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Hollywood already knows what a powerful marketing tool Twitter has become. But now Twitter subscribers are using that power to promote film piracy. Someone is promoting a web page that offers a full-length digital video of Paranormal Activity. Does Paramount Pictures know about this? UPDATE: The studio tells me, “It’s such a popular title with online folks. We are finding and removing a number of these.”
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I would assume they do, considering it has been going on since Paranormal became a trending topic on twitter weeks ago. In fact if you click on ANY trending topic you will find links to illegally download full movies, not just Paranormal. Welcome to the internet, Nikki.
I saw the same thing being done at the Yahoo boards for “Astro Boy”. Somebody has downloaded the entire film onto Youtube. I’m surprised Yahoo/Youtube allows this to happen.
youtube is horrible about this. you’ll go through the legal procedures to get something taken down, and then a few weeks later it’ll be back up again.
Nikki, every movie ever made and within 24hrs of a new release, is available on line. In addition, every song ever recorded as well as all those bootleg recordings, all are available. For laughs, and with every virus program running and updated, DL a few file sharing programs, which are available free on line, and search and see whats available, have been for years. Twitter mentioning it is just stating the obvious, the on line community has been doing this for years. However, the quality is usually crap and you run the risk of virus,hijack etc etc…I honestly don’t think it has a impact on a films overall revenue, the folks who use this also don’t leave the house much…
Why are you calling out Paranormal Activity? What about The Proposal, Astro Boy, Surrogates and Saw VI?
No movie is immune to Twitter and free download links.
Having spent my hard earned money at the theatre to see this over rated flick – I have to admit that I have recommedned people not waste their money on this film – its just not that good. That being said – its not hard to find a copy of this film online ( I found one with the original ending 2 weeks ago – it looked great) and word is spreading about the fact that this film doesn’t need to be seen on the big screen cause its a “homemade film” with no real FX- Plus this town won’t shut its yap about how it cost 15 K – people feel like the studios have made plenty so far- so there isnt’ any guilt with downloading it….but that’s my opinion
If the movie is not worth spending your hard earned money to see, then don’t. It doesn’t matter how much the studio has made. It’s illegal, and the people who are really hurt by it are any creatives who get paid on the backend and didn’t get much, if anything, upfront when the distribution deal was made. Go ahead and justify it all you want, but you are robbing people of the hard earned money they deserve for the hard work they did.
Does Paramount even know what Twitter is? That company is so living in the past it’s insane. I hear Brad Grey wants to get into tv production now… A dying, zero growth business.
My god when’s that guy going to be out of a job.
To be expected. I made a movie no one will ever hear about, with distribution, and it was bootlegged within days of sending out the screeners to Europe. I think Twitter will try and crack down on this, but are they really responsible?
The internet copies don’t even have the superior theatrical ending. They have the old festival ending. People are missing out.
They do this with all movies these days. Are you surprised?
It’s not just Paranormal Activity. That kind of thing is rampant on the Net, so naturally there are a lot of people also Tweeting links to these things.
This is true for just about every new release when you do a search. What’s even crazier is the number of morons that tweet they have downloaded movies to watch. Duh.
Piracy will NEVER be fought by moralizing, legal action, or anything along those lines. Piracy can ONLY be fought with: low prices, high convenience, and value.
If I want to see a film, Hollywood has to compete with Pirates to offer me a chance to see that film, at a low price, in a convenient way. This is the Itunes model. Like it or not, that is where Hollywood is heading.
Paramount and other studios can sue whoever they like, it will be like the music publishers. Or King Canute at the seashore. Piracy is global, available all over, and often protected by friendly governments (China, Russia, etc.). Pirate Bay, Napster, and so on can be shut down, and zillion other sites pop up. Twitter has something like 25 million users and growing.
Why can’t I go to Paramount’s site, and download “Paranormal Activity” for say, $3? Fast, cheap, convenient? That is the only way to beat pirates.
Funny thing. This movie began to become popular when online hackers were trying to find a copy to digitalize it and post it online–just to ruin Paramount’s intentions of making a remake.
Piracy is theft. The content owner should be allowed to decide how and when to release and at what price point. The creation of original content AND innovation need to be compensated. Otherwise, not only will the world be flat, but everything else as well.
well said. I can’t stand the entitlement of some of the posters on here who justify illegally downloading a movie for whatever bullshit reason they want to give. it’s like they’re saying, “give me my movies cheap or free, assholes, or I’ll steal them.” Go give your life to learning the craft of filmmaking, spend years developing your film and writing it and getting it made, and then hand it away for next to nothing, and see how you like it. There are plenty of people who will give their homemade videos away for free on youtube. If you want something of higher quality, yes, you should pay the people who made it their asking price or simply don’t see it.
Those of you defending illegal downloading, YOU are the problem; don’t act like advocating for this to be the norm makes you an objective observer when your perspective is the problem to begin with.
As Bertie notes, this is the case for every movie currently playing in theaters — do a search for any title and the word “download” on Twitter, and you’ll get plenty of hits. Not sure why “Paranormal Activity” is being singled out.
This is nothing new. Every time a DVD screener goes online, it’s sent around the web faster than Britney Spears’ cooter flash.
saw the original ending on YouTube, way better than the corny Spielberg ending, it made me hate this movie less