I’ve seen a few throughout my life at friend’s houses as a kid during the age of Limewire. Typically they were pretty good quality even though you’d see the odd person get up from their seat or hardcoded subtitles. Lately I’ve been curious about the history behind them and how they came to be.

Have there been well known release groups similar to the game cracking scene?

Have they always been mostly from one region?

Are they released strategically for one reason or another?

Have there been hidden methods to bust groups after a release such as steganography?

I’d be down to hear any facts about it you find interesting, stories, and if you have any articles or videos about the subject.

  • Okalaydokalay@lemm.eeEnglish
    34·
    11 months ago

    Back in the day, and probably even now, as I used to encounter them when I lived in the big city, cam copies were famous on the streets. It was the only way to get a bootleg copy while the movie was still in theatres but you didn’t want to go for whatever reason.

    When I lived in the big city, in a not so great area, the guys used to be in the grocery store parking lot or barbers or smoke shops selling the DVDs and before that were selling VHS copies.

    And then when LimeWire grew in popularity, people would upload those like they would any retail DVD. And then went on to torrents as those grew in popularity.

    And it still continues today for similar reasons. People want the fame that comes with uploading the first copy online or the first decent quality.

    • pipes@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      10·
      11 months ago

      Was about to write the same thing as your last paragraph, the “wanting to be first” aspect. But you also made me realize how Cam rips might have been an important service in the past. Today we are drowned in new web-dl stuff constantly

      • Okalaydokalay@lemm.eeEnglish
        9·
        11 months ago

        We definitely are. We started to get a little spoiled back then when those DVD quality bootlegs came around too. Like screeners from another country but in English and a watermark on them somewhere lol. And then the cam quality were something most people turned their nose up at, even if that’s all was available.

        Kind of funny now that I say that…that deters a lot of people from cam quality and does today as well. If all I can find is cam, forget it. I’ll wait until the DVD/stream is released. But I wait so I can get that in pirate form. I bet others, like my friend who asks me to upload a copy to my Plex server, goes to the movies instead of pirating since cam is all that is available.

        But I’ve been burned by some bad cams. Like not just bad video and audio quality but also people standing up in front of the camera or being too loud and I can’t even hear or see the movie.

        • Barky@lemmy.zipEnglish
          2·
          11 months ago

          I downloaded team america world police on my computer when it came out, which ended up being a screener copy. My friend in college thought I was a hacker

      • Norah - She/They@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
        3·
        11 months ago

        In the past, I remember getting cam rips first and if they were terrible and it was a movie I wanted to enjoy, I’d stop watching and wait a few months for a DVD rip. It’s been a long time since I’ve faced that dilemma though.