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23 July 2010You wouldn't steal a movie ...
Local film Boy, which smashed local box office records, has been found available on bit torrent sites this week. It raises again the issue of movie distribution and illegal downloads.
First let me say that in this age of nearly instant information it’s increasingly frustrating to wait for movies to be released on DVD or even to just get to New Zealand – but it’s still illegal, and morally questionable, to obtain a copy without money going to the artist/distributor.
But what are your options? The producers of The Hurt Locker began a campaign to sue those who were downloading their movie illegally. However, despite the film winning this year's Best Picture Oscar in February 2010, it was not released in New Zealand until April 2010. Three months is a long time to wait for a film that the world is raving about. In fact, the film had been released long before its unexpected Academy Awards triumph and had been reviewed extensively overseas. And, while this doesn't apply to The Hurt Locker necessarily, there is always the possibility of accidentally having the film's plot revealed to you online (the infamous "spoiler").
And in the case of Boy, many of those who commented on the article say they’re from overseas (oddly Boy is a case where the film isn't available outside New Zealand) and have no other option to see the film.
The same has been true recently of television as well. The finale of Lost was screened in the US a day or two before it screened here. This caused its fans to all but abandon the internet for fear of having the ending ruined for them ahead of time. As it was throughout the final season, New Zealand viewers were two weeks behind the US. (TVNZ ran the last two episodes together as a two hour finale so viewers wouldn't revolt at the wait.)
So what can you do?
I'll leave aside the bigger and infinitely debatable issue of movie distribution. The economics and the technology discussions are larger than this blog has room for. But there are a number of options available to you right now that are legal and easy to use.
A couple of quick caveats. Firstly, all these options require a broadband connection. Secondly, don’t expect to be able to watch movies that are currently showing in cinemas (or even live TV). There is currently no legal avenue to watch new cinema releases online.
Sky On Demand
Sky On Demand offers all the events and movies that are shown on Sky Box Office but you can watch it when you want, without having to wait for a screening to start. The movies are recent video releases and the events are recent pay-per-view events (such as boxing matches). Movies cost $6.99 and events are $19.95. You have 24 hours to watch the movie or event from the time you purchase it, but you can watch it as many times as you like.
The service is only available with My Sky packages and the quality is only standard definition (SD), not HD. But the My Sky box allows you to pause and rewind the programme as you watch it. In our review of Personal Video Recorders (unsurprisingly) we found My Sky was the best for working with Sky.
Tivo
The Tivo system (available through Telecom) has an online library of content called Caspa. In our review of Personal Video Recorders we were disappointed with Caspa's downloadable content and restrictions. There are quite a few films but the recent releases aren't as current as your local video store and are only available in SD. The TV show selection is quite good with some old classics and new shows but don't expect the latest episodes. In the demo I tried the final season of Lost still wasn't available. And they're all automatically deleted after "a set number of days" (or a set time from the time you begin watching them). The exact details are laid out when you purchase the content.
It also has a music video service, but comes with an interesting caveat: "For music videos, you will have up to 1 hour (depending on your broadband speed) to begin watching. Once you begin playing, you will have 10 minutes to complete your viewing."
iTunes
A while ago Apple began offering movies through its iTunes store. Unlike Tivo, you can choose to either rent (for roughly $7) or purchase (for roughly $25) the movie and the titles are as current as local video releases. Rentals are yours for 30 days and once you start watching you've got 48 hours.
The films are available in standard or high definition (720p), though it seems HD is only available through Apple TV or an iPad. Remember, though, these are big files that will eat into your broadband data cap.
YouTube
No seriously, the YouTube channel called "movies" has a number of movies that are out of copyright and free to view in their entirety. Because of the copyright laws the films tend to be older and more obscure, but there are still a few gems in there – including some great ones for parties.
It also has a channel dedicated to documentaries.
On Demand TV
We've talked about these services before. Both TV3 and TVNZ offer On Demand services for their shows. These tend to be for the newer shows and not for some long-running shows (for example, The Simpsons is not available).
NZ on Screen
NZ on Screen started in 2007 and is part of NZ on Air's digital strategy. It is full of New Zealand TV programmes, short films, music videos and movies of yesteryear. So it's not the latest shows, but if you want a bit of nostalgia like On The Mat, Gloss, The Governor, or Under the Mountain then NZ on Screen is for you.
Ziln
Ziln is another online TV site, but it has a lot more local content. There aren't a lot of channels or shows on Ziln that you might have heard of, and the quality can be variable. But it’s another alternative to the mainstream, and some of the international channels can be quite good. And if you're on TelstraClear the data doesn't count against your cap.
Other overseas options
There are sites based overseas that do stream live TV, usually sports. It's rare for these sites to be broadcasting legally without breaching their broadcast rights. And it's illegal for you to access a show that you normally wouldn't have access to (it's the same reason you can't download a TV show).
Similarly there are a number of simple ways to "trick" sites like Hulu (a US-based on-demand TV site) into thinking you are based in the US. This is against the Terms of Use for these sites and can also be considered illegal if the shows you watch are available here. So we don't recommend doing it.
Hadyn Green - Technical Writer
Comments
If you're using the examples of "Boy" and "Hurt Locker" it might have been a good plan to show where it could be found legally online.
iTunes? No
Sky on Demand? No
Tivo? No
...
How about Hurt Locker?
iTunes? No
Tivo? No
...
So, while there are movies available on iTunes, Tivo and Sky on Demand, they aren't the two current poster children of piracy.
As far as I am aware both of those films still cannot be found legally online ( for New Zealand users). However, The Hurt Locker is being released this month on DVD and Boy has had a DVD release date announced for later this year. And as I mentioned in the blog, films are not usually legally available online until they are released on DVD.
There is certainly a case to be made for future fast releases to online viewing once a film has finished it's run in theatres, without waiting for the production of physical media.
Cheers
Hadyn Green
So again, none of the solutions you offer will do anything to remedy the problem of the downloading of unlicensed content, when it's the new content that folk want to watch. The only solution to this problem is to get rid of the artificial restriction on supply.
Give the world simultaneous access to the bluray release both on disk and for a fair download price and many folk will take advantage of the legal source.
The only way to compete with free and still earn money is to make it conveniently available at the "impulse buy" price level.
At the moment the distributers are doing neither: It's not yet cheap enough for an impulse buy and no where near convenient. Even when it does get released it's encrusted with DRM nonsense.
I hope the good folk behind Boy (great movie) go and dump their distributor(s) for not doing their job. How can they possibly justify not distributing it to folk overseas who want to watch it?
In my view, if a film or tv show is not made available legally in NZ as soon as it is released, then the distributor should not be allowed to claim copyright on it.
Therefore I do not consider that it is illegal to use "peer to peer" to download them.
If the distributors made them available immediately at a reasonable price and without all the stupid restrictions, I am sure that most people would be quite happy to pay.
"So again, none of the solutions you offer will do anything to remedy the problem of the downloading of unlicensed content"
Unlicensed movie content? No probably not, a point I made in the preamble. But hopefully I've outlined some thing that will help people find good TV to watch online and other places to rent movies (though in the US and parts of Europe there a lot of other options, like Netflicks).
As I also wrote:
"I'll leave aside the bigger and infinitely debatable issue of movie distribution. The economics and the technology discussions are larger than this blog has room for."
But that's not to say we can't discuss them here in the comments. worldwide access to movie releases on disc are possible if you want to order them in from overseas. Because many films take a while to reach New Zealand distributors would rather stall the home release until after a film has done it's dash in the cinemas (usually about 40 days after cinematic release). This means Boy is well overdue.
So the real issue might be in the inital distribution. This may change faster than you think. Digital film means that actual physical film reels don't have to be shipped around the world. the faster things can be made and shipped (and digital copies makes this almost instant), the faster and better copies you can have in your home. this of course discounts local trade, taxation and copyright laws, which would have to be considered.
Hadyn Green
Tech Writer
"In my view, if a film or tv show is not made available legally in NZ as soon as it is released, then the distributor should not be allowed to claim copyright on it.
Therefore I do not consider that it is illegal to use "peer to peer" to download them."
Just to be clear though, Chris, it _is_ illegal. The copyright law here in New Zealand is pretty clear that if you can't legally see it when it's broadcast then you're not allowed to download it. Now whether that is a good clause or not is debatable.
There are plenty of TV shows that, for some reason or another, were never shown here or were shown two or three years later. In cases like these you may feel justified in downloading episodes (as it's not playing in NZ then no broadcaster is losing out). Sadly though it's still not legal to do that.
There are other options that, while possibly legal, breech the terms of service of various websites. For example spoofing an IP address to access US-only content on a site like Hulu. We don't recommend doing that either, as you may end up banned as a result.
Hadyn Green
Tech Writer
"So the real issue might be in the inital distribution. This may change faster than you think. Digital film means that actual physical film reels don't have to be shipped around the world."
Agreed that everything somewhat relies on getting the initial distribution to cinemas sorted at least for movies, but really the argument that you have to ship copies of film to cinemas doesn't hold much water when movies such as "Boy" have still not been released in Australia (an obvious market for it) even though it's been 6 months plus here. No wonder folk are tempted by a nice easy download instead, even if it's "only" DVD quality.
Agreed also that digital distribution will improve things - after all, that's what we already have if you go for the illegitimate versions. Free, fast, and high-quality, usually a day or two after the Blu-ray release no matter where it occurs first in the world. The technology is there, one hopes the industry wakes up and starts taking advantage of it!
If the cinemas dropped their prices for going to the movies and made it more family friendly as a event more people would get out particularly at the weekend. A tight wadd day
(usually tuesday) does not always work. TV is different. Sometimes final episodes are shown a day after they show in the originating broadcaster and if people don't go on the net they won't find out the winner of series like Survivour. Viewers still need patience to cut other media out to get a result. I still believe in not downloading without paying
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