Hackers threaten to leak new Pirates movie unless Disney pays a ransom

[Drak3]

5 minutes ago, Okjoek said:

I think they're gonna get hit hard with some kind of regulatory hammer eventually because I could see them being branded as a sort of black market.

The thing about Bitcoin is, there's nothing there to back it up, nor can we apply any anti-forgery methods that we can with physical currencies. How Bitcoin, and every other virtual currency, is recognized at all, is beyond me.

[JAKEBAB]

1 hour ago, GoodBytes said:

If Disney is smart they won't pay. This will discourage further attempts, and also, the movie will be pirated regardless, like other movies.

So, the situation is the same. Those who will pirate would not go out to the movies and watch it in any case.

Really? If that was me that had these movies/shows and they didn't pay, I'd just constantly keep leaking movies without even asking for money just for lolz.

[Luurch]

If they wanted to kick Disney in the giblets, they could just release the star wars movie...it is well into post production, should be on someone back up they have access to. I do like the idea of Pirates Pirating A Pirate Movie though..RRRRRRRR!

[Bleedingyamato]

5 hours ago, Princess Cadence said:

A shame it isn't DHX-Hasbro I really wanted to watch the MLP Movie leaked beforehand

There's a new MLP movie?  

[Princess Luna]

Just now, Bleedingyamato said:

There's a new MLP movie?  

Yes and this time it ACTUALLY is my little pony and not my little human franchise, thank god.

[Bleedingyamato]

2 minutes ago, Princess Cadence said:

Yes and this time it ACTUALLY is my little pony and not my little human franchise, thank god.

Those "my little human" ones aren't entirely terrible.  Normal MLP is 100% best pony but the Equestria girls ones aren't unwatchable.  

 

I wanted to more MLP stuff to watch so I watched the EG movies with my friend please don't hate me...  ?

 

 

A pony MLP movie would be awesome though.  ?

[ChineseChef]

3 hours ago, JAKEBAB said:

Really? If that was me that had these movies/shows and they didn't pay, I'd just constantly keep leaking movies without even asking for money just for lolz.

Honestly, pay or not, it wouldn't encourage or discourage others from trying in the future.  Cause it will all be about if the hackers think it is worth their time and effort.  And really about what they think the movie would be worth to the studio.  Imagine if they got the theatrical copy of Star Wars, and were going to release it a week or two early?  Depending how much they were asking for, Disney might actually pay.  And besides, every group of criminals (or anyone really) thinks it will be different for them, this time it will work!!

 

That is kind of why crypto/ransomware are so popular right now.  As long as the ransomers make good when paid, people are motivated to pay.  And think about the value to Disney, if the hackers release the movie, and later get caught, it is unlikely that Disney will be able to recover even a fraction of the potential lost sales for the movie.  There have been movies in the past that got released before their theater opening, and it usually kills ticket sales.  Cause people hear reviews, or get the movie spoiled for them, or see some clip that makes them feel uninterested or like they have seen enough.

[Guest Darth Revan]

Of all the movies that they could've gotten their hands on, they picked the worst of them all.

[zMeul]

7 hours ago, Bouzoo said:

The title that some news page had:

So good. 

[Jito463]

5 hours ago, Drak3 said:

The thing about Bitcoin is, there's nothing there to back it up, nor can we apply any anti-forgery methods that we can with physical currencies. How Bitcoin, and every other virtual currency, is recognized at all, is beyond me.

I'm with you.  I have no idea how BC works, or how the "mining" works to get any of it.  I don't even know why it's recognized at all, since it's not backed by anything physical.  Why do people accept it?  It boggles my mind.

[Zodiark1593]

6 hours ago, Jito463 said:

I'm with you.  I have no idea how BC works, or how the "mining" works to get any of it.  I don't even know why it's recognized at all, since it's not backed by anything physical.  Why do people accept it?  It boggles my mind.

US currency isn't technically backed by anything physical since we got off the gold standard a very long time ago. The same question could be applied of why we attach value to mere pieces of paper. 

 

One similarity to be noted is that production of both bitcoin and paper currencies is controlled to some (varying) degree. There is a finite amount of bitcoin and limited production, as is the dollar. This characteristic, even though intangible, probably allowed bitcoin to be seen as a viable means of currency, and a very welcome one, if you don't want your cash flows to be easily traced. 

[Jito463]

Just now, Zodiark1593 said:

US currency isn't technically backed by anything physical since we got off the gold standard a very long time ago. The same question could be applied of why we attach value to mere pieces of paper.

Perhaps I should reword that.  I do know this much already (so it's not so much "no idea" as "unable to comprehend adequately").

 

1 minute ago, Zodiark1593 said:

One similarity to be noted is that production of both bitcoin and paper currencies is controlled to some (varying) degree. There is a finite amount of bitcoin and limited production, as is the dollar. This characteristic, even though intangible, probably allowed bitcoin to be seen as a viable means of currency, and a very welcome one, if you don't want your cash flows to be easily traced. 

This is the part I have trouble wrapping my head around.  How exactly is BC produced?  Why did it ever got accepted as a commodity with value?  How does the mining work?  Questions I suppose I could look up the answers to, I just haven't felt inclined to do so.  Not so much because I don't care to understand, I just don't care enough to make the effort.

 

While the dollar currently isn't backed by anything physical, it was originally at one time (one could argue that it's presently backed by the financial weight of the US economy itself).  BC never had anything physical backing it, so it just doesn't make sense that people would put any trust or value into an unknown and unregulated currency without anything to support it.  It could literally vanish tomorrow and there's nothing anyone could do about it.

[Drak3]

7 minutes ago, Jito463 said:

How exactly is BC produced?

It's produced by solving algorithms, if one does it the intended way. But there is NOTHING stopping anyone from spoofing the system, other than the weak notion that cryptocurrencies have worth.

It's not even fiat currency, there is NOTHING that ties any cryptocurrency to any other currency out there. At least the US dollar leverages the credit of the US banking system, and has fairly affective methods of preventing forgery at the physical level, and requires the physical transferance for every transaction that isn't ultimately between banks/bank accounts.

 

22 minutes ago, Zodiark1593 said:

There is a finite amount of bitcoin and limited production

It can be "produced" indefinitely by forging it, and there would be no realistic way of tracing or stopping it. There's no effective central banking system that govern its transferrance, and given their primary method of obtaining the currencies, there can't be.

 

How the hell cryptocurrencies are able to be used is beyond me, especially when the primary way of obtaining it is running lines of code, is beyond me.

[Ertman]

Kind of curious what the amount is they demand. I wonder if it's something ludicrous or a small amount.

 

Pretty sure they would have done a calculation to deem whether the loss from the leak would be worth the ransom, and they would probably take into account possible PV of future costs of ransoms if this one is paid.

[Ertman]

Paper bills have little value except the value people place on them.

[Ertman]

43 minutes ago, Drak3 said:

It's produced by solving algorithms, if one does it the intended way. But there is NOTHING stopping anyone from spoofing the system, other than the weak notion that cryptocurrencies have worth.

It's not even fiat currency, there is NOTHING that ties any cryptocurrency to any other currency out there. At least the US dollar leverages the credit of the US banking system, and has fairly affective methods of preventing forgery at the physical level, and requires the physical transferance for every transaction that isn't ultimately between banks/bank accounts.

 

It can be "produced" indefinitely by forging it, and there would be no realistic way of tracing or stopping it. There's no effective central banking system that govern its transferrance, and given their primary method of obtaining the currencies, there can't be.

 

How the hell cryptocurrencies are able to be used is beyond me, especially when the primary way of obtaining it is running lines of code, is beyond me.

Paper bills have little value except the value people place on them.

 

the mining of new bTC is limited by computing power.

 

there is actually better tracking of crypto currency then real currency, just the transacting parties are protected from identification.

 

[Mooshi]

15 hours ago, GoodBytes said:

If Disney is smart they won't pay. This will discourage further attempts, and also, the movie will be pirated regardless, like other movies.

So, the situation is the same. Those who will pirate would not go out to the movies and watch it in any case.

 

Basically. It would send the wrong message that companies would just cave. That said, I'm going to see it regardless because you can not emulate the theater experience on a computer monitor.

[Andreas Lilja]

16 hours ago, GoodBytes said:

If Disney is smart they won't pay. This will discourage further attempts, and also, the movie will be pirated regardless, like other movies.

So, the situation is the same. Those who will pirate would not go out to the movies and watch it in any case.

Disney will cave, opening weeks is where most money is made. 

 

 

[crystal6tak]

11 hours ago, Drak3 said:

It can be "produced" indefinitely by forging it, and there would be no realistic way of tracing or stopping it. There's no effective central banking system that govern its transferrance, and given their primary method of obtaining the currencies, there can't be.

 

How the hell cryptocurrencies are able to be used is beyond me, especially when the primary way of obtaining it is running lines of code, is beyond me.

Pretty sure you can't "forge" bitcoin. The entire blockchain system is insanely secured now and if it was possible, it would've been done long ago and value would've crashed years ago. I dare say it's MUCH easier to counterfeit paper currency, than it is to counterfiet bitcoin.

 

EDIT: If anyone is interested, you can read here why you can't duplicate bitcoins.

 

As to the topic,

I'm one of those that didn't know there WAS a pirate 5 movie LOL. I wonder if this chaos is indirectly advertising this movie 

[IceCold008]

Disney are doing the right thing he and not paying up. If they did it would just set in motion for other hackers to do the same thing to other movie studios. 

[alphaproject]

So far I have not seen the Season 5 of OITNB released only the 1st episode. So... I wonder what happened.