Perspective: From Hollywood to hard drive

Wharton sophomore Jared Katseff wasn't concerned about the possibility of being reprimanded for his file-sharing activities.

But Twentieth Century Fox saw to that.

In early January 2003, Katseff -- who started downloading movies during his freshman year -- received what he called a "threatening letter" via e-mail from MediaForce -- a firm that delivers digital copyright protection services -- on behalf of Fox.

The statement, requesting he take immediate steps to remove the illegal file and stop distributing it, regarded a movie Katseff had downloaded months before and had not even seen yet -- Minority Report.

After receiving this letter, Katseff stopped downloading movies from Kazaa -- but forwarded the e-mail to all his friends with the note, "Look, I got sued!" His roommate bought him a DVD copy of Minority Report as a consolation prize.

"It was more a novelty than anything else, but it was threatening," Katseff said, adding that this "scare tactic" was used to convey that Fox and its peers are "a big scary corporation with gigantic resources, and I can hit you with huge criminal... damages, so stop."

But the letter did not sway Katseff from his sympathies for file sharing.

"There are a lot of movies I want to see -- and students don't have much money," he said. "The sharing ideal has some value and appeal."

Katseff believes that the "piracy" label that entertainment companies place on unauthorized copies of their materials is "ridiculous."

"I understand their process, but artists are making their revenues from concerts. [Downloading] does not deprive the industry of its revenues, it just shifts them to a different source," Katseff said. "File sharing is a natural extension of sharing, which is what we were taught in kindergarten."

He added that, despite the change in technology, people will continue to crave the theater experience.

"A three-inch screen cannot compare to a theater screen," Katseff said, referring to his Archos MP3 player. "Everyone who goes to the movie theater will say that the difference in video quality and sound is so great that the experience is very different -- based on the experience you want, you pick. The Bridge knows that and that's why they're not taking it seriously."

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National Amusements, the company which runs the Bridge: Cinema de Lux, begs to differ.

"It is an issue that we take very seriously as an industry," spokeswoman Jennifer Hanson said.

However, since the Bridge at 40th and Walnut streets has been open for less than a year, the company could not determine whether movie downloading has seriously affected its revenues.

One institution that has been around since before file sharing became a buzzword --the Video Library located at 4040 Locust St. -- said that movie downloading is not a major concern.

"DVDs have hurt us more," Video Library Manager Jennifer Rogin said. "A lot of people don't like watching movies on a computer screen. Right now, [movie downloading] is not one of the biggest problems."

Yet, according to a recent article in The New York Times, Hollywood is "desperately worried" about file sharing and the Motion Picture Association of America estimated that the number of daily movie downloads is between 350,000 and 400,000.

The Financial Times recently reported that the movie industry may be losing about 10 percent of its global turnover due to file sharing.

But not everyone agrees.

Eric Cronin, an Engineering doctoral student at Penn, recently completed a study with AT&T; Labs to determine how quickly movies find their way to "peer-to-peer" networks.

Among other things, the study found that movies are frequently "leaked" to networks from inside the movie industry -- of 285 movies analyzed, 77 percent made their way onto the Internet from someone with inside connections to the movie production or distribution process.

"Speaking personally, I think that calculating [damages] accurately is a nearly impossible thing to do," Cronin wrote in an e-mail. "The industry suffers no direct costs due to online piracy, and therefore all figures on damages are for lost income based on assumptions... not for actual costs...."

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"I started downloading movies when I was a junior in high school, so it's been three years now," said Edward, a College sophomore, who came to downloading movies after a period of experimentation with music on Napster. "A lot of my friends were into computers, so they showed me how to do it."

Edward, who did not want his last name published, became one of many in his community to download and store movie files, even though he wasn't one of the most frequent downloaders.

Even with a cable modem, downloading at home did not offer the optimal conditions that are available on campus.

Yet higher availability has not tempted Edward to download films on a regular basis, and he has copied only one file since his return to campus this year.

"I [download] just when I feel like it," he said. "And I don't download a movie unless it's really good quality."

Time constraints, too, are a big issue -- a file can take anywhere from a few hours to a week to fully download. And then there is the issue of having enough space on one's hard drive. To solve this problem, Edward only keeps the high-quality copies.

"In some respects I can see why people consider it against the law, but I don't see anything wrong with it," Edward said.

"I still go to the movies when they come out, the same as if I couldn't download, and I still buy DVDs," he said, adding that, in any case, he does not download films that are still in theaters, since the versions available on the Internet "are really terrible."

Of course, Edward said, if contacted by one of the large entertainment companies, he would stop downloading files and would remove himself from Kazaa. But, since he does not share the files he copies, Edward is not concerned about this possibility.

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Though students may not be worried, repercussions from file sharing do not only involve large entertainment corporations -- the University administration is also taking measures to limit file sharing.

Penn's Office of Information Security -- which handles investigations of information security violations on campus -- follows the lead of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 -- which requires that "webcasters" pay licensing fees to record companies.

"If we get a complaint, we contact the person and we recommend that they remove the material," Information Security Officer David Millar said. "If there is a second case, the student is referred to the Office of Student Conduct."

When such a case arises, OSC Director Michele Goldfarb said that the student receives a disciplinary reprimand, a request to take down the violating material and is required to participate in educational outreach programs.

"Our approach with the students is to engage in educational conversation," Goldfarb said. "All students are required to comply with the process, and no one has ever refused to accept the resolution."

If students refuse, they are put on disciplinary hold and their academic records are frozen.

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"I'm not on the mainstream networks like Kazaa, so I'm not concerned," Engineering sophomore Ben Dodson said, adding that he prefers to use Direct Connect or BitTorrent, "if you can find it."

"It's not an obscure thing anymore -- it's easy to do," he added.

Like many of his friends, Dodson started downloading movies during his last year of high school in Los Gatos, Calif. Today, he counts about 60 different titles in his library.

Yet, despite his collection, Dodson said that he does not download movies with any frequency.

Movies downloaded from the Internet "are really not in lieu of buying the actual movie -- for me, it doesn't affect whether I will go see the movie. And, if I don't think [the movie] is worth it, I won't go see it, let alone download it."

The reason he has movies on his computer in the first place, Dodson said, is that "I like having collections of stuff -- I have 60 movies on my computer and I've seen five, all of which I probably have on DVD."

However, "you can get an electronic copy without loss of monetary funds," he said. "It's kind of sad for companies to put limitations."

Dodson considers legal actions taken by entertainment companies to be "extremely fair."

"They do what they have to do, but [legal action in this case] shouldn't be their priority, there are things that are more important," Dodson said.

He added he doesn't feel as though he's "cheated" the entertainment industry.

"I still support them," Dodson said. "I still watch their movies, I still buy their movies -- [downloading] is a completely separate thing."

In fact, to consider file sharing an illegal activity labeled as "piracy" is, in Dodson's opinion, "pretty ridiculous -- peer-to-peer has no inclination toward ethics, and it's as subjective a word as you can find."

Dodson continued, adding that movie downloading "is no different from software downloading, but it pushes aside the fact that maybe sharing intellectual property is not such a bad thing."

Illegal or not, Dodson said that this trend will continue to grow.

"It remains to be seen if it will affect sales," he said.

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