Much of life is a battle between good and evil. But with divergent cultures reflecting different stages of societal evolution, what is repugnant to one man seems entirely ethical to another. Take the illegal downloading of Hollywood movies. In some societies it carries a jail sentence. In others, like South Africa, law enforcers turn a blind eye to street vendors hawking pirated products. Other parts of the world actually encourage such practice. So we shouldn’t be surprised to see the disturbing Wolf of Wall Street heading the list of ilegal downloads for 2014. The movie celebrates a lifestyle that pirates would wholeheartedly endorse. But it is strange to see moralistic Frozen as the runner up. None so peculiar as folk. – AH
From Agence France-Presse
Martin Scorsese’s “The Wolf of Wall Street” and Disney’s animated fantasy hit “Frozen” were the two most pirated films of 2014, according to a firm tracking illegal downloads.
Numerous US media, including Variety and The Hollywood Reporter, on Monday published a list of this year’s 20 most illegally downloaded movies, compiled by piracy tracker Excipio.
The firm tallied “torrent” downloads, where computer users illegally share movies and other media over the Internet, for the period from January 1 to December 23, according to Variety.
Excipio said “The Wolf of Wall Street” was illegally downloaded more than 30 million times, while “Frozen” was pirated more than 29.9 million times.
In third place was “RoboCop,” with a little less than 29.9 million illegal downloads, though this included both 2014’s re-booted version and the 1987 original.
Space drama “Gravity,” directed by Mexico’s Alfonso Cuaron, was downloaded just under 29.4 million times.
Popular among the pirated films were several superhero adventures, including “Thor: The Dark World,” “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” and “X-Men: Days of Future Past.” Each of these racked up more than 20 million illegal downloads.
This year’s best-film Oscar winner “12 Years a Slave” was illegally downloaded 23.7 million times, while “American Hustle” and “Captain Phillips” were pirated 23.1 million and 19.8 million times respectively.
Excipio’s list in full, as published by Variety and the Hollywood reporter:
- “The Wolf of Wall Street”: 30.035 million
- “Frozen”: 29.919 million
- “RoboCop” (including original 1987 movie): 29.879 million
- “Gravity”: 29.357 million
- “The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug”: 27.627 million
- “Thor: The Dark World”: 25.749 million
- “Captain America: The Winter Soldier”: 25.628 million
- “The Legend of Hercules”: 25.137 million
- “X-Men: Days of Future Past”: 24.380 million
- “12 Years a Slave”: 23.653 million
- “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire”: 23.543 million
- “American Hustle”: 23.143 million
- “300: Rise of an Empire”: 23.096 million
- “Transformers: Age of Extinction”: 21.65 million
- “Godzilla”: 20.956 million
- “Noah”: 20.334 million
- “Divergent”: 20.312 million
- “Edge of Tomorrow”: 20.299 million
- “Captain Phillips”: 19.817 million
- “Lone Survivor”: 19.130 million
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