30Jul The Dark Knight Torrent Used To Mess With Hollywood
The Dark Knight is breaking all box office records but it’s not all good news for its distributer Warner Bros.
The popular Torrent site, The Pirate Bay, has jumped in to taunt the movie industry over its ability to provide the movie for free.
The hype surrounding this film, the sequel to Batman Begins, has been incredible, with people of all ages soaking up the brilliant reviews and then going to see what all the fuss is about.
Not everyone will visit the cinema to see it though, preferring instead to find an illegal copy of the movie on the Internet, probably in the form of a torrent. Even those that watch it at the cinema may still download a pirated copy to re-watch the movie at home rather than waiting for a DVD release.
The Pirate Bay Fosters Publicity
The Pirate Bay, the largest BitTorrent site on the Web, knows the potential of this movie and is using the hype surrounding the release of The Dark Knight to foster some publicity.
As pointed out by TorrentFreak, The Pirate Bay has changed its name to The Pirate Bat and has a new image on the homepage (pictured above) instead of the regular logo. When you click this image you are taken to a search for The Dark Knight.
The MPAA (Movie Picture Association of America) has, for a long time, tried to get The Pirate Bay closed down, but its Swedish location has allowed it to prosper and escape U.S copyright law.
The Pirate Bay is well known for antagonizing the movie industry and its flagrant ability to help distribute pirated copies of The Dark Knight is just another example of The Pirate Bay’s love for taunting the movie industry.
Pirated Copy On The Web
For its part, Warner Bros., the studio behind the film, tried its best to stop a pirated copy of the film leaking on to the Web. Soon after release, the police arrested a man who tried to record the movie with a camcorder.
However, the fight was unsuccessful and a copy of the film soon ended up making its way on to various torrent sites, published by a group calling themselves TradingStandards.
The Pirates Are Winning
While the quality is poor, as often is the case with pirated films yet to be released on DVD, that won’t stop thousands of torrent users downloading it.
You have to wonder what Hollywood and the movie industry can do to fight this. Apart from occasionally managing to shut down the odd Torrent site here and there, it seems the big boys like The Pirate Bay aren’t afraid, and will continue to mess with the status quo.
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