Saturday, October 27, 2007

Coming To A Barber Shop Near You

American Gangster doesn't open until November 2nd, but a high quality bootleg has already hit the Internet and according to the Wall Street Journal the copy is so good it has Universal studios worried. John Desmond, an executive with online piracy-research company MediaSentry, told the WSJ that if a bootleg copy is going to be offered online, it's best for the studios if it's of poor quality (like movies camcorded in theaters) since most consumers would rather buy a theater ticket than watch a poor-quality bootleg copy. The bootleg version of American Gangster appears to be in pristine condition and lacks even the "not-for-distribution" scroll that identifies screeners.