IP Democracy: Must-Read: How Pirated Films Land on the Web

Courtesy of New Media Musings, this fascinating account from Darknet of a cyberspy who works for the Hollywood studios sniffing out “release groups,” loosely aligned groups of men who are responsible for putting pirated films on the web.

The account details what is characterized as an assembly line process from supplier (usually someone who is affiliated with a movie studio) to “channel operators,” individuals who announce to use groups that a film is now up on the web. In between is a whole lot of work, from stripping out copy protection to posting the files on secure “underground vaults.”

The most discouraging aspect of the “release groups,” at least from the perspective of Hollywood and its hopes of stamping out pirated films on the Internet, is just how much testosterone drives the whole enterprise.

What motivates these young men is less a political movement or philosophical cause than a desire to belong to an edgy, secretive, forbidden brotherhood. And while zinging the Hollywood Goliath is satisfying in itself, at its rawest level the scene is a sporting competition between outsize egos. Whoever beats the opposing “teams” wins the challenge — and bragging rights.

Posted by Cynthia Brumfield on May 31, 2005 7:17 AM to IP Democracy