'Dark Knight' available online over opening weekend

Hollywood can celebrate that pirated copies of this year's hit films aren't showing up on major Internet sites.

Too bad for the studios' enforcement efforts that some can still be found on smaller sites.

At the same time that the new Batman film, The Dark Knight, was drawing record audiences (the movie is estimated to have earned more than $155 million over the weekend), several copies of the film was available online.

Hit films, such as The Bourne Ultimatum, are readily available online.

(Credit: Videoembedder.com)

A half hour after returning home from watching the film on Saturday night, I got home to find my colleague, Elinor Mills, has sent me a link that apparently originated at VideoEmbedder.com. Sure enough, a grainy and dark copy of the hit film was available for viewing and for download. It was still up on Sunday but could not be accessed on Monday.

Finding newly released movies is nothing new. In the past, it was easy to find them at Google Video and other video-sharing sites. Michael Moore's documentary, Sicko, was posted to the Web even before it had debuted in theaters. Following the appearance of Sicko on the Web, some argued that movies posted to the Internet can help boost interest in a film.

Back then, Google Video was loaded with full-length films and TV shows. The site is now focused more on shorter videos even while there is no limit on duration.

What this illustrates is the coming storm bearing down on the film industry. The size of movie files used to be too large to allow them to be streamed or downloaded easily. That's changing rapidly. The time to download big movie files is speeding up and streaming technology has also improved. The simple fact is it's getting easier to share movie files.

VideoEmbedder is just an online video player that anyone can use to upload clips to the Web. Someone used the site's player to upload a full version of The Bourne Ultimatum. A link to a copy of The Bourne Supremacy led me to a post that said the video had been removed for copyright infringement.

On the front door of VideoEmbedder.com is this note: "VideoEmbedder is free to use and is not responsible for the videos streamed using our player."

Representatives from Warner Bros. Pictures, which produced Dark Knight, said they were unaware of the copy that showed up online. A spokesman for the Motion Picture Association of America was unavailable for comment.

Representatives of VideoEmbedder could not immediately be reached.

UPDATE: 3:30 p.m PT on Monday Turns out that there are plenty of places where one can find copies of Dark Knight on the Web. Byron Ng, a computer technician from Vancouver, Canada, has sent in some links where the film can be found. I've been assured by Ng that there are others.

[chewwy23]

what else is new... this aint news to anyone... all the blockbuster movies are online all the time sometimes before there in theaters.... nust of been a slow news day.. lol :)

[drfrost]

"what else is new... this aint news to anyone... all the blockbuster movies are online all the time sometimes before there in theaters.... nust of been a slow news day.. lol" - chewwy23

If it's really that rampant, it's no wonder the studios are pushing so hard for DRM. Comments like this make me think we might actually need the DMCA..... *shiver*

[CmdrRickHunter]

The rapidly arising limitation is the bandwidth of our senses. The bandwidth of distribution has been growing, often exponentially, but the bandwidth of the product has been limited by what our senses can take in. See how long it took to go from composite to Svidio to HD. I think (BS figure approaching) there's 10x as many pixels in HD as there were in composite (ignoring composite's analog nature). In that time, we've gone from 9600 baud modems (if we even had a modem) to 10000000 baud internet connections. Even if I'm off by an order of magnitude in the size of the product, the point still stands.

Virtual reality has a chance of stalling that a bit, involving more senes and more of our bandwidth, but a time is soon aproaching to where a lifetime of sensation is but a flicker in the data of our communciation networks.

[CmdrRickHunter]

The rapidly arising limitation is the bandwidth of our senses. The bandwidth of distribution has been growing, often exponentially, but the bandwidth of the product has been limited by what our senses can take in. See how long it took to go from composite to Svidio to HD. I think (BS figure approaching) there's 10x as many pixels in HD as there were in composite (ignoring composite's analog nature). In that time, we've gone from 9600 baud modems (if we even had a modem) to 10000000 baud internet connections. Even if I'm off by an order of magnitude in the size of the product, the point still stands.

Virtual reality has a chance of stalling that a bit, involving more senes and more of our bandwidth, but a time is soon aproaching to where a lifetime of sensation is but a flicker in the data of our communciation networks.

[The_Decider]

Hang on a second. The MPAA claims that this sort of thing damages them, yet the movie was available for free and still made an obscene amount of money.

[pjhenry1216]

If watching the pirated version of the film is enough to stop the person from going to see the movie in the theatres, they probably really didn't care enough to see it in the first place and most likely wouldn't have if the pirated version were not available. Honestly, the more likely reason pirated copies exist is that since its not available for purchase until months and months after its left the theatres, people are required to get illegal copies so they can watch the movie multiple times without going bankrupt. I say, let them buy the DVD after watching the movie or even allow some sort of streaming access to the movie online. Distribute account IDs on the tickets and allow them to be activated online. I honestly don't know if it'll work or not, I just thought of it off the top of my head just now, but the film industry needs to change its ways because the industry is refusing to give the customer what it wants and its becoming increasingly easy for the average joe to get what they want elsewhere.

[EnvoyPV]

Impossible! No one would pay money to see it in theater if it was available for free. If that's the case, that means the MPAA is wrong.

[SeizeCTRL]

Yet somehow The Dark Knight scored close to 200 million! Apparently piracy did not effect it at all.

[yacahuma]

What about video quality?? A saw a little bit of "I am legend" , the video was awful and the size was more that a 1GB. I dont want to see a movie unless it is at the best resolution possible.ie blueray quality. Why will anyone waste their time washing this low quality download is beyond me. I just wish I could buy a movie ticket, and watch the movie at home. Why do I have to waste me time driving to the theater? Right now , I just wait for them to be realease in blue-ray. I dont go to the movies anymore.

[saintsataniko]

I was talking with a friend from Singapore last week who is currently living in China. She had already seen Hancock, Wanted, and Sex & The City on DVD, and said she was going to buy the Dark Knight DVD in a couple of days. In some cases she was buying DVD's of these movies before they had even been theatrically released in the US!
And of course these movies won't be available on DVD in the US for months at least.

Everyone knows that China has next to zero respect for international copyright law but it's still amazing the speed in which they get bootlegged DVD's readily (and cheaply) available on the street with no repercussions.

Want to see Dark Knight on DVD right now, and cheap...move to China.

[drfrost]

Saintsataniko :

It's pretty much common knowledge that this is true. Microsoft complained for years that they only got to sell one copy of their OS to china. China made a few "token" busts on these "duplication" factories but their government doesn't even care about it's own people, you can't expect them to care much about our laws.

[SeizeCTRL]

I was in Hong Kong back in 99 and I was amazed how what was available from software, hardware to movies and music. It was ungodly cheap... how can you pass up Photoshop for $1.50? ;)

I guess when you only make $.75 cents a day, you're only source for entertainment is pirated stuff.

[usualsuspect87]

i don't understand why this is even published. It might have been worthwhile news if it were dvd screener that leaked, but who in their right mind can handle watching a cam or even a telesync?

Start offering VOD over xbox or set-top box for different rates! If you know you have a craptastic movie, let me watch it for a dollar, not 4 or 6. I'm willing to pay a premium for quality movies, but there are only about 5 worth more than a few bucks in a year. i'm willing to watch ridiculously horrible movies like harold and kumar, but i can guarantee that i'm not going to give up 6 bucks for it.

[telestarnext]

I agree, if it was a screener, thats news. cams are available within hours of a movie release. This report reads like "Within an hour after taking viagra, I got a ***dy"

[gsmiller88]

The two cinemas around here are such low quality that a cam release of a movie is actually better than what I can go pay to see.

[pol;0987]

ok, so a film costs $75MM to make and the studio should give it away for free? no drm no nothing? $75MM and no worries, here's our ip, do with it what you will? ok.

And Greg Sandoval, youre a real nitwit for posting this "story". Its like saying, hey look, i found an article on the web on how to kill old people and not get caught. Murder is wrong and so is piracy, you dont think that telling people its out their isn't going to encourage this behavior? Journalist, I think not.

[benjwah]

@Chewwy23: It's always a slow news day with Mr. Sandoval. Unless he's slandering Steve Wozniak, but then he's making the news, not breaking it.