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Turner Classic Movies is a priceless institution for many movie fans. The same goes for the private BitTorrent tracker Karagarga, which archives tens of thousands of movies, many of which are not available through legal channels. While the latter operates without the permission of rights holders, it recently made a surprise appearance on Turner's service in the form of "hacked" subtitles.
For millions of people around the world, subtitles are the only way to enjoy foreign language media. For the deaf and hard of hearing, they are absolutely essential.
Today, most of the big streaming platforms and broadcasters are aware of the importance of offering a variety of subtitle options to their viewers.
On pirate sites, the situation is no different. There is a decades-long tradition of fansubbing in which volunteers work together to provide homemade subtitles to the masses. In many cases, these volunteers outperform official channels, especially for unconventional content.
There are official and licensed sources for subtitles, but from time to time, we see fan-made subtitles appear on legal platforms. This is exactly what happened a few days ago, in a rare meeting between two of the biggest movie platforms.
TCM meets Karagarga
As part of its programming, Turner Classic Movies (TCM) recently aired the 1970 Spanish drama film โEl Jardรญn de las Deliciasโ, also known as โThe Garden of Delightsโ in English. The film is widely regarded as a great classic, one that TCM viewers look forward to seeing in the โNational Treasureโ.
However, what viewers did not expect to see were "hacked" subtitles and a reference to a BitTorrent tracker during the credits.
"Subtitles: Supersoft and Scalisto for KG", an inserted subtitle credits line reads, as stained by film archivist 'Jon' on Twitter.
For the average viewer, this might not ring a bell. However, those in the know immediately recognize them as fansubs. Very interesting too, considering the "KG" reference.
priceless film archive
KG stands for karagarga, an illustrious BitTorrent tracker that has been around for over 18 years. Becoming a member of the private community isn't easy, but those inside gain access to a wealth of cinematic obscurity.
The site focuses on archiving rare classic and cult movies, as well as other movie-related content. Blockbusters and other popular Hollywood releases cannot be found on the site as uploading them is strictly prohibited.
This policy has helped the tracker stay under the radar, as much as possible. This allowed the community of tens of thousands of moviegoers to build an irreplaceable archive of world cinema. This is not an exaggeration, the site has unique copies of movies that are simply not available elsewhere.
While the tracker works without the permission of rights holders, filmmakers, film researchers, and moviegoers have acknowledged the big role play to safeguard the history of cinema. or like the National mail put it up a few years ago;
โOtherwise, films of relentless historical merit are lost to changes in technology and time every year: copies of films are damaged or lost, moldy VHS tapes are not updated, DVDs are out of print. Without republishing, back catalogs never make the transition to digital.
โBut if a single copy of the film existed, even dimly, it can survive in Karagarga: one person uploads a rarity, and dozens more continue to share.โ
Fountain?
The subtitles that appeared on Turner Classic Movies were also made for a Karagarga release, but not necessarily obtained through the site. Fansubs may also be available through other subtitle repositories.
TorrentFreak reached out to TCM to find out if the company has any idea how the subtitles ended up on the official stream, but the company didn't immediately respond (see update below). The problem may lie with a third party, as the streaming service Criterion reportedly shows the same subtitles.
The source and reason why these subtitles appeared on the official TCM broadcast is irrelevant. True moviegoers will appreciate the mention.
Of course, this isn't the first time we've seen 'hacked' subtitles appear on legitimate platforms. Sky, for example, showed unofficial subs in a Chernobyl episode and Netflix also had similar problems in various occasions in the past.
Update: A TCM spokesperson informed us that, according to Janus Films, the subtitles were provided by the worldwide rights holder, which is Spanish distributor Video Mercury.
