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Movies Piracy

Thousands of Pirates Tricked Into Downloading Fake 'Tenet' Torrents (torrentfreak.com) 98

Posted by BeauHD from the good-luck dept.
The official premiere of Tenet has drawn many people to the movie theaters this week. On pirate sites, there's been plenty of interest too, as thousands of people are being tricked into downloading fake copies. Pirates are not the only ones being fooled though, as Warner Bros. has its eyes set on fake releases too. TorrentFreak reports: All around the world, millions of people have waited in anticipation for the release of Christopher Nolan's sci-fi thriller 'Tenet.' The film was initially scheduled to be released in July but, after several pandemic-related delays, Warner Bros. moved the premiere ahead to the end of August. [...] According to one anti-piracy expert, Tenet's release has all the ingredients for a "perfect storm for piracy." This prediction prompted us to take a look at how Tenet is doing on pirate sites today. This question is not hard to answer, as there is no 'real' pirated copy of the film out there. Instead, sites are overwhelmed with fake Tenet releases.

We didn't have to look far. Most torrent sites and other download portals have plenty of Tenet copies. Or at least, that's what uploaders lead users to believe. This includes The Pirate Bay, which faces a moderation backlog, by the looks of it. Most seasoned pirates will know how to avoid these fake torrents. That said, major titles such as Tenet often attract the attention of many novice users too, who will undoubtedly be disappointed. And not just because they can't see the film. These suspicious releases can lead to all sorts of malware, viruses, and worse. The two we downloaded appeared relatively harmless. They included a 700MB video file that shows a still image, asking people to check the readme file. The readme message itself sends people to a suspicious site that requests credit card details "for verification purposes." Needless to say, we declined that offer.
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Thousands of Pirates Tricked Into Downloading Fake 'Tenet' Torrents More

Thousands of Pirates Tricked Into Downloading Fake 'Tenet' Torrents

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  • Most seasoned pirates will know how to avoid th... (Score:3)

    by h33t l4x0r ( 4107715 ) on Saturday August 29, 2020 @03:11AM (#60452020)
    Ahoy, ye jus' look fer the skull and bones icon, mateys. It's a marker o' trust, arr.

    • Arrr. Movie studios've bin doin' this for yearrrrs.

    • Movie studios continue to be dumbasses (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 29, 2020 @07:40AM (#60452370)

      First off, this has been going on forever. Do a search for *ANY* movie, even fairly obscure ones, and you will find a vdeo that doesn't play accompanied by a small executable file with the message "if the video doesn't play install this codec".

      Then, there's this:

      This week, Tenet officially premiered in several countries . . . . . . Others, including the US, Russia, Japan and China, will have to wait a bit longer.

      The dumbasses at the movie studios still haven't figured out that releasing things at different times around the world results in more "piracy", not less.

      Fuck'em all.

      • The dumbasses at the movie studios still haven't figured out that releasing things at different times around the world results in more "piracy", not less.

        Not only that, but there's still a serious pandemic going on and they're expecting people to go to the movie theaters?! They're not just dumbasses, they're insane.

      • "The dumbasses at the movie studios still haven't figured out that releasing things at different times around the world results in more "piracy", not less."

        You get to dictate when and where movies are released? Entitled much?

    • Don't download illegally, or if you "really" gotta have it, WAIT a month for the rankings of the seeders/leachers to show you which one might be a legit illegal copy.

  • Why not just find a reliable download site and just download the file?

    Then there are no issues with torrenting/sharing/uploading.

    I'll admit if I was going out to a movie theater, Nolan movies are generally worth the price of admission...

    • Re:Torrents? (Score:4, Interesting)

      by Joce640k ( 829181 ) on Saturday August 29, 2020 @05:49AM (#60452180) Homepage

      Why not just find a reliable download site and just download the file?

      Well for one thing: It's not even available legally yet, ie. no pirate copies either.

      This is just people going, "OMG! OMG!!!! OMG!!! there's something new out there and I haven't got it yet!!!"

      (Or maybe the entire article is submarine advertising for the movie... trying to make people think that pirating will be super-difficult, so they should pay instead!)

      • This is just people going, "OMG! OMG!!!! OMG!!! there's something new out there and I haven't got it yet!!!"

        Pretty much. I just wait for it to eventually appear on some legit streaming service whose password someone has shared with me. Totally above board, and I don't have to bother about dodgy warez. It's not like I'm going to die if I don't see it the minute it's released (YMMV if you're in the US).

        The delay also means I get to decide whether I want to see something that turns out to be a stinker or not. I never watched the GoT final season, for example, because after waiting awhile to get it legitimately

        • I never watched the GoT final season, for example, because after waiting awhile to get it legitimately it turned out not to be worth getting by any means.

          The first few episodes were OK, some excellent battle scenes.

          Just skip the ending.

          • Still not sure if I want to risk spoiling the earlier seasons. The second-to-last season was already going off into the weeds a bit in places... I'll give it another year or so to decide.

            • I'm that way about Star Wars. I saw the original film in the theater in 1977 and have avoided all the sequels (defined as movies that followed the first one). I am considering someday viewing the second film, and maybe the third. Definitely none of the others.

              • Re:Torrents? (Score:4, Insightful)

                by arglebargle_xiv ( 2212710 ) on Saturday August 29, 2020 @08:13AM (#60452424)
                What others? There were only three. There have been some vaguely Star-wars-themed Disney movies, but they don't really count do they?
                • There was ONE. and a couple of knock-offs that Lucas should have sued for trademark infringement.

                  • The correct point to stop watching is when you see the first Ewok.

                    And definitely don't watch any modern versions the first two. Get the fan-made versions.

              • I'm that way about Star Wars. I saw the original film in the theater in 1977 and have avoided all the sequels (defined as movies that followed the first one). I am considering someday viewing the second film, and maybe the third. Definitely none of the others.

                Star Wars was truly epic when you experienced it with 1970s eyes/ears. These days it's just another movie*.

                There's really not much point in seeing the others now.

                (*) Actually it's gotten much worse since Lucas made it family friendly.

        • It's not like I'm going to die if I don't see it the minute it's released (YMMV if you're in the US).

          How will you be able to hold your head up in public if you haven't seen the absolute newest thing yet?

      • Why not just find a reliable download site and just download the file?

        Well for one thing: It's not even available legally yet, ie. no pirate copies either.

        Except for the part of the article which says:

        "This week, Tenet officially premiered in several countries including Australia, Canada, France, Germany, South Korea and the United Kingdom."

        At this point, I'm sure a pirated copy of the movie exists, shot by someone holding a video camera in a movie theater, while having an epileptic seizure throughout the entire movie.

        • Re:Torrents? (Score:4, Funny)

          by Joce640k ( 829181 ) on Saturday August 29, 2020 @10:42AM (#60452714) Homepage

          At this point, I'm sure a pirated copy of the movie exists, shot by someone holding a video camera in a movie theater, while having an epileptic seizure throughout the entire movie.

          The new iPhones have image stabilization.

          Besides: The sound of popcorn munching, ringtones, and other people's heads at the bottom of the screen give a genuine cinema experience that Blu-Ray never quite captures.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Shimbo ( 100005 )

          At this point, I'm sure a pirated copy of the movie exists, shot by someone holding a video camera in a movie theater, while having an epileptic seizure throughout the entire movie.

          If Inception is anything to go by, that's probably the look that Christopher Nolan was looking for.

      • (Or maybe the entire article is submarine advertising for the movie... trying to make people think that pirating will be super-difficult, so they should pay instead!)

        Ding ding ding.

        I myself will pass on this latest pile of Hollywood bullshit.

    • There are no reliable download sites for pirated movies, not for the general public anyway. I'm sure a few exist for "the scene" but they'd be by invitation only.

      As for the movie, definitely something worth going to the cinema for. Even though I have my misgivings about stories around time travel... Time travel is incredibly hard to write about, and in most stories it ends up as a crutch for poor writing, a deus ex machina, or as a device to needlessly complicate the story to make it more "deep".

      • There are no reliable download sites for pirated movies.

        Yes there are, eg. The Pirate Bay puts little stickers on the torrents of "trusted" and "VIP" uploaders.

        • The GP is referring to "download sites" as just some "plain download" sites (presumably like rapidshare or whatever the current equivalent is) because he follows up with "Then there are no issues with torrenting/sharing/uploading.". So TPB doesn't fit this.

          • Ah, OK. I hadn't grokked that part. I think download sites disappeared when eMule/torrent came along.

            Nobody in their right mind would (or could) host a movie download site for the general public.

            There's a few that pretend to be, but you have to install their special downloader software first. Yeah, right...

        • There are no reliable download sites for pirated movies.

          Yes there are, eg. The Pirate Bay puts little stickers on the torrents of "trusted" and "VIP" uploaders.

          And if you stick to downloading only those, it is remarkably safe and reliable.

      • Do you have many ideas for good time travel movies?

        • Re: (Score:1, Offtopic)

          by prisoner-of-enigma ( 535770 )

          Do you have many ideas for good time travel movies?

          Come see me yesterday and I'll tell you all about them. You already told me tomorrow you liked all my story ideas.

      • There are no reliable download sites for pirated movies, not for the general public anyway.

        https://www.yst.am/ [www.yst.am]
        http://rarbg.to/ [rarbg.to]

        You're welcome.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by znrt ( 2424692 )

        There are no reliable download sites for pirated movies

        right. download sites aren't the same as torrent files, which is what this is about.

        regarding torrent files, given that they've been the source of about 99% of the movies i've watched for decades i'd argue they're quite reliable.

  • That's news? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by BAReFO0t ( 6240524 ) on Saturday August 29, 2020 @03:42AM (#60452048)

    The organized crime already did that, when Kazaa was the file sharing software of choice. And it did not stop anyone. We simply started using edonkey and magnet links on trustes sites like The Pirste Bay.
    So you can stop sucking Content Mafia dick now, dear author. Theft is still theft and imaginary property is still racketeering and not a real business model and incompatible with basic physics, and artist abuse is still artist abuse, and information is still free.

  • Not a new scam (Score:4, Insightful)

    by DrXym ( 126579 ) on Saturday August 29, 2020 @03:45AM (#60452052)
    This has been happening for years - a torrent containing an (encrypted) .zip, or an .exe or (lol) a .wmv using a unknown codec. They all rely on the downloader's desperation to see the content and do something dumb like sign up to scams or install malware. Even in piracy, if something looks too good to be true it probably is.

    • Re: (Score:2, Offtopic)

      by NoNonAlphaCharsHere ( 2201864 )
      My personal favorite of those was the ".scr" (Windows screensaver) extension, which, (surprise, surprise) had full Windows privs to do whatever it wanted to...

      • My personal favorite of those was the ".scr" (Windows screensaver) extension, which, (surprise, surprise) had full Windows privs to do whatever it wanted to...

        Or the 1970s gay porn movies. Who can forget those?

  • New movie? (Score:3)

    by AndyKron ( 937105 ) on Saturday August 29, 2020 @04:28AM (#60452096)
    So there's a new movie out? Does this happen often?

  • How can you possibly (Score:5, Funny)

    by phantomfive ( 622387 ) on Saturday August 29, 2020 @04:29AM (#60452100) Journal
    How can you possibly be interested in Tenet when Bill and Ted Face the Music just came out? People don't appreciate art.
  • Move along, nothing to see here.
  • It's not just Tenet. Ignore user:CupidKills on TPB I have reported but as it says, they're facing a backlog.

  • they missed a huge opportunity (Score:3, Funny)

    by Sleeping Kirby ( 919817 ) on Saturday August 29, 2020 @05:32AM (#60452150)
    to rick-roll a huge amount of people.

  • That said, major titles such as Tenet often attract the attention of many novice users too, who will undoubtedly be disappointed.

    Well most movies out of Hollywood these days are completely crap so disappointment should always be expected outcome.

    • That said, major titles such as Tenet often attract the attention of many novice users too, who will undoubtedly be disappointed.

      Well most movies out of Hollywood these days are completely crap so disappointment should always be expected outcome.

      These days?

  • "On pirate sites, there's been plenty of interest too, as thousands of people are being tricked into downloading fake copies. "

    Tricked? That's the bloody newbies who can't wait for verified torrents.
    Has happened for every new movies ,every fucking week, since the dawn of piracy.

    We will download the real thing by the millions as well, since it needs less than a minute to do so.

    And now I have to go feed my parrot.(Aaagrh)

  • For the fifty-second time: if you call them pirates, they're not going to stop.

    Start call people that drink V8 and exercise in the morning Pirates; we will all drop a much needed 30 lbs.

  • This is what I have against torrents (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Applehu Akbar ( 2968043 ) on Saturday August 29, 2020 @08:54AM (#60452470)

    This medium works well for finding the most popular content, which is easily available on legitimate streaming sources. But if you're looking for a film that you just can't find anywhere else, nobody will be seeding it.

    • This medium works well for finding the most popular content, which is easily available on legitimate streaming sources. But if you're looking for a film that you just can't find anywhere else, nobody will be seeding it.

      Your odds of finding torrents of obscure works are still considerably better than the sanctioned streaming services. Somebody somewhere is just as weird as you are. It may take months for a seed to come back online, but what do you care? Your robot slave will sit patiently trying to find it and get it for you for as long as you provide it electricity. Whereas on the sanctioned services, you are guaranteed never to find it. Hollywood hates the existence of its own back catalog. They fought in court to

      • It may take months for a seed to come back online, but what do you care? Your robot slave will sit patiently trying to find it and get it for you for as long as you provide it electricity. Whereas on the sanctioned services, you are guaranteed never to find it.

        Exactly. I have many torrents (mostly older music) sitting there stalled, but one day that one person with all the pieces happens to come online. And it makes for regular pleasant surprises - "Oh, look what downloaded today!"

        Set it and forget it. Stuff shows up eventually.

    • I actually find the more obscure it is the more likely that a torrent is the only place to easily obtain it.
    • If you gain access to private trackers, ones with an invitation system and a limited membership, you'll find a much better experience than on public trackers. A properly designed private tracker will have a system to incentivize actions beneficial to the community, such as long term seeding and bonuses for seeding files with few other seeders. Basically, don't blame the medium for the way you've seen it used in the public / anonymous sphere.
    • That's what DC++ is for

  • I was one of three people.

    I did not understand it.

    I asked the other two people, at the end of the movie, if they understood it

    They started laughing

  • Should i download the copy with 34 seeds or the one with 24,736? Hmmmmm...
  • only the most gullible moron would be tricked into downloading the fakes. Just like all the hundreds of thousands of other fakes they are all approximately the same size. They have been doing this for years and years and you can spot the fakes a mile off if you have 2 brain cells to rub together as they put very little effort into making the fake download believable.

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