Slashdot Mirror
Night Vision Goggles vs Pirates
Cormorant writes "It was reported in The Guardian that Warner Brothers has sent night vision goggles to cinemas across Britain for ushers to don and scan for camcorder pirates during the entire length of the movie [the new Harry Potter], along with watermarks and codes displayed on screen during the film. Mr Graham said "Video piracy is rife everywhere, and with the UK screening the film four days before the rest of the world, Warner was concerned the movie would end up on the internet. Warner sees the investment as negligible compared with the threat to the whole industry."
...if cam captures were the main source of piracy, but from what I've read, it's a lot more common for the leaks to come from "insider" sources. Either from post-production workers, or theatre employees in the projection booth.
That seems like a waste of time.
All a pirate has to do is pay the kid making minimum wage running the projector a couple hundred pounds to let the pirate sit in the booth and record from there!
First, the guys working in the theatres who make minimum wage are not going to report anyone for pirating a movie. They aren't paid enough to care
Second, all the good pirated coppies come out before the movies hit the theatres and are from the studio themselves.
Sounds like the guys trying to thwart the pirating aren't very knowlegeable themselves about what/how it happens.
Evolution or ID?
If I had any intention of going to the Harry Potter movie, I would go. Regardless of whether there's a ripped copy available online. People don't go to movie theatres because it's their only way to see a flick - they go for the theatre experience: big screen, big sound, greasy food.
------- "From bored to fanboy in 3.8 asian girls" ----------
Not only that, in this case their stated concerns arise because it opens in Britain four days earlier than the States? Why not just release it simultaneously worldwide?
And have you ever been in a crowded movie theater? Who the heck wants to watch a camcorder copy of that presentation anyway? The last thing I need is to save $5 (I normally go to matinees) by "pirating" a copy of a movie, just to get all the coughing, jostling, kids talking, babies screaming, etc etc anyway.
I do not have a signature
I think this is the first time I heard of studios providing NVG to prevent piracy in theaters.
However, I also think this is doomed to fail.The quality of some cam recording lets me think that some pirates may be friends with a projectionnist, thus giving them access to "private" screening with no audience except a camera.
And what of the ushers themselves. Surely quite a number are in facts students with part-time jobs. The same students that download films on p2p. what's to prevent _them_ from camcording the film ?
The only real defense against this would be releasing the film the same day everywhere
None of them actually do ticket or piracy checks whilst a movie is being shown. Night-vision goggles aren't going to help much.
Especially if they're copying the movie themselves during late-night private screenings.
I don't know about the UK, but in the US movie ushers are teen-age kids. They're far more enamoured with getting steet-cred for getting a clean copy of a popular film then they would be with making their boss look good by catching pirates.
If the studios want security guards, they'd be better served by hiring security guards.
TW
Bingo. It's in the best interest of the *IAA's to thoroughly convince everyone that any IP theft is taking place outside the studios, paving the way for things like DRM & DMCA. These measures are necessary because the theft is obviously taking place out in the public, beyond the studios' control.
The Dalai LLama
...hey, can I score a pair of those googles?...
My sig could be your sig!
Anybody that wants to take the time to download and watch a poor quality pirated copy shot in a theatre is a huge fan. That person is also going to go watch the movie themselves, probably more than once.
Warner Brothers is delusional if it actually believes that it's losing money because of theatre copies.
Learn to read. The parent says nothing about screener copies. Since they started embedding screener IDs, "screener copies" are a non-issue (and really, never have been much of an issue).
There are, however, many many many points in the chain within a huge studio where the picture can be quietly spirited away in perfectly clean DVD form.
Think Inside Job, my friend. And againe, taking a page from your diplomatic book, LEARN TO READ!
"Who are in control, they are not in control of anything - they don't even control themselves!" - Glen Beck
The solution is to politely but firmly ask that they stop, and tell them that you will have no problem going to get an usher if they continue.
Don't be rude, don't be a psycho. Just be firm.
If enough of us do it, politeness and manners can once again be the norm at the theater.
Close to where I live, there was a tanning parlor where the owner had installed hidden "security cameras" (yeah, right) to spy on the nekkid women while they tanned. When an outraged customer who noticed the camera went to the police, she was told that they couldn't do anything, since the owner had the right to install surveillance on his property, and he even had a sign on the front door (along with a noticeable security camera, watching the register) stating that there were security cameras on-site. That tanning business is closed, though. Word got out about what was going on, and he lost too much business to keep open. So, the theaters can do pretty much whatever they want as far as surveillance, but if they make it too uncomfortable for people, they'll end up closing down. Which is a sad thing, since its the studio pushing this, not the theaters. The studio's actions could drive away the theater's business.
psmylie's dictionary: Godzillion (noun) Any number large enough to destroy Tokyo
Warner sees the investment as negligible compared with the threat to the whole industry.
The biggest threats to the whole industry is (1) their inability to control costs on marginal product and (2) over-saturation of the market with expensive product.
The second point is rejected by the industry because the weekly blockbuster releases have all been are consumed and mostly paid off with two or three weeks of their release. Although the core audience is not growing, they are fanatically dedicated to going to the newest and biggest release every week. For five years there has been no break in audiences absorbing the box office ticket price increases necessary to blockbuster films. The film industry is in a positive feedback loop,which is not a good thing. If there were any film executives with engineering training , they would see that this will burn out your resources too quickly. In this case the resource is the attention span of the audience for cookie-cutter blockbusters.
Movie execs are known for their 'MORE, MORE, MORE!' mentality, so the concept that they may be creating and releasing too much product too quickly would be difficult for them to grasp. The movie business operates on a pay-per-view basis and having too much product available in the theatres and video stores can only work to drive down the price that the audience is willing to pay for the product. You see this a little with the number of special offers that the video rental outlets are using to get six-month-old product off the shelves, stuff like $1 US 24-hr rentals of new releases on weekdays or much shorter periods between theatrical and DVD/video release. Often a DVD is now released even as a film is still playing in second-run theatres. Distributors want to cash in before the film is forgotten.
I think that the emphasis on preventing 'piracy' (in this case pay-per-view without the distibutor or studio getting the pay) is somewhat missplaced because it implies that the first viewing of any product is most important 'money point' and that is getting to be less true every year. Film is now becoming like television; a product that is often a background medium that sets the mood rather than commands complete attention. Why go through the hassle of illegally copying this weeks blockbuster when next week there will be another one just the same? And next month it will be in DVD and available at the supermarket for a dollar rental?
More likely, the theater should put IR LEDs pointing back into the audiance to disrupt camcorders. That'd make the most sense and be more reliable / cheaper than sending every teenage usher a nice new pair of night vision goggles.
A new paperback costs $6-$7. A used one can often be had for $1-$2.
Who moderates this sort of obvious nonsense as "Insightful"??
/. If the government wants us to respect the law, it should set a better example.
The profits they make off these movies are in the millions, usually more than covering the cost of making the film. It is just pure profit rolling in and it is not because of additional work done. It is not like you are stealing money from hard working folks, they got their money from the film as salary. Only a few get the benefit from extra profits from movie sales, the producers, director, writers and some actors that get a percentage. The first Star Wars films gave most of the actors a set rate for the first 3 films. Hans Solo I believe didn't go for that deal and got lots more for subsiquent films.
The theaters loose some though but probably not enough to warrant the cost of night vision goggles.
So this move is in protection of the huge potential profits of the Movie producers and company. They are surely a group who's profits I want to go out of my way to protect. Now if they did like Marshall's and as time went on, lowered the price to see a movie (that had already covered its costs and a resonable profit), maybe. But they keep raising the prices and keep making millions and millions (on the winners).
But then those winners probably cover the cost of them producing the dog's. Which means that we are subsidizing their bad choices, essentially lowering their risk and probably allowing more dog's to be made, cause we are picking up the tab for them.
I am sure they will raise the prices to go to a movie to pay for the night vision goggle too.