back to article Unauthorised Wolverine claws his way onto interwebs

The forthcoming superhero movie X-Men Origins: Wolverine has tipped up on a number of BitTorrent websites ahead of its 1 May release. The film made its unauthorised debut on Tuesday. Its distributor, 20th Century Fox, coughed to the embarrassing leak yesterday, when the studio described the illegal download as an incomplete …

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  1. Liam Johnson

    piracy is theft

    "You wouldn't steal a car... piracy is theft"

    I never liked that one anyway. I always thought they would have been better with:-

    You wouldn't steal a biro from work... piracy is theft.

    Then people would have really understood where they were coming from.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Up

    Funny

    The unfinished action scenes and guys hanging from wires made the film all the better for me. Funny stuff. Best scene was the guy shooting people dead without a gun in his hands.

    Wasnt gonna see it in the cinema anyway.

  3. Code Monkey

    DVDs

    Those "you wouldn't steal a car" ads on the start of DVDs are bloody infuriating. I'VE PAID FOR THIS DVD ALREADY NOW STOP NAGGING ME YOU 'TARDS!

  4. Joe K
    Thumb Up

    Marvellous

    I thought this was an April Fools joke till now.

    With the "cinema experience" a now incredibly expensive, sticky, noisy, crowded, tiresome unbearable chore, i can only applaud the bravery of the leakers.

    If they had this shit up on official sites i'd happily pay proper cash to the studios, i have my own home cinema now goddamit, screw the actual cinemas.

  5. Rob

    @code monkey

    you're spot on there, i don't think i would be nearly as opposed to all this drm crap if they didn't force me to watch 20 minutes of adverts, trailers & warnings on a dvd i just bought!

    it infuriates me that i own the dvd player, i own the dvd, yet they can disable my navigation buttons to try and force me to watch their rubbish before the film starts.

    obviously i dont actually watch them, just stick the dvd in 10 minutes before i flick the tv over to dvd from sky, but still, it's annoying.

    -is it still ilegal to download a film you have bought does anyone know?

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    You wouldn't steal a car...

    ... what it I wanted to have a good night out joy-riding? I'm not going to use my own car now am I!

    Yeah, those adverts are bloody stupid and really get under my skin - the worst is when they make it so that they CANNOT be skipped!! *arrrrrgh* Whoever thought up making content un-skippable on a DVD should be found, hung, drawn quartered and shot for their crime. Harsh yes (definitely) but it would act as a deterrent to anyone else who would try it! *hehehe*

    And why is it not applied consistently if given a language choice, select Polish (for example) and it's not shown! WTF?!?!

  7. Bassey
    Thumb Down

    Warning

    I believe it was Dara O'Brien who observed that the really frustrating thing about those "You wouldn't steal a car..." ads that you are forced to watch is that, niggling away at the back of your mind is the thought that the bastards who are watching this for next to nout on a pirated copy are the only ones who DON'T have to watch the warnings because the pirates have edited it out for them.

    It's like putting "Don't drink and drive" warnings on the last bus home on a Friday night.

  8. Lionel Baden

    @rob

    Nah your entitled to make a backup copy

    Whatever format you stor it in is up to you

    I dont believe you have to create the Actual backup from your copy but could be wrong

    :) its warms me to know theyre pissed off with that law

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    Those Warnings

    Are costing me a lot in recordable DVDs

    Put DVD in - if I cannot get to the main menu in 20 seconds, DVD goes into my burner, I rip it then copy it - the copy is great I have full control I do not get warnings about stealing cars or whatever.

    Simply put do not buy Fox DVDs.

  10. Edward Miles
    Joke

    New defense...

    I went to see it in the cinema - the download is a backup of my memory of the film!

  11. Ash
    Thumb Up

    @Code Monkey (DVD's)

    How ironic it is that almost all DVD rips on torrent sites are stripped of the advertisements, trailers, and unskippable content before being converted to compressed video and posted.

    Thankfully, VLC doesn't support the "Can't skip this" feature :D

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Stop

    You wouldn't steal a car...

    How do they KNOW I wouldn't steal a car. It's like those automatic signs which flash up saying "SLOW DOWN" - they make me weant to speed up and tell them to **** off.

  13. Anonymous Coward
    Flame

    what sort of fool do they think I am

    Let's get this straight.

    It's a big Hollywood title with a lot of advertising out about it already.

    Which probably means it's going to be shit.

    So why would I bother downloading it?

    And yeah, those annoying copyright ads on DVDs are an anormous waste of space. The DVD copying software that I own gives you the option to leave those scenes off of any copy you make, rendering them pointless. (not that I copy commercial DVDs anyway!)

    And the software I use to view DVDs on my computer has an option (which I've ticked) that basically says "Next time I see this DVD, start from the menu".

    To top it all off, many of the copies in circualtion on the net are NOT DVD rips, so they don't have that annoying "Piracy is theft" stuff anyway...

    Bah.

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Do movie distributors not have children?

    It's not fun when you have a screaming 3 year old child wanting to watch Mickey Mouse on DVD (or any other Disney favourite) when it takes 5 minutes to get past the unskippable adverts and logos to get to the passifying content that will stop the child from doing your heard in.

    Why shouldn't people try to download advert-free DVDs if the film companies make viewing a genuine DVD you paid for very difficult to watch? What if car manufacturers started making cars that play 5 minutes of pre-recorded adverts through the stereo before then engine can start? The law would entitle you to a refund because it's not fit for purpose.

    I'd love to see the new X-Men film but will wait 2 years for it to come on TV thank you because cinemas are no longer an enjoyable experience and they're very expensive. I wouldn't waste my time with the unfinished pirate copy though.

  15. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    Stuff

    "Nah your entitled to make a backup copy"

    You never have been in the UK, and with the EU-equivalent of the DCMA laws, you can't do anything to bypass copy protection. So you're pretty screwed if your DVD decides to stop working.

    "Simply put do not buy Fox DVDs."

    You can't skip the car stealing ads on the Fox DVDs I have, but you can fast forward straight past them. Of course, then you're stuck watching a few seconds worth of FACT bollocks, which you can't skip.

    The sooner the studios bypass the cinemas and go straight-to-digital the better. Having to go to an Odeon full of twats who still think they're at home and don't shut up, and paying about a tenner for ticket and refreshments, is really starting to annoy me. Shame Sky Movies doesn't get films sooner.

  16. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Try before buy

    I object to paying good money for a crap film that has been hyped to the bejesus. If I walk out of a cinema before half way through, then I want my money back. If I pay good money for a DVD, then I want the film, not to be forced to sit through shed loads of adverts.

    The movie companies can't do what the music industry is doing ... trying to maintain a business plan that doesn't work any more.

    I have DVD's on my shelf that I've never watched ... because I've watched it online and liked it, so I showed my support and bought it.

    It is well past the time that the film companies fell in to line with everyone else and earned their audience.

  17. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    You wouldn't steal a car

    I would if I could download it

  18. Robert Ramsay
    Unhappy

    My Local Cinema

    ...is actually very nice! I'm sorry to hear that yours is a bit rubbish :-(

  19. Scott Earle
    Stop

    "You wouldn't steal a car" etc.

    The irony that the pirates are the only ones who DON'T see those ads surely can not have been lost on the execs of these huge movie-making companies, and yet they make the people who BOUGHT the DVD sit through them. It's like they hate their customers or something.

    And it's like they think their customers are stupid, too. Piracy is NOT theft. Hell, it's not even piracy! It's copyright infringement, pure and simple. You do not have the right to make a copy, and yet you made a copy. Or you paid for a copy that someone else made, without paying the required licensing fee.

    They like to use emotive words to make it SOUND like we are performing something akin to treason or murder - when really all you did was downloaded a file.

    I call to everyone who has any clue, to STOP using the word "piracy" to describe copyright infringement. Perception is everything, and if you can equate a harmless small crime with a heinous abuse of property and life, you are going to be able to win the hearts of the feeble-minded who don't know a keyboard from a kilobyte.

    Ironically (again), the only people who would actually believe them are the people who would probably not know where to start downloading such things from, and have never heard of TheMiniISOPirateNovaHuntBay.

    These people treat their customers with contempt, and try to frighten people. I dislike them.

    Fortunately, they have regular anti-"piracy" crackdowns where I live, so I should be safe from being exposed to such content at all times. Right?

    Scott, Bangkok.

  20. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    steal a car!

    I never considered stealing a car until I saw that message.

    If the message is true, than the converse alternative suggests that if you are willing to download a movie, perhaps you should bump it up a notch and try stealing cars!

  21. Anonymous Coward
    Pirate

    Huge Jackoff as steel claw wolf man review

    I have seen an advert of this film that lasted 3 minutes. As a result I understand the plot, have seen most of the action sequences, caught enough half assed acting and been bombarded with the 200 decibel generic soundtrack that goes with these films.

    Don't bother with the illegal hall finished version just go to youtube and watch the pukka condensed version it'll waste less of your time, so you have more you time going out for a walk or meeting some friends.

  22. Steve Evans

    @Code Monkey

    My g/f made exactly the same comment the other day. I can't remember what film we were watching, but the anti piracy thing was even more in your face as usual... They truly are only one step away from the IT Crowd version these days!

  23. Tony Hoyle

    I sure as hell would steal a car

    If I make an exact copy thereby not depriving the original owner of his car.

    I'm sure I'm not alone in this - the street would be full of identical ferarris.

  24. L
    Pirate

    Wouldn't Steal a Car

    Two points:

    Stealing a car does not equate to downloading a movie. One results in victim feeling deeply insecure, privacy invaded, stress, fear, resentment and generally unwelcome emotions. Downloading a film doesn't leave a paramount exec wide-eyed at night worried if someone's going to break in and steal the remnants of their shattered life ( melodramatic i know!).

    Also watch the whole presentation, and what do you hear at the end...a succession of gunshots!? What the hell, is someone getting shot outside? If you download movies will you instantly be plonked in the middle of a guntoting neighbourhood. Fucking gunshots?!?! Whichever scare-mongering coined eyed fat cat decided he needed to rape more money from your pockets should be forced to watch this hysterically stupid clip until their eyes bleed and becomes they are left permanently sterile. GUNSHOTS!??!?!

  25. Frank

    @rob re. illegal to download......

    AFAIK it's not illegal to download a film in any way. What is illegal is making it available to other people. (Anyone feel free to contradict me on this. I'm not making it up, I'm just remembering bits and pieces that I've read somewhere).

    If you do a download using Bittorrent, you are effectively sharing some of it so they can get you for that. You can't set your Bittorrent upload rate to zero, the minimum is 1Kb/s and if you try that, the torrent sharing purists will ban you as soon as they notice you being a parasite. (I know, I've been torrent banned by so many people, LOL)

    If you download the film as a one way download,from a shameless pirated films site, then they are the only ones who are breaking the law. It's difficult to find such sites and they don't last long

  26. Ben Cross
    Thumb Up

    @ L - Wouldn't Steal a Car

    LOL!!!!!

    best laugh all day, pretty melodramatic though.

  27. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    reminds me

    The "You wouldn't steal a blah blah" always reminds me of a comedy skit I saw on Mock the week

    Went along the lines of,

    "there I am in my boxer shorts with a can of beer at 3 in the afternoon settling down to watch hostel and then the dvd starts telling me "You wouldn't steal a car!" How do you know?! I'm sat here in my underpants about to watch a film about students being sadistically tortured and murdered, how do you know what I capable of?!"

    Sums the situation up quite easily, if stealing a car were as easy as downloading content I recon there'd be a hell of a lot more stolen cars.

  28. Vladimir Plouzhnikov

    I can't see what all this fuss is about

    Only a most dedicated fan would want to watch a special FX movie with effects still unfinished (what elase is there to watch in such movie if not the effects???).

    Such dedicated fans would be so dedicated that they will still watch the film in the cinema and will buy the DVD when it's released. So what exactly is the problem here?

  29. Anonymous Coward
    Paris Hilton

    OK so they say it wrong

    'The Industry Trust For Intellectual Property Awareness said the biggest threat to the film industry is from illegal digital downloading.'

    Well if I does the downloading on the analogs is that permissible? Digital is the new evils.

    BTW / I wouldn't waste my bandwidth on such trite!

    /Paris cos she would abuse my bad-width

  30. Anonymous Coward
    Paris Hilton

    Let's look at the assumption that downloading is bad...

    Downloading is bad because it costs sales or revenue? Really?

    Let's think about this, and use my recent experience of twilight...

    I saw a couple of reviews, didn't think much about it, wouldn't have bothered watching the film, not if I would have had to pay...

    Downloaded the film, watched it, was impressed, went out, bought the books for a closer read, went to the cinema to watch the film again, enjoyed it, and then bought the DVD when it became available in the US (since I was there on holiday when it came out)

    Let's review the first statement again, downloading costs sales...

    I downloaded a film, then went on to pay for 4 books, 2 people to visit the cinema and 1 DVD based on that download. Hmmm.

    Paris? because she wouldn't have a clue what the industry is on about either.

  31. Rick Giles
    Coat

    Home Cinema

    I agree with you lot on the fact that the Cinema is overpriced and you have to worry that someone is going to get a call on their mobile hat they just have to take.

    At home I can close the blinds, unplug the phone and turn off my mobe. And, if a pee break is needed I can pause it.

    As for the adverts: I HATE them at the Cinema just as much as on the DVD. I don't mind coming attractions, just don't show me products.

    -Mines the one with the remote in it.

  32. Law
    Thumb Up

    @ code monkey

    Yup - exactly the reason I stopped buying DVD's in the end... add to that the reason I stopped buying CD's (when they wouldn't let me listen to the CD through my PC - up popped some crappy app to play it for me...) and this industry really only has itself to blame - it can be forgiven for the first year or two of "oh noes, how do we stop them".... but it's been about 10 years since people started really using their PC's to manage and store music and they have only just begun selling drm-free mp3's for around the same price as a cd cost in the past....

    The movie industry should really learn from the music industry's mistakes, and start releasing HD versions of their films through xbox/ps3/virginmedia/netflix type things on the day of cinema releases world-wide - they will get far more revenue from it. These days I ignore the cinema release date and just wait for the HD copy to pop up for download (legit these days, not so long ago that wasn't an option though)... problem is, by time that comes I've had the film spoilt by billions of reviews and friends spoiler-whoring the whole thing to me... not sure if anybody else feels that way, but our local cinema's seem to be filler with smelly teenage girls or chav lads shouting/giggling/banging throughout the film... hardly the "experience that counts"... I have far better sound/vision equipment at home... without the idiots.

  33. Chris Campbell

    @Tony Hoyle

    But then you'd be depriving Ferrari of a sale of their car that you couldn't afford and wouldn't have bought anyway!

    "The Industry Trust has ditched an advert that carried the message "You wouldn't steal a car... piracy is theft""

    Well, at least they have stopped lying in their adverts, copyright infringement and theft are not the same thing.

  34. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Car ?

    What makes them think I wouldn't steal a car, thousands of cars get stolen every week, someone must be stealing them.

  35. Victor Meldrew
    Coat

    What a waste...

    The next big thing on the FBI's 10 most wanted...

    A picture of stickman at the top of the list followed by murders, rapists, etc.

    What an absolute waste of time and taxpayers money.

    ...NUFF SAID.

  36. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Piracy is not theft.

    Possibly someone from the ASA said something; after all, piracy is not theft.

    @Joe K: It's those bloody adverts showing dead kids that are putting me off. I like a big screen for a cheesy action film and am willing to brave the background noise and smell but the dead children are coming close to putting me off for ever.

  37. Alex
    Pirate

    @ Frank

    Try usenet/newsgroups,

    You can download without uploading anything..

    Oh and SSL...

  38. ratfox
    Paris Hilton

    I wouldn't steal a car...

    But I did ride the bus without paying. Which is closer to what illegal downloading is, I guess.

    PH, because I'd like to ride her without paying, too...

  39. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Don't copy that floppy

    Piracy is not like nicking a biro from work. It is takes ages to make a film, a good piece of music or program.

    We all know the creatives don't get their fair share in any industry, but copyright infringement is not the answer, empowering the artist is.

    How many people have bothered to get in contact with artists directly to see if they can get a better deal, before they wandered off to copy that floppy? Probably none, in the words of Boris it is Pathetic.

  40. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    El Reg missed a juicy quote...

    ...from an 'industry insider' who CNN was lucky enough to speak with:

    "Removing the pirated files from the Internet may prove an impossible challenge, an industry source said."

    Really... ya THINK?

    "This source did not want to be named because of the sensitive nature of the matter."

    He should have just told them his name was Captain Obvious.

  41. Moss Icely Spaceport
    Go

    Steal a car?

    Oh, yes, I have!

    Is that a bad thing?

    Probably not as bad as downloading B-grade pap from Hollywood.

  42. Mostor Astrakan
    Coat

    So... next time you visit a cinema...

    Do warn the attendant to give you back the correct change, because if they don't they are STEALING. If they give you too much back, they are STEALING from their employer. If they give you too little, then they are STEALING from you. THEFT IS A CRIME! Did you know that MURDERERS and RAPISTS and TERRORISTS all started with STEALING?

    Keep this up for twenty minutes. Be sure to tell the person behind you in the queue to check the teller as well.

  43. Law
    Stop

    @ Alex

    Shhhhht! The first rule of usenet is you don't talk about usenet - everybody knows that! :p

  44. Liam Johnson

    Re: Don't copy that floppy

    >>Piracy is not like nicking a biro from work. It is takes ages to make a film

    I think you entirely missed the point. Nicking anything from work can result in instant dismissal. Yet most people would quite happily wander off with the odd biro without worrying. Those same people would balk at stealing a car, even if someone told them how to do it. Same with a DVD – a fair number of people would download it, but would not risk nicking it from a shop. So the comparison between “piracy” and auto theft is basically wrong.

    >>How many people have bothered to get in contact with artists…

    Sorry, I thought we were talking about silly adverts for “Copyright Theft” and not about new models for compensating creative types.

  45. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Just my twopenn'orth

    The unskippable content on DVDs (and Bluray) is infuriating, along with the implication that I'm also a thief, even though I've bought their fricking disc!

    I, too, spend extra time and money copying DVDs so that I don't have to watch their crap before the film starts. As the commenter above said, it's as if they hate their customers.

    As for "don't copy that floppy" - what do you mean, floppy? Floppy disc? Haven't seen one of those for years. You're clearly a stooge for the film industry, and a particularly out-of-touch one at that. Remember, the reason we no longer have music is because home taping killed it. Oh, wait...

  46. Anonymous Coward
    Flame

    @Law

    I thought the first law of usenet was that you never, ever stop talking about usenet like it's some kind of secret underground club we all wish we could be a part of, rather than something we all *were* a part of in the 80s and 90s then left when it stopped being relevant.

  47. Anonymous Coward
    Pirate

    Skip the copyright mafia, not the DVD

    @ Michelle Knight

    "I object to paying good money for a crap film that has been hyped to the bejesus."

    Right on Michelle, wasn't it the film mafia who advertised the "Hysterically" funny Norbert.

    A lot of peeps are saying that we don't have the right to make a backup copy (or obtain one elsewhere), yet the copyright mafia would say that we don’t own our copies of the films we pay exorbitant amount of money for (Hint: Wait 6 months and you will be able to buy nearly new releases for 7.99 each instead of 24.99), and that we only hold a licence to view the film, or listen to music.

    Try bringing back a damaged CD to <insert name of big store here> and explain to them that you were listening to the CD in the car and you hit a pot-hole and now you can’t play track 5, you’ll soon find out if you own the CD or not. It’s the reason I rip all my CDs that I play in the Car, its also the reason that none of my wife’s Celine Dion CD have never been copied (waste of a 10p blank CD anyway). I can’t wait till the price of blank dual layer DVDs drops so I can do the same with my DVDs.

    Sorry copyright mafia, the horse has bolted, its no use try to close the stable door now.

    Slightly Off Topic.

    One film that I love is “The Cruel Sea” (1953 staring Jack Hawkins) but I was put off buying it for 29.99 (36.50 in one place because it was a special order), luckily I got a free copy with the Daily Mail, for 0.50p. So who’s the rip-off artist here? (And no, I didn’t read the Mail, I put it on the floor for the dog to crap on it, a waste of 50p IMHO)

    I’ve also read that Gary Rhodes is closing his Dublin restaurant, Antony Worrall Thompson has had to put his company into administration, making 60 staff redundant, Gordon Ramsay is closing one of his restaurants, Paul Rankin has closed his only restaurant in Ireland as well. And there are many more restaurants that have closed that nobody ever hears about because hey are not owned by somebody famous.

    However, has anyone heard one of these celebrity chefs complain that home cooking is destroying the restaurant industry? No, because that have a brain and they realise that it is the ECONOMY that’s causing the downturn in business. The copyright mafia need to Adapt or Die, hopefully they will die, and they won’t be missed.

  48. Richard L
    Thumb Down

    Good luck on removing it from the Internet

    From curiosity I had a look for the torrent when I first saw the news:

    yesterday - 60,000 seeds

    today - 90,450 seeds

    How exactly are they going to remove it?

    BTW I have not downloaded it, not interested and have been too busy catching up on ER for the wife as the local TV channel decided to halt the season after the first episode.

  49. Law
    Paris Hilton

    RE: @Law

    Apologies, I was thinking of fight club... my mistake!

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