Putin’s Cinema Fund Rejects Movie Piracy, Fuming Cinema Boss Demands Barbie

https://torrentfreak.com/putins-cinema-fund-rejects-movie-piracy-fuming-cinema-boss-demands-barbie-230830/

by gslin • 3 years ago

54 81 3 years ago

BoxFour• 3 years ago

I find myself in an oddly conflicted state about this and see both sides here.

I comprehend the cinema's stance; the abrupt change meant they could no longer screen premium content, and the local film industry doesn't appear remotely prepared to contend. They seem to be stuck without a viable solution, and the only effective remedy would entail swift and substantial policy alterations at the federal level.

Conversely, the government's position strikes a chord with me, oddly enough. I'll set aside the perspective of "we aim to boost local films and this influx of free premier content would overwhelm us in competition," even though I concur with that viewpoint.

Even more-so, when considering the country's situation post-war, rebuffing foreign stakeholders even more vehemently than they currently are seems likely to exacerbate the inevitable and substantial post-war recession. If I were a foreign conglomerate contemplating an eventual re-entry into the country, I'd be closely monitoring this situation and I imagine the government officials considering the post-war era know it.

Ultimately the right choice is probably to just let the cinema industry fail, but the responsibility for this predicament lies with neither the ministry of culture nor the cinema industry so I can't help but sympathize with the challenging circumstances a bit.

ojosilva• 3 years ago

For Putin's government the key here is censorship of Western content.

Many Western blockbuster movies, Barbie and Oppenheimer included, disseminate ideas that are antagonistic to Putin's fascist narrative. Barbie is, among other things, a play on feminism and on democratic values - think Ken's voting a new Constitution! It's only logical that Putin does not want "foreign agents" distorting the regime's narrative massively distributed to its 83 federal subjects ("federal states").

China has been doing this for ages now by picking a handful of foreign films / year and demanding the Statue of Liberty be removed from film. However, the Chinese market is so yummy that Western blockbuster productions will often self-censor to make sure they make the cut [1]. Putin is getting the opposite in fact, the West is high on anti-Russian sentiments for the last decade or so, and that has trickled down into content. Remember when under Boris Yeltsin that Western productions got plenty of "good Russians" after the Iron Curtain melted down?

[1] https://www.voanews.com/a/censorship-of-hollywood-blockbuste...

thriftwy12• 3 years ago

"think Ken's voting a new Constitution!"

Russians also voted a new Constitution. In 2020. Wasn't much good, but here you go.

kubb2• 3 years ago

Many Western blockbuster movies, Barbie and Oppenheimer included, disseminate ideas that are antagonistic to Putin's fascist narrative.

This is so wonderfully, innocently naïve. Thank you for writing it. God bless America.

Guthur• 3 years ago

They are antagonistic to any other cultural view point, that's how it works. US culture crushes all before it, this is easily observable.

The problem is that plebs of the west mostly don't seem to understand that, or wilfully don't care. Culture wars are a thing and governments have every right to protect against US led liberal hegemony if they want to maintain any sort of collective will.

Simulacra2• 3 years ago

Wow, the audacity. The movie bosses remind me of the parents protesting in China that cheating should be allowed.

I understand there is an entire industry around discouraging pirating, but that would seem completely ineffectual in a case of state-sponsored piracy, or piracy in a state that will not prosecute.

wodenokoto• 3 years ago

I Kinda sympathize with the stance that copyright should not be respected when the rights holder refuse to distribute.

We even see this argument on HN with regards to old games that are no longer for sale on any platform.

thriftwy12• 3 years ago

At this point the only thing preventing open large scale piracy is the Russian government's proactive steps to keep it underwater.

Obviously, if government intervention wasn't there and you would start distributing Barbie, who can sue you? The movie company? They has exited the market and don't have local presense. If they do, just move the office to LPR and make them file their complaints to "Lugansk People's Republic, Russia".

tibbydudeza2• 3 years ago

The massive irony of wanting a movie like Barbie - nightly the TV propogandists rail against the decedent west and their immorality and that Russia is somehow involved in fighting a holy war in Ukraine.

hoc2• 3 years ago

One could produce an even more colorful version, picturing all the Kremlin's fears, and plant that for pirating.

"Oh no, son, your Omon tag reads 'Homo' if you look at it in the mirror..."

lordfrito2• 3 years ago

Just another Russian cultural casualty caused by the Kremlin's war on Ukraine and The West. It's baffling at times. As Churchill said, Russia "is a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma".

We're used to the Will of The People being something that matters (at the very least it's taken into account) in Western culture.

The more I pay attention to what's been going on these last few years, the more I'm convinced that Russia is simply a Mafia State with Putin as the Don. Might makes right, those at the top protect their interests, warring with each other when necessary, to the detriment of everything else. The people don't matter, and they've been beaten down to the point they just accept this as part of life. It's engrained in their culture now. To quote The Godfather "Killing him was just business".

This can't continue forever. This may not be the end, or the beginning of the end, but we're well past the end of the beginning. Not sure how this gets resolved, but many more Ukrainians and Russians will suffer before something changes. The movie industry is the least of their problems.

tibbydudeza2• 3 years ago

Russia is just centuries of unending melancholy and tragedy - from the beginning with the Tsars, the Communists and then Yeltsin and now Putin - it has always been the Tsar (Putin) vs the Boyars (regional leaders/oligarchs) - the common folk don't really matter.

TomK32• 3 years ago

They really should have put Ken into a yellow-blue beach out just so Russia would ban rather than pirate it.

imdsm• 3 years ago

The real truth, that Russia loves America, and everything since the end of WWII is just angst

StingyJelly2• 3 years ago

"Russia loves America" is similiar level of simplification as "post-soviet countries love democracy". In reality, people here don't value democracy as much as they just want German cars, French clothes and American movies and politicians are adapting to the demand.

dantyti• 3 years ago

I find it difficult to understand whether your second sentence refers to Russia or those 'post-soviet countries'.

If it is the latter, I want to note that as a person from a Baltic country I have no doubt that my fellow citizens value self-determination and democracy a lot more than consumer goods.

dfxm12• 3 years ago

Could Barbie have been made (and had the marketing muscle put behind it) anywhere else but America though? Would Givenchy have grown to the brand that it is in a France that wasn't democratic? You can say or even think you don't like America, but what does that really mean when you seek out things that have thrived because of it?

helsinkiandrew• 3 years ago

The real truth, that Russia loves America

I think its "Russians love American popular culture"

pjc502• 3 years ago

True for a very long time. People would smuggle Levi's into the USSR.

I think Americans underestimate sometimes just how much America benefits from its cultural exports which people love.

renegade-otter2• 3 years ago

The meaning of "Russian soul" is secretly adoring and mimicking the West (for centuries), while overtly threatening to burn it to the ground. The wives and progeny of some of the most ardent haters live in Europe and give birth in the United States for American citizenship.

Case in point:

https://www.reddit.com/r/RussiaUkraineWar2022/comments/1116e...

ativzzz2• 3 years ago

"Russian soul" is secretly adoring and mimicking the West

Pretty sure it's not secret at all. St Petersburg founded in the 1700s (and then made the capital of Tsarist Russia) was literally an attempt to westernize Russia.

I think the "Russian soul" is more of an inner conflict between the desire to live a Western life while under the heavy influence of non-Western traditions and culture

thriftwy12• 3 years ago

The problem with Kremlins ("ardent haters of the West") is that they are

a) In for money or because it is a part of their job description.

b) Not too Russian. It's a distinct ethno-political subgroup.

The latter would be apparent from reading the "Early Life" section of Wikipedia, or any source of the same effect.

A Russian will not want to harm Europe unless it's kill or be killed situation - because Russia is a part of Europe and is not viable without it. A Russian will also not want to hurt Russian people or the country. Kremlins talk about the former and do the latter, all the time.

hoc2• 3 years ago

I like the story, because any info in it could be totally made up and I wouldn't know, and it would still sound like an interesting plot to me.

Ah, movies.

mensetmanusman• 3 years ago

It’s interesting watching Russia struggle as it devolves into a lawless hellscape with daily drone attacks on its capital.

The Russian people who are against this nonsense were unfortunately reluctant to speak up due to fear of death, but when good people remain silent we see what happens time and time again.

mempko• 3 years ago

Yes, because mass protests seem to do well to stop wars. I remember when there were mass protests in the US for the Iraq war and it was over in a month. Remember that time? /s

pluijzer• 3 years ago

I think that protests where one of the factors that stopped the war with Vietnam.

cmrdporcupine5• 3 years ago

Mass protests work. But they take time and persistence. It's not the spectacle of the actual mass protest itself, its what they do to create connections and unity between people who previously felt isolated from each other. The most important thing coming out of a protest is not the pictures for the news media, but the "come to this next event" fliers handed out, or mailing lists put together, to continue to build momentum.

Protest was most likely a huge factor in keeping Canada (and probably other potential "allies") out of the war, no matter what Chretien says in retrospect. The federal Liberals in power at the time were on the fence, but the mass protests that week (and leading up to it) were the largest in history and the government clearly saw it would cost them. (But then they turned around and provided backchannel support, and were still involved in Afghanistan, etc. so...)

I suspect getting involved there was also a big factor in the implosion of the UK Labour Party since then...

I marched in the protests that week in Toronto. They were the largest mass street protests -- and probably the most emotional -- I've ever been in. It got pretty heated outside the US embassy, too.

Seems to me the problem in the US with the Iraq war is that Americans are on the whole brought up to be extremely pro-military, "support our troops" at all cost. Lots of ra-ra patriotism stuff that is about the only thing in US society that is not partisan.

Many of the "liberals" I know there still give me shitty excuses why they initially supported what was clearly, to anybody who was thinking a terrible imperialist war. Anybody with half a brain knew it wasn't about "weapons of mass destruction", and people still using that "they lied to us" excuse are being intellectually dishonest. They supported because of nationalism.

And you know what, instead of Russians using this historical example as a "What About?" moment to point fingers at the US -- which accomplishes nothing -- they should be absorbing the actual lesson about the awful things that imperialist nationalism makes people and nations do... and get a spine.

I expected Americans to get a spine then and stop the war, and I expect Russians to do so now. Disappointed both times, so far.

wombat-man3• 3 years ago

There were protests, but initially at least it was a popular idea, iirc.

Vt71fcAqt7• 3 years ago

When is your flight to Russia to protest the war? Or can Russians come to the US to protest so they can fit your definition of "good people?"

cycrutchfield9• 3 years ago

Russians can protest in Russia. Or at least they could, if they weren’t so suddenly averse to “politics”.

pjc502• 3 years ago

It's been a mafia-run semi-lawless place almost since the fall of Communism. Really not clear how it's going to get out of this state.

jjtheblunt• 3 years ago

Are royal families mafias themselves? If so, Communism rose by deposing one mafia, which of course morphed into a different but similar mafia?

Sort of the history of Europe in many instances?

helge92102• 3 years ago

Technically speaking, it became mafia-run the moment Eltsin got guarantees for himself and his family and agreed to give-up power to mafia-KGB-chimera representative Putin.

justsomehnguy• 3 years ago

A furious cinema chief has accused the fund and government of protecting Western copyright holders. He says that Russia needs pirated copies of Barbie in cinemas, sooner rather than later.

The grass is green, the water is wet, a capitalist wanting back his 100 per cent is totally okay to trample on human laws, other news at 11.

trhow234898• 3 years ago

I think this article is missing the point. State sponsored cinemas should have a high standard. Playing something with shady copyright, would stain their reputation. Americans would not also play cheap porn in Super Imax theater...

Nobody in Russia cares if some local private/municipal theater plays DVD rip of Barbie...

fevangelou• 3 years ago

Seriously, who writes article titles like this?

rexreed• 3 years ago

And who reads them?

Putin’s Cinema Fund Rejects Movie Piracy, Fuming Cinema Boss Demands Barbie

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