An anonymous interview with a former participant of the cutting scene. Part 2

Continuation of the interview with the scener.

1 part 3 part .

I always wondered how you earn money.
')
The only one who makes a profit is usually the supplier. He has a physical copy, which remains with him, say, 48 hours, while he sells it to some guy in Malaysia, who immediately starts to stamp discs furiously.

Just do not say that Axxo killed himself?

aXXo is a freak who interrupts tags in releases and puts them on torrents. He steals the work of groups that have invested a lot of work in them!

(comment perepre.) Here there was a small, but caustic discussion about how a pirate can be dissatisfied with someone stealing someone else's work. It was mainly discussed that copyright (the right to take money for each copy) is not the same as copyright (the requirement to specify the name of the author)

What motivated you to do this, despite the fact that you knew about the risks and consequences, in fact, free of charge and without personal gain at all? Selflessness is a word that comes to my mind, but maybe there is something I don’t know?

Motivation comes from the desire to beat opponents. This is a fierce online war, and the releases in it are weapons. Each release can bring victory or defeat to your group, and possibly others. Reputation over the years means everything. Seeing how some groups have lasted more than 15-25 years (!), One can imagine approximately how much time people devote to this work.

How did you get there and why? I understand how the scene is useful for others, but what did you get for all this risk?

Access. Respect. Ego. These are things that feed the burned youth. You are the best. You are all ahead in the neighborhood. You are the king. Partly ego, partly access, partly excitement. In fact, I can not explain it. Just a burning desire to be on top.

About access. When you sit at the computer for a long time (as I think everyone here is present), you will surely like to download X or Y ... And what if I had it earlier, faster, in better quality? In those days, when there were XDCC bots everywhere, and people choked on flea markets for sales of disks for $ 3 for a dozen.

The advantages in reality are insignificant compared to the risks. Hence the slow and sure death of all that remains of the past "glorious days."

How do you get screeners? Do they just pass them on?

There are many options. I know cases when they were stolen at the post office, they came from marketing firms, from film critics, from families of studio workers, and from everywhere. Screeners - rare luck and a big risk, after receiving you need to stay away from its source :)

What about digital movies? I now work in a cinema, we get digital copies on the hard drive, they connect to the projector via USB. It can not be that it was difficult to transfer them to a computer.

The security system in these damn crazy. Files on the disk are encrypted with a special key that is tied to the serial numbers of the specific equipment, and to the session time. The video stream is transmitted to the projector in an encrypted form, it is useless without a key.

I recently worked in a Sony private cinema hall in Sydney and the projectionist showed me his closet ... next to two huge old projectors there was the newest digital that showed such a clear image that I hadn’t seen in my life (why don't they show such quality in cinemas?) was connected to the server - the repository of films, which he said were protected by something like DRM, the keys for each film were supplied by distributors, and the film self-destructed after a certain time.

Do you have experience in obtaining / opening the original digital copy? It would be incredible to have a video of this resolution, and not shot through an amateur camera ...

(approx. trans.) apparently talking about the resolution of 4k , 4000 pixels)

I stick to the old scene method. Do not underestimate the companies that spent millions of dollars on a product, and think that they will not spend millions to protect it. Digital projection is the future. This is an expensive technology. It will take years until it unfolds around the world. But it will definitely give them a huge advantage.

Does a digital projection somehow protect against camrip?

The transition to the figure will not stop the Kammer, but he definitely, 100%, will scare them away.
Digital watermarks cannot be deleted.

I remember that once I read about a French cinema, from where an unusually large number of campfree merged, they were able to identify it by digital watermarks. The MPAA sent their agents there for observation, but rips still appeared. This dude was a legend. They obviously put a lot of pressure on the cinema staff, and followed every session, but they couldn’t figure out that guy. After your description, I thought maybe it was a maVen?

Believe me ... maybe he was the first artificial camera, but not the only one. A few years ago on account of Montreal was 60-70% of all pirated material.



In the past few years, the scene has almost fallen out of sight in the area of ​​camrips. All major releases come from P2P groups - stg, prism, imagine, etc. Simple question: why? All of these raids put the main groups out of action? Or do guys from P2P groups that have access to the rips of elektriaka and relizlab, download the original spelling from the Russian torrents before the scene receives films from their sources? As for dvd / bluray, the scene is still strong.

It’s hard to motivate a real scener to risk themselves when someone downloading from a Russian torrent tries to outrun you. It is depressing. Most of the scenery, who left, decided to do it while they were still ahead, or they were caught, or they felt so underestimated that they did not want to continue. I would say these reasons cover 90% of the exits.

Some of the coolest things I knew, I learned from people who tried to destroy me: D

Can be more?

Of course.

Trust your friends. They will save you, and more than once.

Help when you can. I have always shared knowledge with groups that deserved it.

Respect those who take risks. It doesn't matter if the cammer once screwed up - he did a dangerous job and did it perfectly.

Follow your morals and keep your word. Gosh, online, that's all you have.

How well did you know the other members of the group? Have you ever met in real life? Or were you careful not to give out information about yourself?

There are people you talk to every day. They know about your girlfriend. They know when you had a fight with her. They know when you are hungry, or when you came home drunk and typed every *** in IRC. These people - your friends - you trust each other. I think structural isolation, making everyone equally responsible for what we did, leads to this close connection. I know the former sceners who have done incredible things in life!

What things, for example?

I knew one sceners, with a strong addiction. Many more terrible things happened to him, but he was able to pack up and now lives somewhere a happy life. Another went into politics in his state. Another one works in the film industry.

How much time per week did you spend on this?

What time is it? Yes, all my life, damn it. An incredible amount of time. I don't want to think about it. One of my ex believed that this was my second job.

How old are you?

Enough to understand how lucky I am that I am sitting here now.

I heard that some sceners sometimes make deals with Asian pirates who make disks for sale. I realized that this practice on the stage is not approved. What do you think about this, and did you know anyone who did that?

Yes. You're right. Historically (most often Asian) film sellers get in touch with groups, hoping to get guaranteed access to the film for “presents” (cameras, hard drives, and so on).

10 years ago, a cammer could have requested $ 1,500 or more for a copy - but this is no longer the case. Torrents and P2P killed most of the disk piracy around the world.

What do I think about this? When I came to the scene, I reasoned like this: if they ever catch me, and I REALLY have to answer, I would like to honestly say that I did not receive any benefit from this.

Why do you think so many P2P bands are now ahead of the scene?

Groups have always been difficult to reach. In all the years I've been in business, we never had email. If you are, say, at home, and you have the newest DVD on your hand, you want to give it to us, but you can't. You start writing dudes that are more accessible.

And so people go to jail. : D

However, I agree with you, an interesting change. But such is the nature of the scene, it is difficult to track them. That is why groups are created. Everyone knows about the group. Everything else is a secret;)

What are the main differences between piracy films and music? Which of them do you think is more difficult? More prestigious?

Music piracy is a matter of access. And to shoot in the cinema, you must have the courage, arrogance and knowledge.

How would you say today the scene is better or worse than in 2003? Of course there are obvious differences, such as the speed of the channels, but has it retained the old “feeling”?

Scene ... she became Worse. She became more public. Many years ago, you would not have pulled out any information from me. And now ... the world has changed. P2P is available to everyone - even your grandmother, that’s how it is. I think if netflix online was not such a crap, I would probably use it. Do you understand what I'm saying? Most people nowadays are willing to pay for content. At a reasonable price.

I heard that in some cinemas they use night vision devices to track cameras. Have you ever come across such people?

I did not see it myself, but I heard about it. I can assume that it is in some special cinema or something like that. It seems to be expensive, and you would have to rely on very poorly paid staff to work with such expensive equipment.

The very model of protecting films is wrong: it relies on the owner of the cinema, who receives a MERITAL share of the film’s profits (in fact, he pays for the rental of reels) as a person who has to control the copying of works. You cannot expect anyone to specifically hire people to do your work for you.

I never understood why they do not use infrared light to fight cameras ... The rays are not visible with the naked eye, but they ruin the record. Have you ever seen this?

An interesting concept, I also heard about lasers and other sources of light that are imperceptibly directed at the audience, but the thing is, over time, they realized that customers do not want to be searched. Or climbed their bags. Or to look at them in night vision devices. This is not a prison - people pay to go to the movies, right? The less comfortable they feel, the less willing they are to go there again. This way you can easily scare off all buyers.



What are your political views? Do you think downloading / uploading should be a crime?

I do not think that downloading should be a crime, you can’t massively blame people for being in fact just a flaw in their distribution system.

Why are you so negative about torrents / p2p?

I'm not saying that this is bad. In fact, this is a great system, including for legal needs (large patches for games and all that). Just piracy has changed, from “but could you ask your friend, a computer programmer / brother / cousin / boss, etc., can he ...” to “hey, look what I downloaded !!!”

And what punishments are provided if caught?

Honestly, the worst is damages. I do not really know what happened to those who were convicted. As soon as the police took you, you become persona non grata. But there were cases when a local scener came to court and watched from the audience.

According to American law, shooting can be obtained up to 3 years and up to 250 thousand fine ...

Nothing good in general. Nothing good.

What mindsets reign within groups? On different sites and releases, I have seen people say such things:

Robin Hoods - Hippies: “We are releasing programs, they should be free! Copyright must be canceled! ”

Technologists and enthusiasts, for whom it is just a task that needs to be solved: “This is only for reference, if you like the film, buy it!”

Cruel offenders: “Ha-ha! Yes! We stole your shit, try to stop us! ”

Who are they really, and what of this - just a mask that they wear? Or is there different people in each camp?

The moment comes when you stop thinking about it. You are joking? You sit on the channel for announcements and see how the release is flowing after the release: from mp3-shek, which you don’t need, to strange Japanese porn, which is scary to watch. There are so many things, just incredible. You start thinking only about how to get ahead of others (your competitors) and almost never think about the process itself and its legality.

I understand about how you can pirate movies - from Camryp to Blur. But how do music pirates do it? How do they manage to get a CD a week or less before it comes out?

Where do they get them? Yes, from everywhere. The complete albums happen to be inadvertently available on the sites. Oops. Employees of record companies, sales managers, promoters, club owners ... there are so many different ways to get music. It is easier to transmit because of its smaller volume, and it has a huge, huge audience for consumption.

Do you know why employees sometimes go to the cinema with a flashlight? Because the camera lens glare, if you shine on them.

True, but any cammers who are at least worth something would have noticed this dude, and would have hidden their device long before he took the first step between the rows.

In the early years, did you distribute releases via IRC, or only to closed servers and then, over time, on Usenet?

It was all about it. Let's say there are 250 sites in the world. Your group, let's say, releases its crap for 4-5 of them. Then the “racers” try to transfer them as quickly as possible to all the other 250 (depending on how cool this release is, etc.) The best groups post on the best sites, sites choose partners based on the best secrecy, server, sitemap preferences or something else. This picture is about. And from there it all slowly creeps away ... until finally it becomes available to anyone.

I work in the film industry, and once a year we are obliged to listen to lectures of dudes from MPAA who come to us. I dozed off a couple of times, but I think I did not miss anything important. In the end, instead of discouraging people from piracy, this dude inadvertently created the impression that this is good.

I'm not surprised. I do not know how Jack Valenti or other mossy copyrights could theoretically understand how to deal with the young, technologically educated generation of pirates who really only want one thing - to fuck them. Old methods do not work in the new world.

You've been on stage for about 5 years, you saw everything. Why, although they are imprisoned for taking pictures, do people still do this? Why risk life again?

Why? Nostalgia, pride. Many sceners have such an ego online that they would never have achieved in life. For them, it is power. The power they lack in their own lives.

Risks are divided between many, united by a common goal, so if someone wants to give up his comrades, it will be difficult to justify. You may notice that long-existing groups fall apart only if something catastrophic happens.

Continued: part 3