<![CDATA[Gawker: valleywag, oscars]]> http://tags.gawker.com/assets/base/img/thumbs140x140/gawker.com.png <![CDATA[Gawker: valleywag, oscars]]> http://gawker.com/tag/valleywag/oscars http://gawker.com/tag/valleywag/oscars <![CDATA[Oscar Screener Piracy Less Of A Problem, Thanks To Regular Piracy]]> Since the MPAA tried to ban screeners of Oscar-nominated films over piracy fears in 2003, the risk of those screeners leaking to the Internet has actually fallen, according to research by journalist/programmer/dot-com founder Andy Baio. But a month before the ceremony, all but six of this year's 34 nominated films have been leaked online. Below, how movie studios' fear of piracy (okay, "stealing") was the best thing that happened to pirates. Plus, how a studio's fear of piracy kills a movie's Oscar chances.

Ripped copies of commercial DVDs have replaced screener copies, thanks to early-release DVDs from other world regions. Those DVDs, which skip the special features and image processing that go into American releases, were originally made to sell copies earlier in countries like Russia, where pirated screeners get ripped to DVD and are sold on the street. But by beating the pirates to the punch in the East, distributors helped viewers in the West get high-quality pirated movies before the Academy even got their screeners.

But that's not all the irony! Fear of piracy can also kill a film's Oscar chances. Baio noted in last year's piracy roundup that late and broken screeners probably killed Munich's Oscar shot in 2005, and that Crash won Best Picture after sending screeners to all the voters it could, while Disney took such anti-piracy pains that over a fourth of Academy voters didn't even watch its screeners, and Narnia only won Best Makeup.

Since some studios seem willing to kill their chances at an Oscar just to keep leaks off the Internet, I want to know: How many of you actually pirate movies online?

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<![CDATA[If a rat can do it, so can San Carlos mayor Brad Lewis]]> rataouilleIn Los Angeles, everyone goes to the Oscars. But Silicon Valley remains so starstruck that a local dignitary's attendance at the ceremony makes news. Brad Lewis, San Carlos's newly installed mayor, is going to the Academy Awards. When not out furthering his political career, Lewis moonlights as a Hollywood producer. His most recent flick, Pixar's Ratatouille, is up for four awards, including best animated film. At last, he can regain the dignity he lost while working as "a dancing monster" in the national stage production of Sesame Street Live!

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<![CDATA[Mark Cuban vs. Youtube, round 9,234,101]]> Billionairess Mark Cuban gets so fired up by his hatred of Youtube and Google that he accidentally comes up with a pretty good idea, then sails right past it. In response to Youtube taking down clips from the Oscars in response to pressure from the Academy, Cuban recommends that content owners submit dozens of short clips of actual content, each padded with ads or filler, and all linked to the content owner's website. This will "overwhelm" Youtube somehow, according to Cuban. His plan has all the rationality and (all the likely success) of, say, George Clooney's scheme to destroy Gawker Stalker by flooding it with fake sightings. Still, why not?

It's a sneakily good plan to post short intro clips of something to Youtube with a linkback to a full-length, extended, and/or or high-quality version on a proprietary site. Padding the clip with spam, however, is where Cuban's revenge-complex manifests, as it would do minimal harm to Youtube and potentially irritate viewers right out of their inclination to visit the proprietary site. But who cares, it sounds so populist and crazy, just like everybody "overwhelming" Youtube with porn! Well, populist in terms of giant media/entertainment corporations, anyway. If Cuban and others like him would just drop their personal animus and figure out ways to make Youtube their pal, they'd get more traffic and likely not be so perpetually ulcerated.

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<![CDATA[Download all the Oscar contenders]]> Boing Boing points out Oscartorrents, a tracker of Oscar nominee BitTorrents from the folks at The Pirate Bay. Leech all the ostensibly Oscar-worthy fare you want, then judge for yourself (voting enabled). Will Oscartorrents strike a conciliatory note with movie studios? Not exactly: "Face it: your membrane has burst, and it wasn't us who burst it. Your precious bodily fluids are escaping." Juicy!]]> http://gawker.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=235855&view=rss&microfeed=true