Pirated movie release types

With regard to warez groups or organized piracy groups,

a movie is usually released in several formats and dierent
versions because the primary sources used by a group for
a particular movie may vary. Pirated movies are primarily
released by these organized groups, commonly referred
to as scene groups or warez groups. The rst release of
a movie is usually of a lower quality (due to a lack of
sources), and is eventually replaced with higher-quality
releases as better sources become available.

standard and quickly became the most widely used format for the scene. With help from associates who either
worked for a movie theater, movie production company,
or video rental company, groups were supplied with massive amounts of material, and new releases began appearing at a very fast pace. When version 4.0 of DivX was
released, the codec went commercial and the need for
a free codec, Xvid (then called XviD, DivX backwards), was created. Today, Xvid has replaced DivX almost entirely. Although the DivX codec has evolved from
version 4 to 10.6 during this time, it is banned[2] in the
warez scene due to its commercial nature.

'Background'

In February 2012, a consortium of popular piracy groups

ocially announced x264, the free H.264 codec, as the
new standard for releases,[3] replacing the previous format, which was Xvid wrapped in an AVI container. The
move to H.264 also obsoletes AVI in favor of MP4 and
Matroska, although AVI video les are still common.

Cam releases were the early attempts at movie piracy

which were implemented by recording the on-screen projection of a movie in a cinema. This enabled groups
to pirate movies which were in their theatrical period
(not released for personal entertainment). But because
these releases often suered distinctly low quality and required undetected videotaping in movie theaters, alternative methods were sought.

2 Release formats

Beginning in 1998, feature lms began to be released on

the internet by warez groups prior to their theatrical release. These pirated versions usually came in the form
of VCD or SVCD. A prime example was the release of
American Pie.[1] This is notable for three reasons:

Below is a table of pirated movie release types along with

respective sources, ranging from the lowest quality to the
highest. Scene rules dene in which format and way each
release type is to be packaged and distributed.[4]

The acronym HC in some releases refers to Hard Coded

1. It was released in an uncensored workprint format. subtitles.
The later theatrical release was cut down by several
minutes and had scenes reworked to avoid nudity to
pass MPAA guidelines.
3 References
2. It was released nearly two months prior to its release in theaters (CNN Headline News reported on
its early release).

[1] Video CD: American Pie. iSONews.

[2] The XviD Releasing Standards 2005.
[3] H.264 Codec Now the 'Ocial' Standard.

3. It was listed by the movie company as one of the

reasons it released an unrated DVD edition.

[4] AfterDawn Glossary.

[5] VCDQuality Terms Lists recent video releases in the
warez scene.

In October 1999, DeCSS was released. This program allowed anyone to remove the CSS encryption on a DVD.
Although its authors only intended the software to be used
for playback purposes, it also meant that one could decode the content perfectly for ripping; combined with the
DivX 3.11 Alpha codec released shortly after, the new
codec increased video quality from near VHS to almost
DVD quality when encoding from a DVD source.

[6] Telesync AfterDawn: Glossary of technology terms &

acronyms
[7] What does WP mean?". Retrieved 2009-11-02.
[8] What is PPVRip?".
[9] Music_Video_Council_Rules_v6.0-MVC. 2011-0923. Retrieved 2013-01-22. DDC refers to Downloadable/Direct Digital Content which is not freely available

The early DivX releases were mostly internal for group

use, but once the codec spread, it became accepted as a
1

[10] Wes Finley-Price CNN.com Webmaster (2009-1109).

Pirated copy of District 9 posted online.
scitech.blogs.cnn.com. Retrieved 2009-11-02.
[11] What does R5 mean?". Retrieved 2009-11-02.
[12] Man.on.a.Ledge.2012.R5.DVDRip.XviD.AC3.5.1.HQ.HiveCM8.nfo. Retrieved 2012-10-04.
[13] The
2009
DVDR
releasing
standards.
THE.2009.DVDR.RELEASING.STANDARDSTDRS2K9
[14] TV release rules v1.5 (2002-11-16)". Archived from the
original on 2016-01-19.
[15] The
BDR
releasing
standards.
THE.2010.BDR.RELEASING.STANDARDS

REFERENCES

Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

4.1

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4.2

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