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People looking for movies on pirate streaming sites are regularly presented with “interesting” offers. Whether it’s the prospect of becoming a crypto-billionaire overnight or learning a simple trick to losing belly fat, few are known to deliver. With that in mind, we’ve discovered a new pirate site that hopes to connect movie pirates with those behind the big screen.
Under extreme pressure from copyright holders and numerous public campaigns, brand managers and ad agencies agreed that reputable money should not end up in the pockets of pirate site operators.
Rights holders believed that without access to major advertising partners, pirate sites would eventually wither and die. Years later, they’re still online, settling for less returns per lead, but with increasing levels of traffic. Meanwhile, visitors to pirate sites who don’t already block ads have to endure all sorts of ridiculous schemes promising wealth, wisdom, and everything hackers need these days.
But a newly launched streaming site does things a little differently. He offers free stuff with no strings attached and then keeps his word.
MFFWatchFree and The Pirate Pass
This week we learned that if hackers search for specific movies on nameless illegal streaming sites, they will find themselves redirected to a new streaming platform offering something special.
It didn’t seem particularly likely, if we’re being honest, but with Armageddon Time (Anne Hathaway/Anthony Hopkins) and Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery (Daniel Craig/Kate Hudson) on the wanted list, we decided to give it a go. from.
As we expected, no ads appeared for the movies or the mysterious MFFWatchFree on the handful of sites tested, so we went straight to the site itself to see for ourselves.
As seen in the screenshot above, a big plus about MFFWatchFree is the lack of ads in your face. The downside is that almost everything else is also missing.
Armageddon time hopefully not literally
Disregarding all caution, we have accepted the offer to hack Armageddon Time, while we still can. The film will be screened at the New York Film Festival (NYFF) Main Slate this week as part of a 60th anniversary screening event, so a quick preview would be timely, if nothing else.
Amazingly, the movie started playing as promised, preceded by what can only be described as an obviously hacked MPA logo with a few bits missing.
After a few seconds of simple browsing, the movie started to cut out and then completely disappeared. Similar tactics were used by a network of scam “hacker” sites traced back to Canada last year, so we wondered what was in store for us.
Reach Pirates
Fortunately, this experience was nothing like that, none of that. What we have instead is a Montclair Film Festival campaign designed to reach pirates through the channels they already use. The last seconds of the clip reveal an exclusive pirate offer.
Of course, nobody likes bait and switch, so we were interested to see if the free tickets promised at the end of the clip were actually on offer. We clicked on the link marked “CLICK HERE TO USE CODE!!!” and we found ourselves directed to the festival ticketing portal. After dropping a ticket into the cart, we applied the code and got a 100% discount on a ticket.
Filmmakers and hackers enjoy movies together
Lucky free ticket holders should know that the festival is taking place October 21-30 in New Jersey, USA. As many filmmakers will be present, the organizers hope to build bridges between the traditionally warring parties, through their mutual appreciation of the films.
“We wanted to find a way to showcase the value of the cinematic experience while acknowledging the challenges the industry faces in terms of piracy and file sharing,” says Tom Hall, art director and co-director of Montclair Film.
“This campaign does both of those things by inviting people to the movies and to the Montclair Film Festival, so they can personally experience what makes movies great and hopefully join us in becoming champions of the theatrical experience.
The campaign is the work of Goodby Silverstein & Partners New York
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