Speciality film heads meet to respond to MPAA

Thu Oct 2 09:19:10 EDT 2003

Paul Kocher quote at the bottom...

Cheers,
RAH
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<http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1991585>

The Hollywood Reporter

Oct. 02, 2003 

Speciality film heads meet to respond to MPAA 

By  Gregg Kilday 
The MPAA may have hoped to create a nonproliferation treaty with its ban on awards-season screeners, announced Tuesday, but instead it set off a veritable bomb that sent shock waves throughout the film community. 

The heads of most of the studio-based specialty film companies met Wednesday in an unprecedented summit at the Four Seasons Hotel in New York to formulate a response. 

Bingham Ray, president of United Artists, MGM's specialty film division, took the lead in organizing the gathering, which brought together top executives from all the studio-affiliated labels except Fox Searchlight and the newly formed Warner Independent Pictures. (Fox Searchlight execs were later updated on the proceedings.) 

Those present or participating by phone are said to have included Miramax Films' Harvey Weinstein, Focus Features' David Linde and James Schamus, Sony Pictures Classics' Tom Bernard, and Fine Line's Marian Koltai-Levine. 

The group, with Ray acting as its spokesman, is expected to issue a statement today or Friday. Ray was unavailable for comment Wednesday. 

"It was the beginning of a dialogue," said one indie exec, who received reports of the meeting. "All of the indie companies have been getting a lot of questions and concerns from film critics, foreign distributors, foreign partners, exhibitors, artists -- writers, directors, actors -- and talent agencies, and there has been a lot of discussion." 

Another source close to the situation said: "I think it was a historic meeting with some pretty incredible minds. It was really more of a study group. They were asking a lot of questions." 

One approach that the group could take was suggested by a separate statement released Wednesday by Michelle Byrd, executive director of the IFP/New York. 

Signed by 33 filmmakers, producers and executives, the statement condemned the MPAA ban. 

"This last-minute policy change will seriously diminish the diversity and quality of independent films immediately and the mainstream film industry in the long run," the statement read. "Oscar consideration is a primary motivating factor behind the funding of riskier films, those of more serious content, films with ambitious narrative aspirations. Lacking Oscar potential, these films will not be made." 

It noted that "the least likely people to pirate -- Academy members and other insiders -- will suffer the most, particularly since most piracy comes from outside the U.S. and is the result of in-theater taping." The group proposed in the statement that "all screeners (both DVD and VHS) ... be watermarked and individually numbered so they can be traced and the perpetrators prosecuted." 

Among those lending their names to the statement, which was still growing at press time, were directors Robert Altman, Bill Condon, Peter Hedges and John Waters; actors Selma Blair, Hilary Swank, Chloe Sevigny and Tracey Ullman; producers Anthony Bregman, Lee Daniels, Ted Hope, Ross Katz, John Penotti and Christine Vauchon; and execs Johnathan Sehring and Ed Pressman. 

Byrd explained that Hope, producer of "American Splendor," brought his concerns first to her and others, such as Greenestreet Films' John Penotti, and Focus' Linde quickly weighed in. 

"The chief challenge facing independents is always one of access," she said. "Access to screens, distributors and, in this case, Academy voters. We want to ensure that these films are given a fighting chance in terms of recognition." 

Meanwhile, in other fallout from the MPAA decision: 

The MPAA issued a clarification to its member companies on one point. Although a number of Oscar consultants believed the ban, as originally stated, would have allowed them to distribute DVDs of films that would be available in the home video market -- for example, Disney/Pixar's "Finding Nemo" or the Universal release "Seabiscuit" -- the MPAA shut down that loophole. 

"It has been reported that some subsidiaries believe it is OK to send out screeners if the film has been released in home video form," the clarification said. "This is incorrect. The policy is no screeners of any kind are allowed to be sent." 

It was found that DVD mastering facilities such as Cinram, Deluxe, Sonopress, Technicolor and Warner Bros.' WAMO have been working for months with the studios to develop and implement forensically trackable DVD technologies specifically for the upcoming awards season. 

"We've been working with the studios for the past year in developing antipiracy technologies," said a disc replication manager, who wished to remain anonymous. "About six to eight months ago, two studios actually came to us and said, 'Hey, we foresee this being a problem, can you help us develop a solution?' The studios are very aware of this technology, and if at any point they wish to use it, we can. It's very robust technology, and it was sort of pushed along by two studios in particular." 

According to sources, 20th Century Fox has aggressively researched antipiracy developments. The studio is focusing on a particular watermarking technology that allows copyright holders to trace breaches back to the original DVD and its owner. Fox declined comment. 

Because of the advance work that the studios and replication facilities have already invested in protecting screeners from pirates, those familiar with the technological advancements question whether the MPAA even considered antipiracy antidotes before it rushed into the current across-the-board ban. 

"There are some serious questions as to whether the MPAA did due diligence in regard to the currently available technologies," the source said. "Its members are studios and they are our partners, and we have worked with them side-by-side on numerous technologies. Now whether or not word of these developments permeated the upper-echelons of the MPAA, I don't know." 

Rich Taylor, spokesman for the MPAA, responded: "All sorts of things were discussed and considered, and it was decided the new policy was the most effective and complete way of cutting off one of the sources of pirated material. Obviously, we are always seeking technological remedies that are more effective and we will continue to do so." 

The effectiveness of current DVD antipiracy technology was seen as the root of the current debate. 

Said Steve Weinstein, executive vp and general manager of Macrovision's Entertainment Technologies Group, which has pioneered video, audio and DVD copy-protection encryption: "Our technology is great for preventing devices like DVD-R recorders, VHS, analog recorders, analog recording onto a PC and direct connection to a camcorder from recording the movies. What it cannot prevent is that one copy (that) gets recorded by a talented individual with access to tools of the hacking trade. This is the problem the studios are facing. One leak can be magnified quickly by the P2P services or professional duplicators." 

One solution, suggested Paul Kocher, president and chief scientist, Cryptography Research Inc., "is to produce unique DVD-Rs or VHS tapes with forensic marks that allow any copy to be traced back to the original recipient. This is expensive and introduces some workflow challenges, but people are much less likely to let their screeners become a source of piracy if they know they'll get caught. The long-term solution is to move beyond VHS and DVD to high-definition formats with built-in support for forensic marking and strong security for targeted screeners as well as general consumer releases." 

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R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah at ibuc.com>
The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/>
44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
"... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity,
[predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to
experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'

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