Piracy comes in two guises – hard copy (physical goods) and soft copy (electronic files). Press and check discs are one of the largest sources of pirated films.

Hard copy piracy, e.g. DVDs copied in Asia or Russia and made available on the black market, has been prevalent for years. It is largely controlled by organised crime, with black market distributors able to press and ship DVDs from Asia for less than $1.

There are a number of ways this pirated copy is obtained:

  • Cinemas: Films in a cinema are recorded with a digital camera that can then be easily copied to DVD, VHS or VCD format (or posted on the internet for download). This is normally the worst quality pirated product.
  • Screeners: This is the most common form of piracy. Screeners (with a time code burnt in) are commonly sent out to territories for audio dubbing and subtitling. These are sometimes obtained by pirates and copied onto all formats, including DVD.
  • Digi-masters: Digi-masters are similar to screeners but are of higher quality. Normally passed on from company insiders or third party affiliates.
  • Press and check discs: These are the sample discs sent to the press and DVD industry insiders. They are similar to the finished product but lack the label and sleeve art and packaging. These often end up being pirated.
  • Parallel imports: When territories release on different dates, territories within the same geographic region (and with the same DVD encrypted region code, e.g. Latin America, region 4) run the risk of having the finished product (pirated or legal) from a neighbouring country being imported in advance of the official release.
  • Copies of legally obtained DVDs: These are purchased on the open market and reproduced to distribute on the internet or as copied discs. This form of piracy particularly causes damage to the home video market.

Soft copy pirating is a newer threat. It consists of copying and distributing pirated content via the internet in the following formats:

  • Peer-to-peer technology (P2P): A type of network that allows users to access parts of each others’ hard drives, enabling files to be copied from one computer to another. Unlike the client/server model, content is stored in the user’s PC, which makes it difficult to discover and disable pirate sites.
  • Streaming media: Sound (audio) and pictures (video) that are transmitted on the internet in a streaming or continuous fashion, using data packets. The most effective reception of streaming media requires some form of broadband technology.
  • Internet relay chat: A system for internet chatting where users exchange information and digital content in realtime to one another.
  • File transfer protocol (FTP): Allows users to download files from other computers on the internet. This can be a simple way to distribute content to a defined number of users. 

The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.