In digital age, can movie piracy be stopped?

[p2p rules]

(CNN) -- The highly anticipated movie "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" debuts today in theaters, but many fans have already seen it.
The pirating and distribution of "Wolverine," starring Hugh Jackman, is being investigated by the FBI.

The pirating and distribution of "Wolverine," starring Hugh Jackman, is being investigated by the FBI.

The online leak of a pirated, unfinished version of the 20th Century Fox film a month ago sent federal authorities springing into action and stoked a heated conversation within the entertainment industry about digital piracy.

Piracy of upcoming films is not new, but the theft of "Wolverine" is especially troubling for an industry concerned with a stalled economy and the financial bottom line.

It's rare for high-quality copies of a big-budget blockbuster to appear on the Internet more than a month before the film's release, experts say.

Within a week of "Wolverine's" March 31 leak, more than a million people had downloaded the movie, according to TorrentFreak, a blog devoted to the BitTorrent file-sharing protocol.

"Unfortunately, the recent leak of the Fox film 'Wolverine' provided a stark backdrop to the impact that digital piracy has on the large investments that producers make in creating state-of-the-art films," said Rep. Howard Berman, chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, who oversaw a congressional hearing on piracy after the leak.

CNN

[Lagerlout666]

Cnn a news broadcaster and them

Piracy of upcoming films is not new, but the theft of "Wolverine" is especially troubling for an industry concerned with a stalled economy and the financial bottom line.

Usual crap

"Unfortunately, the recent leak of the Fox film 'Wolverine' provided a stark backdrop to the impact that digital piracy has on the large investments that producers make in creating state-of-the-art films," said Rep. Howard Berman, chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, who oversaw a congressional hearing on piracy after the leak.

Usual crap to try keep the unenlightened in the cocoon

Out of intrest, what did it make at box office??

[Forested665]

Instead of investigating the millions of people downloading it before its release, They could bring their earnings way up if they investigated how these copies where getting out and stopped it at the source.
This does nothing for DVD rips but 70% of the profits from a movie come from people going to see it in theatres, so they seem harmless even when put in perspective a couple 100k might seem like alot but it is nothing compared to a couple billion.

[Lagerlout666]

Well they said that about the batman movie. This much project loss yada yada yada but upon release in the cinema it broke box office records. Im not expecting wolverine to make anywhere near that, and you know why? Because it was crap. I watched batman and thought wow that looks amazing. and went the cinema and watched it again. I did the same with the star wars film, i watched it the day before release, was like wow that is amazing but that clock on the top was bloody annoying, so qued up with my mates screaming this bit is boss every 5 mins. I was just curious about what the batman film made, Ill look myself. Im a tryer before you buyer anyhow.

[Forested665]

But again though if theyre concerned about losing sales pre release then they should look into how the movies are being leaked from them. instead of chasing after the people who download it and hope they dont repeat.

[Cobra]

Out of intrest, what did it make at box office??

Wolverine made $85 million in the first three days (not including today). That's over half of the budget costs.

The Dark Knight made just over an estimated $1 BILLION in theaters worldwide.