Oscars Veteran Resigns Over DVD Screener Piracy Threat
"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."
"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."
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 [Provided in bulleted sections; for full details visit the source site]:
- Fear Factor
- Drastic Anti-Piracy Measures
- The life and tragic death of ‘Screener Dog’
- Digital locks re-enforced with physical DRM
- DRM Puts Britt on the brink
- DRM woes end in misery for Britt, huge loss for the Academy
:source: Source: Full Article @ TorrentFreak
Re: Oscars Veteran Resigns Over DVD Screener Piracy Threat
They should just get members of the academy to torrent the movies, would solve all the legal problems.
:-)
