Nearly halfway around the world from Hollywood, a 17-year-old high-school student is trying to make a name for himself as a film distributor.
Unlike the moguls in Tinseltown, though, he and his colleagues in a group called MysticVCD don't cut deals, take meetings or campaign for Oscars. Instead, their goal is to put a movie on the Internet first, long before it's officially released on tape or disc. If MysticVCD wins the race, the digital copy it produces will be downloaded onto tens of thousands of computers around the globe, potentially reaching more screens than the film itself did in theatrical release.
MysticVCD is one of dozens of "ripping" or "release" groups that obtain, prepare, package and feed movies, songs and games into a secretive and complex distribution scheme that functions a bit like the illegal drug trade -- minus the bloodletting.
Insiders and piracy experts say the groups are motivated mainly by ego. Instead of cash, the online underground is powered by bartering -- admission to these elite circles is granted only to those with something valuable to offer, such as computer parts or a pre-release copy of a DVD.
"I am in the scene in order to provide movies to the people" and to gain access to private sites with pirated goods, the founder of MysticVCD said via e-mail. Asking not to be named, he would say only that he lives in the Greenwich mean time zone, which stretches from the British Isles south to western Africa.
There's also a social aspect to the scene even though most groups' members know one another only by code names such as "markalso" and "bambino" and never meet in person.
Common to most groups is a disdain for selling pirated goods in favor of giving free access to anything and everything.
"Please remember: We do this for FUN. We do not make money off this whole business," said a posting from a group called Centropy. "All of us go to the movies regularly and pay for our tickets just like everyone else."
Not everyone in the scene is so pure. Some players -- including members of Centropy -- are suspected of selling pirated movies and music to commercial bootleggers who have made billions of dollars peddling knockoff CDs and DVDs on the streets of cities around the world.
Regardless of whether there's money involved, what the ripping groups do violates copyright law. Federal agents recently mounted three sweeps of online piracy groups that netted at least 46 guilty pleas and 19 prison sentences. Those nabbed range from a 40-year-old Australian to a 20-year-old student at Duke University. More investigations are underway.
"The risk that really wasn't there for them a few years ago is now, I would say, pretty significant," said Bob Kruger, vice president of enforcement for the Business Software Alliance, which has been chasing online software pirates since the early 1990s.
On the whole, however, music and movie groups have operated with near impunity, protected in part by the elaborate steps they take to screen participants, conceal their identities and disguise their locations. The entertainment industry has focused on filing suits against file-sharing networks such as Kazaa and their users, who ultimately copy much of the ripping groups' works. The industry also is trying to deter piracy at the grass-roots level with electronic locks for CDs, DVDs and downloadable items.
Kruger said online piracy groups have been around at least since the early 1990s. The initial focus was "warez," or computer programs that had been stripped of their anti-piracy protections.
Although most piracy groups still concentrate on software and computer games, a steadily growing number dedicate themselves to movie and music piracy. NFOTemple.com, a site that catalogs the boastful explanatory notes, or NFO files, posted by release groups, listed 140 crews devoted to movies in 2003, up from 32 in 2002.
The growth was fueled by the skyrocketing capacity of computer hard drives and the proliferation of high-speed Internet connections. The technology for turning analog audio and video signals into compact digital files improved rapidly too, slashing the time needed to transmit movies or albums online.
The scene is closed to much of the world; would-be participants have to gain the trust of insiders and prove their worth before gaining entry. And the lifespan of groups tends to be short, at least on the Net, where players come and go.
The ripping groups often share similar structures, with officers who grant or revoke privileges, set policies and assign duties to the members. And their members, who share a love for free access to virtually any movie, song, game or software program, include not only teens but also 30-something professionals with families.
