Major European film distributor adopts Cinea antipiracy solutions

Cinea, a subsidiary of Dolby Laboratories, continues to win international support for its film antipiracy technology among film studios and distributors. Entertainment Film Distributors, the UK’s leading independent film distributor, which distributes New Line, Odyssey, and Focus films, among others, used Cinea’s state-of-the-art S-VIEW solution when it sent out its 2005 awards screeners to members of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA).
Entertainment Film has never before used movie screener DVDs to send movies to BAFTA members for consideration for awards, relying instead on cinema-based screenings. Entertainment Film had always considered the risk of movie piracy for DVDs to be too high.
However, after examining Cinea’s S-VIEW discs and players, Entertainment Film decided that the system met its security requirements, and the company therefore has chosen to distribute A History of Violence, The New World, The Libertine, and Brokeback Mountain to BAFTA members using Cinea-encrypted discs. BAFTA members were issued Cinea S-VIEW DVD players in September 2004, allowing them to play the encrypted discs as well as nonencrypted DVDs. Entertainment Film joins The Walt Disney Company, New Line Cinema, Icon Films, and Redbus Film Distribution in using the Cinea S-VIEW solution for 2005 screeners.
“At Entertainment Film we have always been acutely aware of the risks of film piracy,” said Trevor Green, Joint Managing Director, Entertainment Film. “Only when we were assured that a screener disc was extremely unlikely to leak onto the black market—and if it did it would be traceable—did we change our policy in distributing screeners. Cinea reassured us that its solutions would protect our assets, while giving us the flexibility to reach the BAFTA community during this awards season.”
Amanda Berry, Chief Executive of BAFTA, said: “The Academy takes the threat of piracy extremely seriously, so we are delighted that a number of distributors have chosen to work with Cinea to provide secure screeners for our film voting membership.”
Cinea’s solution includes the S-VIEW DVD player and encryption technology to safeguard content. The S-VIEW DVD player offers high-quality picture and sound for both encrypted and standard DVDs. Discs encrypted by Cinea can only be played back on authorized Cinea S-VIEW DVD players. If lost or stolen, these discs cannot be viewed on any standard DVD player or computer.
Cinea has distributed the SV300 model of its S-VIEW DVD player to nearly 12,000 members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and BAFTA. Recipients of the Cinea S-VIEW players simply need to install the player as part of their home entertainment system, as they would install a regular DVD player, and make a phone call or go online to register with Cinea.
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