Even with all of this onerous encryption and DRM, it's not hard to find pirated copies of movies. It makes me think that the sacrifice in ownership rights for the theaters over their equipment isn't worth it.
It also contains watermarks. So theatres which failed to prevent recording will run into serious issues. See https://dcpomatic.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2372
Most pirated copies aren't from theatrical releases; they mostly come out when the titles are available on streaming/blu-ray. DRM might be a failure in other fields, but it's working pretty well in this particular case.
Yep, and those pirated copies are DRM free, work everywhere, no HDCP and other crap, no internet connection needed, so they're "better" in that way too (not just price-wise).
Totally possible that watermark identifies cinemas and showtimes uniquely, and that pirates are due for a lifetime of prosecution. Or that studios will shut down some cinemas, until it stops.
For 15 years you let paid options progress. Then fewer people pirate, then you catch the rest. At the beginning you don’t see it putting its clamps; then suddenly you don’t find piracy anywhere.
Yes, and those paid options were one subscription that had "everything". Then paid options broke up into 5 different subscription, some not allowing more than 2 devices, some having ads in paid plans, some not available in your country, some only having seasons 3 and 5 of the series, some having the series you wanted to watch but remove it half way through, some give you a "buy" button for the media, but then take the movies away after a few months, etc.
And people go back to piracy, because the user experience is better.
How are groups getting the high quality digital dumps of some movies then?
I don't think new theatre releases are generally getting leak in digital formats anymore until they hit streaming which can sometimes be as soon as weeks or couple months after original release. Obviously 'tele-syncs' (cameras capturing the film) still exist but that wasn't your question. The one exception to this can be oscar movie season when studios release films via a special Apple TV app and that be be slightly less secure (though still water-marked).
I would ask you to support your claim of 'high quality digital dumps' by citing one that has come out in the last couple years. See https://predb.net/
> A telesync (TS) is a bootleg recording of a film recorded in a movie theater, often (although not always) filmed using a professional camera on a tripod in the projection booth. The audio of a TS is captured with a direct connection to the sound source (often an FM microbroadcast provided for the hearing-impaired, or from a drive-in theater). If a direct connection from the sound source is not possible, sometimes the bootlegger will tape or conceal wireless microphones close to the speakers, as it is better than a mic on the camera. A TS can be considered a higher quality type of cam, that has the potential of better-quality audio and video.
Fascinating read and I think an accessible presentation of a lot of the concepts / framework and mechanics of this type of system.