Illegal copies of Boy circulating the internet

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Tue, 22 Jun 2010 4:02p.m. UPDATED 6:05p.m.

Te Aho Aho Eketone-Whitu in Boy

Te Aho Aho Eketone-Whitu in Boy

By Kate Rodger

Illegal copies of hit Kiwi film Boy are being downloaded from the internet, potentially causing millions of dollars in losses.

The film has grossed almost $9 million at the New Zealand box office and has just played at the Sydney Film Festival, where it was awarded the Audience Award for Fiction Feature Film.

The New Zealand Film Commission confirmed to 3 News they discovered the illegal copies of Boy two weeks ago, after a tip-off from overseas, and have kept a lid on it to prevent further downloads.

Tony Eaton at the New Zealand Federation Against Copyright Theft (FACT) was notified at that time and is currently awaiting cyber-forensic examination results.

A spokesperson for the NZFC says the most important thing to them is where the copy came from. If sufficient evidence is found, the NZFC can lay a complaint with police, and charges can be laid under Section 131 of the Copyright Act.

The person who originally uploaded the film onto the pirate website could face five years jail and fines of up to $10,000.

The last time piracy caused a major effect to a Kiwi film was Sione’s Wedding, which is said to have resulted in a loss of over $1 million at the New Zealand box office.

Boy is released in Australian cinemas on August 26 and will be released in New Zealand on DVD later in the year.

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Comments

29 Jun 2010 08:15p.m.

Tom Revill wrote:

I am a student studying piracy as a part of my masters at Massey University. Needless to say piracy is a complex issue. The creative industry needs to be on top of piracy by releasing DVD's before pirates. The New Zealand creative industry needs to look into multiple ways of distributing films simultaneously and should not rely on the box office alone. @Lightseed you make some good points there allot of my research backs up what you say there. @Lawrence D’Oliveiro allot of statistics that the movie and music industry use are inaccurate anyway. Have a look at this website for example http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2008/10/dodgy-digits-behind-the-war-on-piracy.ars/. As we can see the industry over blows the issue out of proportion with statistics in order to preserve old business models. Do not get me wrong artists and creators need to be paid, but the way the industry is going about it now is counterproductive. The creative industry need to work with the consumer improve your product distribution. Don't drive them away, like you’re doing now.

25 Jun 2010 02:18p.m.

nick a wrote:

the dvd,s people are buying over internet have been tracked back to waihou bay...where the movie was shot and the director grew up....gold ...absolute gold...classic

24 Jun 2010 04:20a.m.

Toby wrote:

I might download this movie, or I might not. Either way, I'm not going to pay to see it.

23 Jun 2010 12:24p.m.

Nick Taylor wrote:

And I've just found out that this movie hasn't been released in Australia, where a lot of NZers live. Think that's had an impact on sales? To quote someone else "It’s no accident, of course, that this story blows just as Parliament is considering a Bill to fine people heavily of cut off their Internet for file sharing. The industry has obviously made a calculation about how late in the hype cycle for “Boy” it could go and still get close to the Select Committee hearings, likely to be next month." Ring any bells? So are you complicit in this propaganda, or merely gulliable? Can we have a prime-time apology please?

23 Jun 2010 03:38a.m.

Jason wrote:

Maybe Kate Rodger should actually engage her brain before writing another article. She says that the Sione's Wedding 'piracy' caused over a million dollars to be lost at the box office. That is impossible. Do the math, I can't remember what a movie ticket cost back then so lets say $15 - now lets take this $1,000,000 figure and divide it by $15. The result is 66,666. So that means that 'piracy' stopped over 66,000 people from going to see Sione's Wedding. Bollocks. What stopped people going to see Sione's Wedding was the fact that it was shithouse. Kate Rodger epic fail. Again, we have been Kate Rodgered.

22 Jun 2010 11:45p.m.

jake sparrow wrote:

I agree with most that Siones wedding was not that good of a movie because the actors couldnt act and the story was average...Boy on the otherhand is a great kiwi movie with people who can act.When a movie like this is online then it is fair game,sad to say.People who download movies more likely than not were never going to go to the movies anyway. Good luck to tony eaton and his crack team of specialists who are going to be looking for a scapegoat( maybe someone might snitch like last time?.The Pirate trade is more advanced over the last 4 or so years.So Dont hold your breath to long mate!!!

22 Jun 2010 11:02p.m.

Hone wrote:

I don't know the inner workings of DVD rental places and how they tie in with film producers, investors etc, but likme has been mentioned, the average person who will download a movie would never have bought it regardless, it's the rental joints who must lose out big time. Anyway, this article will defo trigger the download of both Boy, and Sione's Wedding, maybe 3 News should be sued for aiding and abetting?

22 Jun 2010 10:25p.m.

JFK wrote:

Thanks to this article, Boy downloads would have gone through the roof. I guess the producers of this film can thank MediaWorks for this coverage and subsiquent losses in revenue.

22 Jun 2010 08:19p.m.

V wrote:

Boy 1* (not worth the D/L).

22 Jun 2010 06:53p.m.

Nick Taylor wrote:

You know, there's lots of wailing about the demise of "proper" reporting... but really, when you produce fatuous, lying, shilling nonsense like this, really - you deserve everything you get. This article is crap from so many angles it's hard to know where to start. So let's start with shilling. The degree with which you parrot the corporate line, and blandly repeat their highly dubious figures is absolutely pathetic. Where is your evidence that file-sharing hurts sales? Hmm? Any? You don't have any because there isn't any - I've been following this "debate" for the last 11 years, and there is not one shred of evidence that file-sharing hurts sales (any more than radio, video tapes, cassette tapes etc etc), and in fact repeated studies show that file-sharers actually spend more on music/films than anyone else. How do you know that copies circulating the internet aren't actually acting like (payola-free) radio? How do you know they're not actually increasing sales? You don't. Know where the unnervingly round figure of "1 million dollars" came from? I'll tell you where. It was made up. Out of nothing - based on the voodoo-accountancy assumption that every download means a lost sale... and really, they've no idea how many people actually see these downloads so they make up a number. A big one... to make their figures look good. The whole war against piracy is based on industry lies. Obvious, obvious lies. Report that? No chance - because the reason you exist is to sell audiences to advertisers - from the same industry. You're failing in your duties (as the 4th Estate) the electorate. And you know... I wouldn't care, but democracy, freedom of speech, privacy civil-liberties are all being attacked by governments world-wide, off the back of blatant lies from the entertainment industry... you know, the ones you repeat here. If you've got a spine, you'll apologize to the New Zealand public for giving them misleading information.