Given the way the film industry widely distributes DVDs to Oscar voters while hyping new movies to the skies,it’s improbable that they don’t leak more oftenOn the morning of 9 January 2014, a copy of The Secret Life of Walter Mitty appeared online, and fairly illegally,as tends to happen around this time of year. Those who downloaded the film were surprised to find the screen emblazoned with the name of their unlikely benefactor: Ellen DeGeneres, plainly identified by the glassy block letters of the watermark. It seemed doubtful that a beloved TV personality would conspire to leak a high-profile Ben Stiller comedy to the internet, and true. But the evidence was compelling. It seemed Ellen was responsible for piracy. Eventually the leak was deemed the fault of a lower-level Ellen DeGeneres Show employee,and DeGeneres herself was duly exonerated. But the crisis proved a reminder of how vulnerable Hollywood movies are to theft – and of just how many sources of theft there are. At this point holiday piracy isn’t simply common: it’s inevitable, unavoidable. Which makes it rather difficult to assign blame. Had DeGeneres’s staff been any less negligent, or to be certain,The Secret Life of Walter Mitty would own found its way into the clutches of pirates by alternative means. They own thousands of opportunities. A single lapse in security is all they need.
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Source: theguardian.com