, and not criticially evaluate them:

Warning against illegal recording of movies stepped up

"SINGAPORE: If you watch a movie in a theatre now, you will almost certainly see a message warning you against recording the movie illegally.

This comes after a sudden spike in the number of such cases. There were three such cases in the last two months, where the culprits recorded the movie on their mobile phones.

It also comes on the heels of an exponential rise in cases in the Asia Pacific.

Last year, the region saw 33 cases of illegal camcording, which was a 65 per cent increase compared to the year before.

The Motion Pictures Association said it wants to raise public awareness that recording a movie in a theatre using any recording device is illegal.

It said that such piracy has an enormous impact on jobs in the movie industry.

Mike Ellis, Asia Pacific President of Motion Pictures Association, said: "The impact that camcord piracy has on the movie industry and on the jobs the industry creates is enormous as copies of movies are often made available on the internet and duplicated onto pirated DVDs within hours of movies opening in the cinemas." -CNA/vm"


Somewhere along the way, there was a bait and switch and filming short clips on your mobile phones became filming the entire movie with a camcorder.

If you try to film a movie using your mobile phone, one or more of the following will happen:

1) Your phone will run out of battery power
2) Your memory card will fill up
3) Your recording quality will be so shitty, no one will want to watch it
4) You will get carpal tunnel syndrome
5) Someone will call you and your movie will be ruined
6) The person behind you will kick your chair or beat you up because your bright screen is distracting him

Besides which, most cams (movies shot from camcorders) are shot from the projection room. And apparently they haven't heard of screeners (movies burnt onto DVDs which are sent out and which get ripped by pirates). To say nothing of telecines and R5s.

In other words, most piracy is committed by people within the movie industry, not people who want to record short clips they find amusing, or the easter eggs during/after the credits.

(As someone said, "i dont see local films available on the net immediately after release" - evidently piracy in the Singapore film industry [let alone people filming in cinemas] is not a significant problem.

Though that could be because no one wants to watch them)


What is a CAM, Telesync, Telecine ETC.. Release catagories explained.

"CAM (CAM)
A cam is a theater rip usually done with a digital video camera. A mini tripod is sometimes used, but a lot of the time this won’t be possible, so the camera may shake. Also seating placement isn’t always perfect, which might cause the picture to be filmed from an angle. If cropped properly, this is hard to tell unless there’s text on the screen. Sound is taken from the onboard microphone of the camera. Comedies can be most annoying to watch due to the laughter that can be heard from the audience. With all of these factors, picture and sound quality are usually quite poor.

Telesync (TS)
A telesync is the same spec as a CAM except it uses an external audio source (most likely an audio jack in the chair for hard of hearing people). Remember though a direct audio source does not ensure a good audio source. You will notice a telesync usually has a better chance of being better quality then a CAM, but for the most part you won’t see a huge difference.

TELECINE (TC)
A telecine machine copies the film digitally from the reels. Sound and picture should be very good, but due to the equipment involved and cost telecines are fairly uncommon. Generally the film will be in correct aspect ratio, although 4:3 telecines have existed. A great example is the JURASSIC PARK 3 TC done last year. TC should not be confused with TimeCode , which is a visible counter on screen throughout the film.

WORKPRINT (WP)
A workprint is a copy of the film that has not been finished. It can be missing scenes, music, and quality can range from excellent to very poor. Some WPs are very different from the final print and some look exactly the same as the final. It is always important to look at samples and read up on a certain workprint before you download it.

DVD-SCREENER (DVDscr)
A pre release copy, sent to rental stores and various other places for promotional use. The main drawback is sometimes you will find a anti-copyright message appear on the screen throughout the movie. However, this is usually annoying at worst. For the most part this is where you can start to expect quality in the release. Also, you may find a lot of the Screeners only come in “Full Screen” versions. That could also be considered a drawback for some.

R5 (R5)
R5 refers to a specific format of DVD released in DVD Region 5, the former Soviet Union, and bootlegged copies of these releases that are distributed on the Internet. The image quality of an R5 release is generally comparable to a DVD Screener release, except without the added scrolling text and black and white scenes that serve to distinguish screeners from commercial DVD releases. The quality is better than Telecine transfers produced by movie pirates because the transfer is performed using professional-grade film scanning equipment. The only possible drawback of an R5 is sometimes you will find it has weak audio.

DVDRip (DVDrip)
A copy of the final released DVD. This is the best quality possible in a movie release. It is also possible for this to be released before its retail counterpart. DVDrips are released in SVCD and DivX/XviD."

More on Pirated movie release types from Wikipedia.


Microsoft Product Activation

"The goal of Product Activation is to reduce a form of piracy known as "casual copying" or "softlifting." Casual copying is the sharing of software between people in a way that infringes on the software's end user license agreement (EULA). An example of casual copying is if someone were to obtain a copy of Office XP and load it on his or her PC, then share it with a second person who loaded it on his or her PC, then share it with a third person who loaded it on his or her PC, and so on."

At least Microsoft admits that Product Activation is not meant to go after the big fish.

Shouldn't the MPAA come clean as well?