The pirate group that leaked Quentin Tarantino's new movie just published a bizarre apology
Going by the name Hive-CM8, over the last two weeks the group has been releasing high-quality versions of films including James Bond movie "Spectre," "Legend," "Steve Jobs," "Creed," and "Bridge of Spies."
Hive-CM8 started with "The Hateful Eight," the latest blockbuster from Quentin Tarantino - which it leaked a full week before it even came out in the cinemas.
The group claimed to have a jawdropping 40 films in its possession, to be leaked online one-by-one.
But Hive-CM8 fell silent after someone posted potentially identifying information about one of its members online, causing pirates to panic that it had been scared off doing any more releases.
Turns out, this isn't the case. Hive-CM8 has leaked two new films, "Anomalisa" and "The Big Short" - and put out a statement in broken English explaining its position and offering Quentin Tarantino a bizarre apology.
"We didn't plan to comment at all on recent events," Hive-CM8 says, "but we feel now that we should."
The group argues it leaked the videos to help people not able to go to the cinema - and that if you can, you should support the studios. "We wanted to share this movies with the people who are not rich enough or not able to watch all nominated movies in the cinema. Of course this files are not representing how they can be enjoyed in the cinema.
"As said in our nfo, pleaase support the producers and watch all movies in the cinema on a big screen, like you should anyhow. The Producers need the money from ticket sales to get back the production costs."
The next part of the statement discusses "The Hateful Eight," the group's first release this holiday season. "We feel sorry for the trouble we caused by releasing that great movie before cinedate even has begun. we never intended to hurt anyone by doing that, we didnt know it would get that popular that quickly.
"The Hateful Eight is an excellent,thrilling and entertaining Western that combines terrific direction,a fantastic cast, a wonderful script, beautiful photography and a memorable score. All of those elements make The Hateful Eight an unforgettable film that is Quentin Tarantino at his best."
In the description for the release of "The Big Short," the group says that it "held back this title till 1 week after cinema premiere to give the movie a fighting chance to play in the budget, we learned from our mistake."
Hive-CM8 even makes the strange argument that its piracy crusade helped the movie studios. "Since everyone is now talking about [The Hateful Eight] we dont think the producers will loose any money at cinedate, and we tell you now why. We actually think this has created a new type of media hype that is more present in the news,radio and in the papers than starwars, and the promotional costs for this were free."
"If lets say 5% of the people planned to watch this movie at cinemadate, due to this media push we unintenionally created, we believe that now 40% of the people will watch this movie in the cinema cause everyone is talking about it and everyone wants to see the movie that created so much noise."
"This will push the cinema tickets sale for sure."
But how did the team behind the piracy group manage to get their hands on the files in the first place - many before their theatrical release? It's all down to the time of year: awards season. With the Oscars, the BAFTAs, and other big movie award ceremonies coming up, judges are sent out DVDs of the films (called "screeners") for their consideration.
Inevitably, some of these make their way online every year - although it's unusual for one group to have such a huge haul.
Hive-CM8 claims that its files were not stolen by hackers, as some had speculated. "We got the copies sold from a guy on the street, no decryption was needed."
The file for "The Hateful Eight" has been traced back to Hollywood executive Andrew Koseve (although there's no indication that Koseve had anything to do with the leak). The source of the other leaked movies has yet to be identified.
Hive-CM8 doesn't appear to have "Star Wars: The Force Awakens," undoubtedly the biggest cinematic event of the year. Currently, the only pirated versions of the movie online are low-quality videos recorded by cameras in the cinema.
It doesn't look like pirates will get all 40 promised movies from Hive-CM8 - despite claims it is helping the studios. "Sorry it was around christmas we didnt plan that at all either, we wont do another movie before its cinedate," they conclude, "and we def wont go up to 40 as planned, we think we have done enough already."
Here's the full statement from Hive-CM8:
We didnt plan to comment at all on recent events, but we feel now that we should.
Sorry to disappoint M but there was no hack or any such thing . we got the copies sold from a guy on the street, no decryption was needed. we were definately not the only ones.
cpl other movies have been on the net days before, not done from us
So we wanted to share this movies with the people who are not rich enough or not able to watch all nominated movies in the cinema.
Of course this files are not representing the movies how they can be enjoyed in the cinema
As said in our nfo, please support the producers and watch all movies in the cinema on a big screen, like you should do anyhow.
The Producers need the money from ticket sales to get back the production costs.
As for Hateful Eight Movie:
We feel sorry for the trouble we caused by releasing that great movie before cinedate even has begun.
we never intended to hurt anyone by doing that, we didnt know it would get that popular that quickly
The Hateful Eight is an excellent,thrilling and entertaining Western that combines terrific direction,a fantastic cast,a wonderful script,beautiful photography and a memorable score.
All of those elements make The Hateful Eight an unforgettable film that is Quentin Tarantino at his best.
Since everyone is now talking about this movie we dont think the producers will loose any money at cinedate, and we tell you now why.
we actually think this has created a new type of media hype that is more present in the news,radio and in the papers than starwars, and the promotional costs for this were free
If lets say 5% of the people planned to watch this movie at cinemadate, due to this media push we unintenionally created, we believe that now 40% of the people will watch this movie in the cinema
cause everyone is talking about it and everyone wants to see the movie that created so much noise.
this will push the cinema tickets sale for sure.
we really hope this helped out the producers in the longrun, so that the production costs are covered and more
we also think that the hateful 8 movie is the top candidate for the awards and will win by a mile over others
thx tarantino for this wonderful movie
sorry it was around christmas we didnt plan that at all either, we wont do another movie before its cinedate,
and we def wont go up to 40 as planned, we think we have done enough already.
cheers