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With the pre-release leaking of Denzel Washington’s upcoming flick, high profile and high cost “American Gangster,” discussions seem to be increasing in regards to anti-piracy measures, and the general plight of the film industry. With a budget exceeding $100 million, and hopes of “American Gangster” winning an Oscar, the fact that the movie has been leaked and distributed on the Internet is rather worrisome for Universal. And what’s cause for additional worry is the high quality of the leaked film, which could result in even fewer people heading to the box office to see the movie.

At this point, it doesn’t matter so much where the film industry will put the blame. We’ve seen the cases brought against YouTube, which is prime breeding ground for pirated content, and we’ve seen online video-sharing networks like Dailymotion install anti-piracy technology to help curb the anger of the film industry. That doesn’t seem to be enough.

And in the particular case of YouTube’s recent anti-piracy measures, which would require Universal to offer up an original copy of “American Gangster” to the video-sharing network for comparison purposes for incoming uploads, only add to the problem? I can’t imagine Universal agreeing to giving YouTube an original copy of a film that has not been released to theaters. That would be just one more entity which could itself have an individual willing to leak the film. Lionsgate faced similar issues with Michael Moore’s “Sicko.”

So does the film industry need to readjust its way of thinking about the market, its distribution methods, and its ways of monetization? It’s the same thing we’ve seen happen to the music industry, and Hollywood is slowly losing its luster. And what of all the new networks, like Hulu and Crackle, being built by the industry to compete with YouTube? Are these part of the answer to big budget film distribution? They may be sooner than we think. Piracy isn’t going anywhere.

[via wsj]

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