'Two Towers on Ebay' or 'How is this legal??'

[Ashrem Bayle]

See here: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3315184182&category=2298

What exactly are these "screeners" and how is it legal that they are being sold to the public?

 

[Crothian]

Screeners are just copies sent out to important people, like all the members of the Acedemy gets them, some store chains get them to watch before it's released to the public, etc. When I worked at Blockbuster we'd get a few screeners of different things a month, well before they were ever released. I have no idea on the legality of selling them though.

 

[Ashrem Bayle]

Well, my mom ordered The Two Towers. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it is legit. I'd like to see it again.

 

[krunchyfrogg]

I've seen this copy. The biginning of the movie says that this is NOT for resale, and it's for academy use only.

There's also a message "For your consideration" that pops up about every 10 minutes, I guess it's at parts of the movie that may be viewed as important or great special effects.

 

[frankthedm]

It is probabally two steps less legal that selling your 10 backup copys of neverwinter nights but i really don't care for the US CopyReich laws

 

[DM_Matt]

It is probabally two steps less legal that selling your 10 backup copys of neverwinter nights but i really don't care for the US CopyReich laws

Well, a slightly more legal then that, but still illegal. You are not making illegal copies of anything, stealing em, etc, but you ARE breaking the licencing agreement and/or the restrictions that you agree to when joining the academy, which have a NON-TRANSFERABILITY clause in em.

 

[Fiery James]

Screeners

Yeah, these were screening copies sent to the Academy to get Oscar nominations. These are just transfers of the existing film to a quick DVD format - so you won't get the quality or extras that come with the DVD release in August (or the Extended Edition in November!).

As I'm reminded before every movie I watch at home (been a long time since I had to actually rent anything -- I'm lucky!), these screeners are not meant to be sold or rented to anyone. Call 1-800-NO-COPIES!

- James

 

[RangerWickett]

I have a friend who got both Fellowship and Two Towers in this format, and he burned copies to CD and gave them out for like $10 apiece (which is about how much it cost him in time to make them, since each movie takes 4 CDs). Sure, it's a violation of the contract the original distributor made, but I'm fairly confident that anyone who gets the CD will also get the DVD when it comes out. If they released the DVD sooner, I know I wouldn't buy the pirated copy, but right now there's no way to watch it.

Pirating software is much worse. You actually are able to buy the software, but you're not. Tsk tsk. It's even worse that I have a friend who keeps pirating scanned pdfs of WotC books, because he claims WotC is an evil monopoly. But that way lies a large argument, so I'll just leave it at my opinion that though some things might be slightly overpriced--books, movies, CDs, games--most of the people on these boards live in very prosperous countries, and you can afford it. And if you're pirating DVDs that you can't afford to buy, why do you have a DVD player?

*sigh*

Just make sure you buy the DVD when it comes out, and sure, buy these with a clear conscience.

 

[Fiery James]

I used to have a friend who'd make mixed tapes of his latest CD purchases for me every few months, so that I'd get to hear some new bands and stuff.

On every tape, he always wrote, "Home taping is killing the music industry."

I never really knew if he was being ironic or if he was just telling me to get off my butt and buy my own damn music -- which I usually did anyway (this was back in the days before all I was allowed to listen to were kid's tapes!)

No point, really, just sharing a recollection.

- J

 

[Mistwell]

I have a friend who got both Fellowship and Two Towers in this format, and he burned copies to CD and gave them out for like $10 apiece (which is about how much it cost him in time to make them, since each movie takes 4 CDs).

Try $0.30 each disk, costing him $1.20 each set, for a profit of $8.70.

Sure, it's a violation of the contract the original distributor made, but I'm fairly confident that anyone who gets the CD will also get the DVD when it comes out. If they released the DVD sooner, I know I wouldn't buy the pirated copy, but right now there's no way to watch it.

Because he is profiting from it, it is a federal crime that could land your friend in jail for a long time. Same applies for those eay auctions, though those are a lesser crime than your friend since they are not copying, just distributing legally obtained copies. [/QUOTE]