ITV fakes terrorist footage using ARMA II

Hi folks.

I have always been a fan of OFP and ARMA but I am not usually the sort to get involved in forum discussions. However after what I have just seen I felt compelled to start a thread here.

Last night, a U.K based T.V channel broadcast a documentary discussing the Libya's alleged support of the IRA. When discussing how the IRA were capable of shooting down helicopters with Libyan weaponry, they showed what was painfully obvious to be footage of ARMA II, labeled as "IRA footage 1988".

Someone has already taken the liberty of posting the particular segment on Youtube here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6r-kNct630

You can watch the documentary in full here: http://www.itv.com/itvplayer/video/?Filter=276162

This bothers me on so many levels. Is it even legal for them to use footage of B.I's engine in this manner?

---------- Post added at 11:26 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:19 AM ----------

I would also like to make it clear that ITV in NO WAY indicated that it was supposed to be some kind of reconstruction, it was clearly labeled as "IRA footage 1988". :mad:

This bothers me on so many levels. Is it even legal for them to use footage of B.I's engine in this manner?

Absolutely not, we've had requests in the past to use Arma2 footage for scenes in a documentary and the request was turned down because of the possibility it showed Arma2/Bohemia Interactive in a negative way, now using our game to show the actions of terrorists is potentially a very negative and damaging use.

isn't EULA against using said product for any further commercial gains?

Absolutely, and ITV is a commercial TV network.

could have at least used some cool addons and blastcore :P

seems the video was taken down from ITV website

then the addon makers could be entitled to lawsuit ITV just as well ;) good thinking

lol at the quote "No one was killed in this attack."

No shit...it's a computer game. :p

Abs

lol - that reminded me those videos from Kuma War :p

bahahahahahahahaha

OMFG Journalists!!?? Whatever next?

There is lots and lots of IRA footage showing them dragging 12.5mm DSHKs across the landscape. I don't think they ever used anything bigger than that or shoulder launched SAMs supplied by Gadaffi (later some were sold to ETA but were faulty and did not work). Truck mounted guns like that are too difficult to hide.

I guess ITV didn't want to pay/could not get access to the rights for the original vids?

Having travelled widely and seen what journalists really get up to I am not surprised. A friend told me he saw a well respected journalist throwing handfuls of coins into a rubbish pile so he could film local children picking through it. It made a nice 'poverty' piece to camera back in the UK.

I love the way to truck does the little "OFP/Arma jump" after it starts firing. I hope the BBC or similar run a story on this, that'd be exceptional publicity for BIS. Especially if they make it clear that BIS products in no way depict the IRA...

What about journalists then nowadays? Fantastic!

They have access to the internet which is brilliant, because there lies the more convenient truth, innit. Fabulous! And how about those video games then? Marvellous!

If ITV would also regenerate world history using the A2 zombie mods we'd be like blown away by it.

Yes, this is likely to be pulitzer material?

I've seen some utter B.S in the media and the "lie box in the corner" in my time but that was priceless.

I assume Ivan or legal are on the red bat phone as we type?

could have at least used some cool addons and blastcore :P

seems the video was taken down from ITV website

Nope you need a UK IP to view it, use a free VPN or proxy :)

Nope you need a UK IP to view it, use a free VPN or proxy :)

Yeah, still up via UK based proxy.

PS: Happy Birthday placebo you old fart. have a good one

LOL thanks :)

Although this particular case is just ridiculous (it's still beyond me how ITV managed it lol), in defence of us Journalists, these days there are far less journalists in each organisation but they are often being made to produce more content. So less manpower more production often leads to "corner cutting". It's often why you can spot stuff (especially stories as opposed to video) taken from the internet. Not that it's any excuse for this documentary.

Leaving aside the fact that ITV have used Arma2 footage without permission, the programme's presenter (Paul McGann if I'm not mistaken) clearly states that it is 'the terrorists own footage'. That has far more serious implications and is very damaging indeed.

At the very least I would expect the production team to make a retraction on terrestrial TV after all this was peak time viewing.

I am diying to get back home and watch this haha!! Arma on the big screen next!

Faking, or using fake footage is not only dumb but it seriously impacts on the entire reliability of the documentary. How can we take in and process any bit of information knowing that any of it can be faked, made up, inserted without care or attention? It's a dullwitted affair when videogame footage is being supplied to us as proof of wrongdoing by a dictator. How, and why should we believe anything?

Yeah, still up via UK based proxy.

PS: Happy Birthday placebo you old fart. have a good one

Pfff, less than fourty and called old fart :rolleyes:

Faking, or using fake footage is not only dumb but it seriously impacts on the entire reliability of the documentary. How can we take in and process any bit of information knowing that any of it can be faked, made up, inserted without care or attention? It's a dullwitted affair when videogame footage is being supplied to us as proof of wrongdoing by a dictator. How, and why should we believe anything?

After a small amount of googling, there are claims that other footage in the doc are false too, such as a clip supposedly from the troubles during the 80s showing 90s era Snatch Landies.

There is actual footage of the incident on youtube:

IRA Shootdown UK Army Lynx, Silverbridge, South Armagh.

They used a battery of DSHKs and other MG's in an agricultural trailer.

I wonder if some researcher was told to get the video and edit it and picked the wrong one?

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, ITV? I hope BIS will sue them for millions of billions :P. Lazy-ass mother****ers. This is unbelievably funny and troubling at the same time.

Here's some news coverage, I hope other medias will pick it up too and not just the gaming media. http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/09/27/itv-documentary-cant-tell-the-difference-between-gaming-and-reality-mistakes-arma-2-for-secret-ira-film/

It's hard to imagine them not being able to tell the difference between a game and reality, man that reporter must be blind.

I wonder if some researcher was told to get the video and edit it and picked the wrong one?

That would seem a plausible explanation. Still very embarrassing for ITV.