Warner Bros. Accused of Pirating Anti-Pirating Tech

[Darth Sushi]

Warner Bros. Accused of Pirating Anti-Pirating Tech
May 27, 2010 - By Kevin Parrish

" A Hollywood studio notorious for pursuing movie pirates is accused of pirating. The irony!

Now here's an ironic twist: a major Hollywood studio--one of many that have diligently pursued movie pirates for years under the MPAA's wing--is now accused of piracy. A complaint (pdf) filed in the court system states that Warner Bros. stole an anti-piracy technology patent from German company Medien Patent Verwaltung (MPV). The lawsuit also lists Technicolor and Deluxe in New York and Germany, and says that all three studios are infringing on patent 7,187,633 called "Motion Picture and Anti-Piracy Coding."

The lawsuit states that MPV introduced a technology to Warner Bros. back in 2003 that provided the means to mark a film with distinctive code. The resulting marked pirated copies could then be traced back to the original rolls and the theaters in which they were shown. MPV claims that Warner Bros. began to use the technology with films distributed throughout Europe starting in 2004, and has not paid for its use thus far.

"We disclosed our anti-piracy technology to Warner Bros. in 2003 at their request, under strict confidentiality, expecting to be treated fairly," MPV says in a statement. "Instead, they started using our technology extensively without our permission and without any accounting to us. However, we had taken care to obtain patents to protect MPV's technology, and we are now in a position where we must assert our rights."

Does that mean Warner Bros. has been tracking down pirates that may have duplicated and shared films that used the pirated technology? Did it steal technology to help prevent pirates from stealing? Currently Warner Bros. has decline to comment on the dispute, however Hollywood Reporter discovered that MPV's case against the Hollywood studio has one major flaw: the patent number filed in the complaint doesn't match the title. Instead, it's called "Making of a Data Medium Material for Information Intended for Reproduction."

Whoops.

To make things worse, "Motion Picture and Anti-Piracy Coding" was assigned to another patent granted to Warner Bros. Apparently the German studio may have accidentally stolen the Warner Bro's patent title while trying to sue the studio for stealing. MPV's attorney, located in New York, admitted to the error and said that an amended complaint will be filed. "

Source: http://www.tomsguide.com/us/Warner-b...news-6924.html

[josh87]

will this ever end, pirates here, pirates there, it will forever continue, i dont see why companies try to stop pirates, when has it ever worked?

[Tom0102]

This kind of thing is never surprising, I just hope they get a fine as big as the sort they give out..

[notvtoduh]

where do they put the code ?

"mark a film with distinctive code" ?

and how exactly is this distributed to theaters ?

[darkstate01]

They usually water mark it in the film itself every so many frames, No and again you will see a film "for your consideration" thats got leaked and it will go black and white and have a serial number popup,this is another visible way they find out who this film was appointed too.

[roseberg31]

the thing that sucks is they're not going to get into any trouble for this. all their gonna do is give the German company a bunch of money and continue being a hypocrite.