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A trailer for Avatar: Fire and Ash, the third film in James Camerons galactically successful series, starts by delivering on the titles promise. Rivers of lava cascade through the forests of Pandora, reducing it to charred rubble. Soon, the score swells to epic proportions as the hulking, Smurf-colored Navi survey their ruined territory and swear vengeance on an unseen enemy. Released back in January, this trailer already has 3.5 million views. Not bad, considering it contains not one second of footage from the actual film. Whenever Cameron and 20th Century Studios do release the official first trailer for Avatar: Fire and Ash, which is headed to theaters in December, they certainly wont release it through KH Studio, one of two video channels YouTube just demonetized to crack down on a larger issue. The fake Avatar trailer, which relies on some truly abysmal AI, is part of a scourge of similar videos designed to trick movie lovers into thinking theyve found a first look at an upcoming flick. Crafty editors with access to Adobe Premiere take existing footage from previous media, splice in a dash of AI, andvoila steady stream of clicks and views from eager film buffs. Google any major movie coming out later this year, and whether an actual trailer for it is already out there or not, the search will surface an impostor or two. Want a fake first glimpse of Edgar Wrights upcoming reboot of The Running Man? Its available on a channel called T Studio Movies (sic). How about a pirated preview of the next Conjuring movie? It can be conjured up on one called Skynet Studios. The most successful operators out there, though, appear to be the two that have newly attracted YouTubes ire: KH Studio and Screen Culture. YouTubes move comes as a result of Deadline investigating the fake movie trailer epidemic. The publication reports that movie studios such as Warner Bros. Discovery were quietly lobbying YouTube to send any ad revenue from those fake movie trailers their way, but YouTube opted instead to suspend heavyweights Screen Culture and KH Studio from its partner program. Apparently, these channels violated the video giants policies forbidding content doctored in such a way that it misleads viewers. “The two impacted channels were correctly suspended from the YouTube Partner Program following violations of our monetization policies,” says Jack Malon, Policy Communications Manager at YouTube. “Content isn’t eligible for monetization that uses metadata to deceive viewers into believing the content is different from what it actually is. For example, this could include a video title or description that alleges an official affiliation with a company. These suspensions are unrelated to any Content ID, or other copyright, enforcement.” The two channels’ differing approaches highlight the level of variety in this strangely popular space. Screen Culture has 1.4 million subscribers and offers three tiers of membership. As Deadline reports, the channels founder employs a team of a dozen editors, whose fake movie trailers are viewed so often, they occasionally outrank real trailers in YouTubes search results. Screen Culture trailers are often slick and authentic-looking at first glance, mirroring the cadence and sound cues of typical Hollywood trailers with impressive alacrity. Only in the moments when the AI gets a touch shoddy, or the exposition extra disjointed, is it clear that these are forgeries. The other newly demonetized channel, KH Studio, is a bit goofier. Its more amateurish trailers feature robotic AI-voice narration and graphics that look like ancient video game cutscenes. Beyond fake trailers for soon-to-be-blockbusters like the next Avatar, it also offers trailers for movies that will never be released, such as Interstellar 2, a Millie Bobby Brown-led remake of Nightmare on Elm Street; and Titanic 2: The Return of Jack. The trailers on both channels offer warnings to viewers that these are merely concept trailers. The warnings come buried underneath the view count and a flood of hashtags, though; by the time the average viewer sees them, they will have already clicked on a link and inflated the view count that bit further. Although KH Studio claims in the warning that its videos are created solely for artistic and entertainment purposes, the channels trailers dont seem to have enough artistry or originality in their use of borrowed material to meet YouTubes monetization standards. They appear more like vehicles for siphoning off search traffic for notable movie titles. While the output of neither of those channels may rise to the level of art or originality, theres a whole cottage industry of bait-and-switch trailers operating around them on YouTube. Channels like Blend FX and Dynatic Films publish videos about movies like the upcoming Naked Gun reboot starring Liam Neeson and simply add the word “trailer” in the title, guaranteeing at least some search-based traffic. The creators of those trailers cant even bother cobbling together a semi-coherent narrative to bolster their deception. Both KH Studio and Screen Culture are entitled to appeal YouTubes decision. If they lose, we may never know what the trailer for Eraserhead 2: Revenge of the Lady in the Radiator looks like. If they win, all the other fake trailers may just be a sneak preview of whats to come.
Category:
E-Commerce
A top employee of billionaire Elon Musk who is now working in the U.S. Justice Department previously bragged about hacking and distributing pirated software, according to archived copies of his former websites reviewed by Reuters. Christopher Stanley, a 33-year-old engineer who has worked at both Musk’s social media company X and space-launch company SpaceX, is a senior adviser in the Deputy Attorney General’s office, according to a former Justice Department official and a staff directory listing reviewed by Reuters. Stanley was assigned there while working for Musks Department of Government Efficiency that President Donald Trump set up to slash the federal bureaucracy. Musk has said no “organization has been more transparent than DOGE, but theres been little public information on the responsibilities and background of its staff. Stanley ran a series of websites and forums starting as far back as 2006, when he was 15, registration data preserved by the internet intelligence firm DomainTools shows. Several of those sites distributed pirated e-books, bootleg software and video game cheats, according to copies maintained by the Internet Archive, a nonprofit whose “Wayback Machine” preserves old websites. Stanley boasted about hacking into websites on at least two of the forums, according to archived posts, one of which dates to when he was 19. At the time, he said he had put his hacking days behind him. But a YouTube video he posted in 2014 shows his involvement in the breach of customer data from a rival hacking group, when he was 23. In response to questions for this story, the Justice Department did not directly address Stanley’s current role or his past but said he had an active security clearance that predated his employment at DOGE. In a statement to Reuters, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said she had “full trust and confidence in Chriss ability to help the federal government.” Stanley, the White House, SpaceX, and X did not respond to requests for comment. In the hours after Reuters contacted Stanley, several of his old websites vanished from the Internet Archive. Mark Graham, director of the Wayback Machine, declined to answer specific questions about the disappearance of Stanleys websites but said people who own the rights to sites can request to have their content withheld from the archive. National security professionals were largely split on how seriously to take Stanleys past. Six former Justice officials told Reuters his background raised red flags, noting that the department handles sensitive information, including details of federal investigations and other information protected by grand jury secrecy rules. I would have very serious concerns about hiring him in and giving him access to these kinds of records, said Jonathan Rusch, who spent more than 25 years as a Justice Department prosecutor before going into academia. Rusch said Stanleys background was worrisome, particularly for a Justice Department employee, because he had disclosed data which he had acquired apparently illegally. Dan Guido, whose digital security firm Trail of Bits has worked with the Justice and Defense departments, was more forgiving. Stanleys history of hacking shouldnt disqualify him from working at the DOJ, he said, citing Stanleys youthfulness and the way he targeted other hackers as mitigating factors. That is a way Ive seen a lot of people learn. Reuters could not determine Stanleys specific Justice Department responsibilities. The Deputy Attorney Generals office, run by Trumps former private attorney, Todd Blanche, oversees all the U.S. Attorneys offices, and manages criminal investigations into a range of offenses, including hacking and other malicious cyber activity. Reuters also could not establish whether Stanley remains employed by X and SpaceX. On LinkedIn, he still identifies himself as working for them and makes no reference to his Justice Department work. A profile photo on X shows him standing before the emblem for the Office of Justice Programs, an office in the department that awards grant funds. Like Musk, Stanley is classified as a “special government employee” and is not drawing a government salary, the DOJ said. PIRACY, VIDEO GAME CHEATS, AND HACKING Other members of Musks DOGE team have faced scrutiny over their backgrounds. When Reuters reported last week that DOGE staffer Edward Coristine had previously provided network infrastructure to a gang of cybercriminals, Democrats in the Republican-led House of Representatives Oversight Committee said in a post on X that it was another reason we need a full investigation into WHO is working for DOGE. Coristine has not responded to requests for comment. Starting about 10 years before joining SpaceX, Stanley ran several online forums that covered software piracy, video game cheats, and hacking. He used various pseudonyms on those sites, including eNkrypt and Reneg4d3, both of which he still uses on some social media accounts. Reuters was able to link the now-defunct forum websites and the usernames to Stanley by cross-referencing the sites registration data against his old email address and by matching Reneg4d3s biographical data to Stanleys. On some of Stanley’s earliest sites, he claimed credit for hacking. The website, fkn-pwnd.com, launched in 2006 while he was in high school, boasted of Fucking Up Servers! and featured a crude sketch of a penis, according to a copy of the site preserved by the Internet Archive. On reneg4d3.com, which he registered the following year, the archives show Stanley described how he hijacked a competing message board. Got admin access, he said in a 2008 post, just before he turned 17, describing the sites operators as stupid noobs. Easy exploit, he wrote. Around that time, a rival video game-cheating website, rev0lution-cheats.com, was hijacked and defaced with the message: This site has been hacked by RENEG4D3.com. Reneg4d3.com was suspended by its internet service provider a few months later, according to a screenshot of the site preserved by DomainTools. Reuters could not corroborate certain aspects of the hacking activity, including the identity of the site Stanley claimed credit for hijacking or the circumstances of rev0lution-cheats defacement. Stanley went on to start other websites where he and other participants discussed hacking, video-game cheating, or piracy, including error33.net and electonic.net (sic), the Internet Archives records show. I NO LONGER HACK At age 19, Stanley distanced himself from malicious cyber activity in an archived 2010 post on electonic.net, writing: “I no longer hack into Paypals, gain root access into other peoples computer (sic), or exploit online websites like StickAM”an apparent reference to a video streaming service that shut down in 2013. In that same post, he said hed been threatened with a lawsuit by the South Korean gaming company Nexon Co for “infiltrating their game software and altering certain aspects of the game.” “They did not take kindly to this,” he said. Reuters could not independently corroorate the claims of theft, computer hijacking, and software tampering, or the threatened lawsuit. A Nexon spokesperson said the company had been unable to locate any information regarding the matter. PayPal did not respond to a request for comment. Discussions on the electonic.net forum show that Stanley had not entirely left the hacking world behind. The websitelike others Stanley had createdoffered contraband ebooks and warezinternet slang for pirated software. In December 2014, when he was 23, Stanley posted footage of himself carrying out a hack of the customer database connected to Lizard Squad, a hacking group that took credit for several high-profile outages that included attacks against Sony Corp’s PlayStation Network. Reuters was unable to reach former members of Lizard Squad for comment. Stanley posted the footage to his YouTube channel, where he still goes by the Reneg4d3 nickname and uses a photo of himself with Elon Musk as his profile picture.
Category:
E-Commerce
Judge Susan Crawford preserved liberals’ narrow majority on the Wisconsin Supreme Court Tuesday by defeating conservative Brad Schimel, but in a way the real loser of the election was billionaire Elon Musk.Musk and his affiliated groups sunk at least $21 million into the normally low-profile race and paid three individual voters $1 million each for signing a petition in an effort to goose turnout in the pivotal battleground state contest. That made the race the first major test of the political impact of Musk, whose prominence in President Donald Trump’s administration has skyrocketed with his chaotic cost-cutting initiative that has slashed federal agencies.Crawford and the Democrats who backed her made Musk the focus of their arguments for holding the seat, contending he was “buying” the election, which set records for the costliest judicial race in history.“Today Wisconsinites fended off an unprecedented attack on our democracy, our fair elections, and our Supreme Court,” Crawford said in her victory speech. “And Wisconsin stood up and said loudly that justice does not have a price, our courts are not for sale.”Trump endorsed Schimel as the race turned into a proxy fight over national political issues. The state’s high court can rule on cases involving voting rights and redistricting in a state likely to be at the center of both next year’s midterm elections and the 2028 presidential contest.But Musk’s involvement dialed those dynamics up to 11: “A seemingly small election could determine the fate of Western civilization,” the billionaire said Tuesday in a last-ditch call to voters on his social media site X. “I think it matters for the future of the world.”Notably, America PAC, the super PAC backed by Musk, spent at least $6 million on vendors who sent door-to-door canvassers across the state, according to the nonpartisan Wisconsin Democracy Campaign. It was a reprise of what the group did across the seven most competitive presidential battleground states, including Wisconsin, which were carried by Trump in November.But the end results this time were not good for Musk. Despite the millions he spent on Schimel, as of late Tuesday night the Supreme Court candidate was losing by four percentage points more than the other Republican-backed statewide candidate, Brittany Kinser, who also fell short in her bid for superintendent of public instruction.Musk’s court race defeat wasn’t only because of crushing Democratic margins in deep blue cities like Madison and Milwaukee. Crawford’s margins were higher in places where the Musk-backed group America PAC had been active, including Sauk County, just north of Madison, which Crawford was carrying by 10 points after Trump won it by less than two points in November.In Brown County, the home of Green Bay where Musk headlined a campaign rally with 2,000 people on Sunday, Crawford beat Schimel. Trump won the county by seven percentage points last year.Overnight, Musk posted on his X platform that “The long con of the left is corruption of the judiciary.” In another comment, he seemed to take solace from voters’ approval to elevate the state’s photo ID requirement from state law to constitutional amendment. The platform was rife with criticism from Trump opponents for his involvement in the race.“Please send @elonmusk to all the close races!” Jon Favreau, former speechwriter for President Barack Obama, wrote.“Elon Musk is not good at this,” J.B. Pritzker, Illinois’ Democratic governor and a billionaire himself who donated to support Crawford, posted on X.Voters definitely had Musk on their minds.“There’s an insane situation going on with the Trump administration, and it feels like Elon Musk is trying to buy votes,” said Kenneth Gifford, a 22-year-old Milwaukee college student, as he cast his ballot on Tuesday. “I want an actual, respectable democracy.”Others may not have had their vote decided by the billionaire but were all-too aware of the money pouring into their state.Jim Seeger, a 68-year-old retiree who previously worked in communications and marketing, said he voted for Schimel because he wants Republicans to maintain their outsized majority in Wisconsin’s congressional delegation, which could be at risk if Crawford wins and the court orders the maps redrawn. But, he added, he was disappointed the election had become a “financial race.”“I think it’s a shame that we have to spend this much money, especially on a judicial race,” Seeger said as he voted in Eau Claire.Wisconsin’s Democratic Attorney General, Josh Kaul, sued to bar Musk from making his payments to voters if they signed a petition against “activist judges.” The state Supreme Court unanimously declined to rule on the case over a technicality.Musk swooped into the race shortly after Trump’s inauguration. Republicans were pessimistic about being able to win the seat. They lost a longtime conservative majority on the state high court in 2023, and Democrats have excelled in turning out their educated, politically tuned-in coalition during obscure elections such as the one in Wisconsin.Musk duplicated and expanded on some of the methods he used in the final weeks of last year’s presidential race, when he spent more than $200 million on Trump’s behalf in the seven swing states, including Wisconsin.This time, in addition to the $1 million checks, Musk offered to pay $20 to anyone who signed up on his group’s site to knock on doors for Schimel and posted a photo of themselves as proof. His organization promised $100 to every voter who signed the petition against liberal judges and another $100 for every signer they referred.Democrats were happy to make Musk a lightning rod in the race.“People do not want to see Elon Musk buying election after election after election,” Wisconsin Democratic Party Chair Ben Wikler said Monday. “If it works here, he’s going to do it all over the country.” Riccardi reported from Denver. Associated Press writer Meg Kinnard in Washington contributed to this report. Nicholas Riccardi and Thomas Beaumont, Associated Press
Category:
E-Commerce
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