"Titanic" Video Ships...on Black Market

by Daniel Frankel April 29, 1998, 6:15 p.m. PT

East Coast pirates have taken the Titanic.

The galaxy's top-grossing movie, grossing north of $1.5 billion on Earth alone, has become the No. 1 bootlegged video on the black market. Since January, the Motion Picture Association of America's video privacy unit has seized 1,500 illegal Titanic VHS tapes from street vendors in New York, with dozens more turning up in New Jersey, Philadelphia, Chicago and Cleveland.

Perhaps most disconcerting to Paramount, the studio controlling the ship flick's U.S. rights, is that the clandestine copies aren't your standard-issue, shabby looking bootlegs. (Just as portrayed in that old Seinfeld episode, many are taped by some guy who manages to sneak a camcorder into the theater.)

The illicit Titanic video, streetailing for $10, comes on two high-quality cassettes, elegantly packaged in a sleeve bearing images from the film.

"It looks factory fresh," MPAA spokesman Bill Shannon tells Associated Press.

So, how did the street hawkers obtain a good master copy when Paramount hasn't even announced a release date for the legit Titanic home video? Authorities believe some of the 5,400 screening copies mailed to Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences members a few months back--the people who awarded the film a record-tying 11 Oscars--ended up in pirate hands.

"The Academy members know that these tapes are not to be distributed and sold or copied," Paramount's anti-piracy operations director Anat Levy tells AP.

According to the MPAA, bootleg videos cut into film industry profits, taking $250 million a year from U.S. sales and $2.5 billion worldwide. Each year studios file hundreds of lawsuits against pirates; in 1997 alone, police confiscated 570,000 illegal videocassettes.

-- Rose (rose364@earthlink.net), April 30, 1998

Answers

DID OSCAR VOTERS SELL TITANIC VIDEOS TO PIRATES?

Video tapes of Titanic, sent out to voting members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences prior to this year's Oscar presentations, were used as masters for bootleg prints of the movie now circulating on the black market, the anti-piracy unit of the MPAA said Wednesday. The Association indicated that the film has become the pirates' top seller.

NEWARK, N.J. -- "Titanic" is already out on video -- on the black market. After smashing box office records worldwide, the ocean liner disaster flick is fast becoming one of the most popular pirated video on the streets of several East Coast cities. The Motion Picture Association of America's video piracy unit has seized 1,500 illegal "Titanic" videos from street vendors in New York City since January. Dozens more have been confiscated in Newark, Philadelphia, Chicago and Cleveland. The two-tape video, selling for $10, comes in a professional-looking sleeve bearing photographs from the film, said Bill Shannon, who heads the association's East Coast anti-piracy unit.

"It looks factory fresh," Shannon said. Paramount, the studio with domestic rights to the film, isn't surprised.

"It wouldn't be unusual that this movie is heavily pirated," said Anat Levy, the executive director of anti-piracy operations for the studio.

"It is the best-selling movie of all time."

"Titanic" has grossed $560.6 million in theaters nationwide. Paramount hasn't even decided on an official release date yet for a home videocassette. A growing number of the pirate tapes are believed to be copies of some of the videotapes sent to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' 5,400 voters. Paramount mailed a copy to each voter in its Oscar campaign. The film won a record-tying 11 awards, including best picture.

"The Academy members know that these tapes are not to be distributed and sold or copied," Levy said, noting that each Academy tape came with instructions saying just that. Other "Titanic" videos are made by people who smuggle camcorders into theaters, Shannon said. But these are of very poor quality, with grainy images, background noise and the occasional audience member walking in front of the camera. Bootleg videos cut into film industry profits, taking $250 million a year from U.S. sales and $2.5 billion worldwide, said Ken Jacobsen, director of the MPAA's anti-piracy program. Studios annually file hundreds of lawsuits against pirates and police confiscated 570,000 illegal videocassettes last year. But why buy a videotape when the movie is still in theaters?

"It'll cost them 10 bucks and six of their friends will watch it. They've saved themselves 38 bucks," said Paterson Police Lt. Jim Smith. The pirate market tends to mirror the legitimate movie market, Shannon said.

"Maybe midsummer, we'll be talking 'Godzilla' instead of 'Titanic,"' he said.

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-- Dan Draghici (ddraghic@sprint.ca), April 30, 1998.