Slashdot Mirror
Night Goggles Capture Spider-Man Movie Bootlegger
linuxwrangler writes "According to SFGate.com/AP, a teen has been arrested for attempting to bootleg the Spider-Man 2 movie, after a projectionist using night-vision goggles spotted him. The teen was escorted from the theater by security guards and turned over to police. This may be the first arrest stemming from the use of NV goggles that were previously mentioned on Slashdot."
and now what?
copies of it already exist on most if not all p2p networks anyways
what has this stopped
come on disable the record button on my tape deck too!!!
back in the day we didnt have no old school
The article cites night vision goggles, but you all know his spider sense was tingling :-)
:-)
I think to keep in the spirit, he should have donned a spidey outfit, and swung down from his little window to catch the guy.
Required reference: The Little Kicks - Seinfeld bootlegs a movie
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Telesyncs or telecines... no one bothers with cams anymore. Where is the "enforcement" there?!
There's 10 types of people in this world, those who understand binary and those who don't.
If he were smart enough, he'd be doing projection work instead of holding the camera
Twitter supports and protects racists - by smearing their critics with the "Hate Speech" label.
Too bad spiderman isn't real. We wouldn't have to waste money on night-vision goggles.
Beings aspergers AND pulling chicks... I enjoy the challenge!
Thank you Homeland Security, thank you FBI, thank you ATF. Thank god that the terrible scourge that is badly copied movies is finally getting the priority attention it deserves. But curses Night Vision Goggles, now I can't take a woman into the movies to just make out without every night vision goggled attendant busting me. I'm conflicted here.
Enjoy your Karma, after all you earned it. Feel your Karma Joe, feel it burn.
I mean, you would think the still would be easy enough to detect. How the heck did they manage to smuggle a boiler into the theater in the first place?
It's encouraging to see movie studios go after the actual perpetrators, rather than raise a blanket assumption that everybody is guilty and everybody deserves restrictions to their activity. I remember Roger Ebert complaining that a year or so ago critics were being patted down before being allowed into movie screenings.
Slashdot: providing anti-social weirdos a soapbox, since 1997.
Ain't it always?
And for Pete's sake can we PLEASE get a better bootleg of Fahrenheit 9/11 than that absolute crap of a POT cam?
What's with the music barely audible (although I suppose the dialog is more important...weird to hear this steady hiiiiiiissssss in the background during the musical numbers tho)
By day a lowly projectionist, by night he is...
:)
Night Goggles!
The most feared and ruthless projectionist of all time!
Extra Extra: Night Goggles foils bank robbery!
Sorry, semantical nit picking
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most of the moovies on p2p networks comes from the dvds distributed to preview them
Decapitation?
Disconnect and self-destruct, one bullet at a time.
Was he spying for Screener-thiefs or looking at hot-babes making out?
"Members of the coalition in Iraq were confused when each of them was handed a 120 mm projector and cast out into the night."
MOUNT TAPE U1439 ON B3, NO RING
Even in the "pirate everything" community, there's a lot of people saying "Don't download it, go see it in a theater." It's the type of movie that needs to be seen on a large screen, not a computer monitor or small TV.
I have to wonder if this might qualify as an invasion of privacy. I mean, people in a dark theatre assume they aren't being watched. If theatres were releasing video tapes of teenagers making out in the dark, there's be a huge outrage.
Well, IANAL, but I know I won't be going to a theatre again... I'll stick with rentals of the few movies I'm interested in.
Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
(yeah I know, they capture light, and 'captures' would be more accurate (ok, correct) if Night Goggles was a single guy, but it could be a crime fighting trio...)
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I would think that at this point, most of the movies that get distributed via BitTorrent, P2P etc. are not captured by a lone guy sitting in a packed theater.
I mean, say your buddy is the guy who sets up the movie in the theater, and sits there while it runs. You make nice with him, and he allows you to film the movie in relative security, rather than you sitting in audience, waiting to get busted by your neighbor or wandering security guys.
From my experience, anyway, it doesn't take much to convince a guy working a menial job like that to do something that may jeopardize his employment. Yeah, it's a broad generalization, but hey, it's consistent.
"The power of accurate observation is frequently called cynicism by those who don't have it." - G.B. Shaw
Don't make out in a public place if you don't want people to see you. The light may be dim, but it's not completely dark.
You mean the inflatable type right...
Perhaps the security won't mind so long as you don't pop her or something else to make too much noise.
If the tapes were distributed, you might have a case. But you don't have absolute privacy when you go to a public place. This isn't much different from a surveilance camera, for which we have a lot of precedence.
"Faith: Belief without evidence in what is told by one who speaks without knowledge, of things without parallel." - A.B.
The full text of this article from The Economist follows. The original content is subscriber-only; it is reproduced here in the hope and expectation that you will find it useful.
While not strictly related to this teenager's arrest, the article below does provide insight on how the film industry might better accomplish its goal of keeping bootleggers at bay.
----
Piracy and the movie business
Tipping Hollywood the black spot
Aug 28th 2003
From The Economist print edition
[Image]
The movie business is not doing enough to ward off the threat of digital piracy
AS HOLLYWOOD bosses know all too well, digital piracy could plunder their industry. The music business, where piracy has long been active, has lost a quarter of its sales already. Watching its plight, the movie moguls say, has taught them a lesson: listen to what the customer wants and keep the business model flexible. But investors are not convinced that Hollywood's leaders are on top of the piracy threat. Like Scarlett O'Hara in "Gone with the Wind", says Gordon Crawford, an investor at Capital Research and Management in Los Angeles, many have decided to do something about it tomorrow.
It is true that movies are not yet as vulnerable as music. Hollywood starts from a better position. Its products are priced more reasonably than CDs. People want to watch all of a film, so there is no incentive to download a single track. It can take days to download a movie from the internet, unlike a song, which takes minutes.
But rampant DVD piracy may be coming soon, both in the form of traditional counterfeiting and downloading from the internet. Hard pirated copies are widespread, and will proliferate further with the spread of DVD recorders and burners. Already as many as 600,000 movie files are shared each day on peer-to-peer file-sharing networks such as Morpheus and Grokster, according to the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA). That number is likely to soar as more households get broadband internet and compression technology cuts download time.
Movie industry bosses say that they are doing plenty to combat the threat. As well as helping local police with raids on counterfeiters, they are devising "digital rights management" (DRM) techniques, such as deleting content after the user has "consumed" it. They are also offering movies cheaply online and seeking new laws. This week they won a battle against pirates when California's Supreme Court ruled that the First Amendment right to free speech cannot be used as a defence by someone publishing trade secrets on the internet--in this case, software to break DVD copy protection.
American Pie-in-the-sky
Next will come an Orwellian project to "re-educate" the young. With Junior Achievement, a volunteer teaching organisation, the MPAA has developed a curriculum for use in 36,000 American classrooms which teaches that swapping content is wrong. Older file sharers will be hard to persuade, however, and hackers can usually get around any copy protection the industry devises. According to the Pew Internet & American Life Project, 65% of people who share music and video files online say they do not care if material is copyrighted. Last month, the MPAA tried an emotional approach, with a series of adverts in which a set painter, a stuntman, a make-up artist, a grip and an animator explain how piracy hurts them, not just the big bosses. The campaign is unlikely to have much effect, industry-watchers say, as everyone knows how many millions the latest blockbuster grossed and how much the star got.
To frighten people, the big music firms are going after individuals in court. Movie firms reckon that this will help them too, though for now they are leaning on universities to stop their students file-sharing. One studio s
Insightful? Basically saying if you can't stop the crime then it's OK to do nothing. The record button on your VCR is irrelevent to this case. *sheesh* you guys overcomplicate the simplist of issues. Basically he was caught doing something he wasn't suppose to do, and was punished. The fact that the movie is now in the wild is irrelevent.
Not knowing much about American Law, do teenagers get off with a lighter sentence (eg. community service), or is this crime so dastardly they will be tried as adults?
;)
If teenagers get tried as adults, what about kids?
Will we start seeing children being given $30 to go into a cinema and do the recording for the adult?
Surely they can't try little children as adults can they?
Won't somebody think of them?!?!!!
(Yes, yes, I know that telecines etc. will take the place of the handhelds at the moment, but grant me this question anyway
I hope your violent ass goes to jail.
You can kill one bug while the rest thrive, like the 1:2000000 man/bugs ratio, there is a 1:2000000 minimun wage projectionist/ 31337 bootlegger. good luck with that.
It's hard to believe the movie industry is getting so excited over wretchedly poor quality bootlegs. This strikes me as being more of a propaganda war than anything else. Every time an arrest is made some movie exec gets to come out and use the words "steal" and "movie" in the same sentence, as if making copies is at all the same thing as theft. They can jump up and down and say it's theft as many times as they want but that doesn't make it so.
You guys sure are badass, at Mount Berry Square Theaters. Your assistant manager Chad Moore would approve. Rome, Georgia, suburban bedroom community, home of total badasses and regulators. I'll watch my step if I ever come there, and stay far away from the mall and Mount Berry Square Theaters, in order to avoid a certain ass-whooping at the hands of ushers with girls' names.
Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
It's a fact! The projectionist who turned in the bootlegger also had on beer goggles, and thought the bootlegger was a lot hotter than he turned out to be after the arrest was made.
Show me on the doll where his noodly appendage touched you.
What the article doesn't mention is that the projectionist just finished using the googles to check on his camcorder in the booth. Those darn kids need to leave pirating to the professionals.
The kid's lucky that this recent bill isn't a law yet. He'd be looking at a maximum of 3 years instead...
Stealing nightvision goggles from movie theaters is still a misdemeanor, the actual class varies from state to state. People who steal them in south dakoda and use them for hunting better watch out, use of night vision goggles while hunting is a Class 2 misdemeanor
There is no sanctuary. There is no sanctuary. SHUT UP! There is no shut up. There is no shut up.
Chief Quimby over helicopter loud-speaker: "Don't mind us. Continue swimming naked. Oh, come on, continue! Aww..."
Chief Wiggum: "Do not be alarmed. Continue swimming naked...."
It would be cool if it didn't suck.
"The teen could be charged under a law that went into effect Jan. 1 and makes taking a recording device into a movie theater a crime punishable by up to one year in jail and a maximum fine of $2,500."
Potentially a year in jail for videotaping a movie? He didn't distribute it yet so they can't punish him for more broad piracy issues. A year in jail for a single instance of copyright violation? Could this be argued as a violation of 8th ammendment rights?
Hmm you wonder how many of these people are actually involved in a release group, say UTi, or rather for their own viewing/bragging pleasure. "Hey guys look, I got the cam version of Spiderman2 before you guys can download it!" I dunno, cams are completely worthless to me. Anyone (well maybe not anymore...) can just take a cam into a theater and start filming. However, someone with a DVD copy, has to have skill ;)
It is about time theatres have taken it under their mandate to try and help the studios out on this one. Although, from various news sources and from /., I realize most recordings are inside jobs. Who knows it may go up to the top. If a manager knows it is happening or is actually in on it, I am sure there is a tidy bit of cash for him to make or at least favours to get by handing out copies to friends.
I gave up going to the theatre due to high costs and lack of value. Now I just wait the three to 6 months and watch it at home on the wide screen. At least I won't get busted for making out with my fiancee if things get to heavy.
I am just waiting for the guy who works in the theatre, donning these new fangled night vision goggles, to sue the theatre because they didn't give him proper training . I am sure someone, somewhere will forget to take them off when the lights go on.
Barring human stupidity, I just wonder what effect on your vision wearing these things for, lets say 6 hrs a day, three days a week, for the average teen kid working at a theatre part time. I also wonder how the bright flashes of light comming from the screen effect your vision over time. Whenever you see a movie where some guy is hunting down some other guy, or girl for that matter, and is wearing night vision goggles, inevitably the hunted use some bright light to blind the hunter... Does anyone have any first hand knowlege of the damage to the eyes, or if the pain and squinting you see in the movies during these scenes is true to fact?
flinging poop since 1969
IANAL but I believe public places with surveilance cameras need to post signs that warn people of the fact that they may be on video. "This are is being monitored by surveilance equipment" etc.
wonder how long before theatres get those...
in this age of communication i'm just not getting through
How did the projectionist do, if him as the rest of the audience are facing the screen, you have to see from the other direction with the googles to spot a camera.....
"The teen could be charged under a law that went into effect Jan. 1 and makes taking a recording device into a movie theater a crime punishable by up to one year in jail and a maximum fine of $2,500."
Is not the human brain itself a "recording device"?
This is such a waste of resources. We all know the bootlegs spreading across the internet are not from TEENAGERS HOLDING A CRAP CAMERA. They are going after the wrong sources if they think that will slow down net piracy.
:)
There is currently 2 captures of spider-man 2 already released by vcd groups. One is a very good quality I might add by VideoCD - they do awesome rips
All in All, it's just a huge wasted effort because the copies spreading around the net, usually don't even originate from u.s. theaters. I know VideoCD gets most their caps in france.
Camcorders account for that much of the stuff going around?? You used to get shadows of people walking across the screen if you happen to watch one of those camcorder-recorded versions... but apparantly that's all history now... somehow the dvd rips get leaked out... and that would certainly be from "inside"...
Stopping piracy short of denying consumers recordable devices; Mission Impossible!
"Hundreds of people have put tens of thousands of hours into making a truly great picture, and the notion of having it stolen and sent out for free around the world is just plain wrong," said Jeff Blake, vice chairman of Sony Pictures Entertainment. where did our legal system go? what happened to "innocent until proven guilty in a court of law"? they didn't catch him selling it or offering it online, that's slander.
They should get spidey to stop the bootleggers,
He'll be hanging from the freakin roof (with a freakin' laser) and he'll go;
"my spidey sense detects that the MPAA may be about to loose millions to the green goblin copyright violator"
And then he flips out, like a ninja, and kills everyone.
Then a bunch of pirates come in and they are like "arrrrgh we be here to protect out own and stop ye and ye crappy movies".
Then spidey will whip out a guitar and start playing it and forcing the pirates to dance and dance. But as pirates are cool and awesome at breakdancing they begin to attack him *despite* having to breakdance to do it.
So it flows into this scene with break-dancing pirates fighting for the kid with the camera vs spidey hanging off the roof with his guitar and his frickin laser.
And then a freakin LAS VEGAS MONORAIL is heading for the multiplex, and spidey is like has talking marks appear next to his head like this "O" and he says "my spidey sense detects extreme danger to the audience". But the audience has already been dancing for too long (the guitar affects them too) and have no energy to escape. The pirates go "arrrrgh haharrrr" and grab the boy and his video camera with spidey's new movie on it.
Spidey is then caught in a decision between stopping the las vegas monorail from killing the audience and saving the marvel/mpaa superhero profits by stopping a "spidey23j33t.torrent" from appearing on suprnova or the like.
And spidey is like "OMG! my pants are riding up my crutchz0r!! LOL!"
But one this the pirates forgot was, that spidey has REAL ULTIMATE POWER. So spidey uses the laser to cut the roof of the multiplex, sends out a zillion webs and catches all the audience, then he jumps out the hole in the roof with the exhausted audience trailing behind. He gets them out, just as the las vegas monorail crashes and burns in the multiplex's ass.
Spidey then lands in a tree above the pirates in the parking lot and lets the audience down slowly while still holding on to them.
The pirates are like "WTF the audience is raining out the trees"
Then spidey begins to play his guitar and uses the audience like a puppet master to attack the pirates. Spidey crushes the pirates with his dancing audience, but one gets away with the camera.
Then the pirate sees Kirsten Dunst in the nude and he's like "OMG KEKEKEKE" and he starts taping with his camera and records over the movie. And spidey's danger sense is like "It's ok now spidey you can relax". And spidey's like "ok" and people around spidey are like "WTF who are you talking to?". And spidey's like "I have REAL ULTIMATE POWER" and then he just flips out.
The end.
This is exactly what we've been saying is necessary. Instead of mandating spyware on all of our computers or forcing ISP to pay royalties for potential copyright infringement, they're actually trying to stop it at the source.
The penalties may be a bit harsh, but that's better that than curtailing the rest of our freedoms.
LK
"Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano
"The teen could be charged under a law that went into effect Jan. 1 and makes taking a recording device into a movie theater a crime punishable by up to one year in jail and a maximum fine of $2,500."
How can they actually prove that HE brought the camera into the theatre?
If the law only applies to those who bring a recoridng device into a theatre, then they'd have to be able to prove he is the one who actually carried it into the theatre, and if he was with freinds then there's no way they could prove who brought it in.
To be caught bootlegging is bad enough ... but to be caught bootlegging SPIDERMAN 2, ugghhh, the shame!
"Camcorders account for 92 percent of all illegal copies of films that appear for sale over the Internet and are sold on street corners from Burbank to Beijing, according to the MPAA."
Oh please. I've bought and downloaded many 'illegal copies' in my time, and that percentage is ridiculously high. You'd have to be nuts to buy a camcorder movie, when the 'direct copy of the dvd sent out as promo' version is available.
They surely realise that any 'for sale' pirate version of the film came from an inside source, and this quote in the article is pure FUD.
Why not just pay homeless people $20 to tape it. If they are caught they get to get a free home and food, and if they are not then they get free money.
Paying homeless people to do civil disobedience is win-win.
3dinfo@maficstudios.com
because cinema ushers all go around hunting down murderers with night vision goggles
what is too bad is that this kid is more than likely not the one uploading it to the hottest 0-day sites and is probably just trying to show off to his friiends. But now the MPAA is going to use him as an example and fry his ass just because they think they have some control in what's going on here...
~~par
Sorry to nit-pick, but:
Precedents are previous experiences that can be drawn on to make a current decision, which is what you mean.
Precedence is the rank or order assigned to a person or thing, which is not what you mean at all.
Question: How bad is the quality of a movie videotaped with a camcorder? I can't imagine it being anything better than absolutely awful. One of the big reasons for going to see a movie in the theatres (or even on DVD) is the awesome sound and picture quality. Who in their right mind wants to watch a movie that was taped off a camcorder?
I seriously have no idea why this problem even exists.
What has *science* done?!? -- Dr. Weird (ATHF)
At least the kid will get the help he needs now.
Like a smaller camcorder.
Take the cheese to sickbay, the doctor should see it as soon as possible - B'Elanna Torres, "Learning Curve"
Will this mean they will stop using the incredibly annoying and almost epilepsy-inducing cap codes?
This just shows you how great search engines are when a quick "night google" shows a list of people bootlegging spiderman!
Oh my god, look on eBay and you'll find those very same "NV goggles that were previously mentioned on Slashdot". Exactly the same ones.
No, not really.
Maybe there have been arrests before stemming from the use of NV goggles, but these were the first ones "that were previously mentioned on Slashdot."
Currently on CNN: "Slashdot article leads to arrest of bootlegger."
Oh dear...
'Thats they exact same thing a banana wrench monkey.'
NFO File #1
NFO File #2
A bootleg is barely close to one you can see at the theatre as an entertainment experience. The sounds definitely suck, colors suck (until you're the depressive kind that likes to see the world dull), and heads swinging to left and right at the bottom of the screen most definitely suck. This is not a comment about the IPR or laws, but i think when considering bootlegs, it's not fair to say that this is an illegal copy of the movie, since it's very inferior in terms of quality. If anyone buys this stuff, knowing how horrible it's compared to the one at the theater, this means he does not value the movie as high as the ticket price. This is a kind of price discrimination. I wonder what would happen if the producers sold a bootleg version over Internet ? Come on, buy the crappy version from us, at least this comes from the owner of movie...
A video camera in the theater is probably the worst way to bootleg a movie. Anyone who puts some serious thought into doing it can think up several better methods, such as: -Get the projectionist or another employee in on it. -Come early, mount the camera out of sight beforehand. these are off the top of my head. I by no means condone this course of action, but I wish someone would put some brains into their attempts. Also, as stated previously, most of the good quality bootlegs come from reviewer copies of the DVDs and are available before the movie's premier in theaters.
"i was talking audio tape recorders....like dead heads recording live performances of the grateful dead"
Apparently no one's explained the idea of "permission" to you. There's no "right" here.
"the whole thing should be *irrelevant* because of presedence; if they wanted to stop people from recording they should have done so way back in the 60's by stoping the sale of recording mediums and recording devices"
Really. So according to your argument, this case is going to stop me from either being able to go to a theater and watching the movie legitimately, and a couple months down the road, stopping me from buying the DVD and watching it, and making a backup copy according to copyright law.
So what right are you fighting for exactly? The right to a bootleg copy of a movie you never planned on paying for?
"im glad that in canada it is as permissible as photocopying a book"
Under fair use laws it's permissible here too. I however can't walk away with a complete copy, and I doubt Canada thinks different. I don't know were your getting your info on legal matters, but I'll tell you right here and now. Slashdot isn't it.
How hard would it be to make little bright infra-red LED things to wear on your lapel. Hand them out in the foyer before people go in.
Battery + LED + electrical tape.
Decrease that signal-to-noise ratio. Make the method useless.
If he has rich parents, then sure. If not, he'll rot in jail and come out a hateful, hardened criminal
As an aside I want to go into a movie theater with an empty camcorder (no tape). Would I still be committing a crime? Could I go to jail? Would it even make it to trial?
Low UID? Fuck, I'm old...
And I agree that cams and TSs are different, especially in the sense of requiring the cooperation of an inside man. There's a good reason not to confuse them.
--grendel drago
Laws do not persuade just because they threaten. --Seneca
Who the hell is Chad Moore? Our assistant manager was named Erica and she just recently quit. I was only being honest when I said I'd hit him with my broom. Damn horrible Slashdot mods...
"Instant gratification takes too long." - Carrie Fisher
... if he used a sony cam for making his "home movie". Sony is the one that is publishing the picture and it is also raking in millions selling move recoring/playback equipment.
Oh yes, that's very insightful: comparing rape, burglary, and arsen to copyright infringement. That's some of the most pitiful comment moderation I've seen in some time.
Sure: you can fall on either side of the copyright debate, but if you think copyright related crimes, especially ones where nobody profits from the crime and the only loss is a theoretical and arguable one at best, are in the same ballpark as the other examples you gave... well... you need to get out more often.
And this is coming from an artist who has been (on rare occasion) paid for my work.
Cheers.
You know your argument would be far more impressive if your weren't simply a whining psydonym on Slashdot. Were's your time in jail for standing up for what you believe in? Were's the fines for doing the same? Were's the bruises and swelling? There's no "civil" to your "disobedience". Just disobedience. All the others suffered and died for what they believed in, and you disgrace their memory with your cheap attempts to get a free movie. When your ready to die for a free movie then we'll talk.
Is there actually a law, which prohibits this in the States? And does it not conflict with the copyright law?
;-) that you can make a copy of any published work for personal use. Making copies of computer programs is explicitly denied, though.
Here in Finland the copyright law states (at the moment, at least
So all this guy would have done was to disobey the sign at the movie theater's door telling that no camcorders are allowed inside.
Simple enough.
:-)
If you argue that making copies of music or movies shouldn't be illegal, why not do a "shareware" entertainment industry. You go, see the movie and if you like it, pay the theater on the way out. Same with the popcorn. I hate the prepopped popcorn that is delivered and reheated. Tastes like styrofoam. If it's that popcorn, don't pay after getting it.
Ahh, but on the flip side, you are paid the same way for your work. The manager authorized payment only if you are doing the work you're supposed to be doing. Reading Slashdot? No pay for that time. On IM, no pay for that time (or reduced pay).
Wait wait. The network is working great. No problems in the past week. Hey, you haven't done any recovery work so you don't get that extra $1000 that week. The network crashed and you fixed it. Great, here's $1000 but minus $200 because it crashed.
Man, a shareware economy. Wouldn't that be great?
Shit better not happen!
06/30/2004 TELESYNC Spiderman 2 *SVCD* VideoCD [2 CDs]
As is reported on theisonews.com... So what good did catching this punk really do? Not like this'll hurt their $100 milion plus opening.
I don't like movie pirates either. But this kid - what crime did he commit?
did he sell the movie to anyone else? No.
Did he even distribute the movie elsewhere? No.
In fact a (lame) defense he could use is time-shifting - saying he rather wanted to take a nap during the movie, and watch it later - or make a funny video from some footage (parody). How woud that be any different from what was done?
What would happen if I took a camcorder into the theater, and turned it on without a tape inside. Is that a crime?
What if I use the focus controls to record the guys head in front of me instead of the movie. Is that a crime, just because I'm in a theater?
I hope this kid can turn the tables on them and sue them for a horrendous amount of money for slander.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
The projectionist must have had a good network connection in the projection room... oh, wait a minute... GOGGLES. For some reason I thought it was "Night Googles Capture Spider-Man Movie Bootlegger".
So much for googling in the dark...
The Wknd Sessions - Malaysian and South East Asia independent music
5 minutes ago some guy BROKE THE LAW by shooting anyother guy, and killing him. 2 days ago, some guy BROKE THE LAW by raping a child.
I mean, any film that plays 'Rain drops keep falling on my head' in full has problems.
*sigh*
There are 10 kinds of people; those who know ternary, those who don't, and those now hunting for a dictionary.
Each of these Gen 1 light amplifiers don't really do that great of a job, all things considered. The resolution is far too low to be terribly useful (the scope has a reticle, so that makes targeting the general area of your target a bit easier, but actually hitting anything with any degree of accuracy is pretty much impossible) and the contrast can be irritating as hell. Either everything in the viewfinder is pitch black or bright white. This makes driving in a no-light situation very difficult, even at low speeds. And given the fact that my dumb Ford Bronco just loves to tell me that I should CHECK REAR ANTI-LOCK every time I turn the key, I'm treated to an intense white blob out of the corner of my eye. Love them dashboard lights.
Both the scope and the goggles are 'passive light amplification' which means they can amplify the starlight, but if you're in a pitch-black situation (overcast, underground) both have an infrared emitting diode atop the objective lens, which paints the area in front of you with light out of the visible spectrum. If you're not actually hunting someone with their own NVGs, turning on the IRED works great.
Now, as for the theater, why don't they just use a little Sony Handicam with NightShot? When I... appended one to my fender (so as to make an inexpensive Forward-Looking Infrared setup for my vehicle), I got better images on my little monochrome field monitor than I ever got from the stupid goggles. The Handicam picked up the IREDs from my other friends and their NVGs, even outside of NightShot mode.
But I ramble on. As for your question, I don't think it could do any permanent damage to the idiot ushers using them to totally narc out those evil Copyright Violators, lamentably. No, turning the lights on won't permanently blind NVG users (despite what the film 'Clear and Present Danger' had to say about the issue), just leave a nasty monitor burn-in against your retinas! Just like looking at the sun for a second or catching the glimpse of an arc from your welder. Unless of course, you're stupid and ignore that old HEY BRIGHT LIGHT I SHOULD PROBABLY CLOSE MY EYES BECAUSE THIS IS BRIGHT, WHOA! reflex that most mammals have when confronted with an intense light being beamed right into their cute little peepers.
ALL HAIL THE BEAST THAT ASCENDETH FROM THE PIT WITH HIS CUTE WIDDLE NOSE =^o.o^=
Someone has to say it...
In the United States, the movies watch you!
flinging poop since 1969
and prior to the film, there was an advert reading something like Hollywood thanks you for last year's $6.7 billion record-breaking admissions. Now I understand just how badly these kids are sticking it to the industry.
MSIE: The world's most standards-complaint web browser.
...everywhere on every format simultanously!
That way the pirates would only have those who can't or won't pay the full price as customers. Everybody else will be able to watch it where and when they want with a clean conscience because they paid for it.
As long as they continue to discriminate based on geographical location and format, there will be pirates filling those huge gaps in availability. What part of supply and demand don't MPAA understand?
"For every complex problem, there is a solution that is simple, neat, and wrong." -- H.L. Mencken (1880-1956) --
Witches were herbalists, spiritualists, natural healers, and all around wise women. They do not, and have never consorted with the devil. They worship nature spirits, if any at all. Christians, simply don't like people who have different beliefs, so the Christians tortured and murdered them to protect their own interests.Galileo wanted to steal faith from 'true believers'.Galileo was a scientist and an atronomer. Once again his beliefs threatened the hegemony of the church. The church believed the earth was the centre of the solar system and he believed it was the sun.
'Blacks' wanted to steal the 'obvious superiority' away from the 'whites'.
Hmmm, too hot an issue to even post on I think. Tempers will flare.
Americans wanted to steal about half of the British Empire.
We've seen what you've done with that half, and on behalf of the British Empire I would like to say "you are welcome to keep it".
All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain.
Withholding art from people who can not afford to see it or are not allowed to see it is just plain wrong.
What a load of bat's poo! This assumes that someone will be as likely to watch a film for free as pay to see it. Test this by giving away tickets to movies and measure the change in attendance, what do you think will happen?
They whose government reduces their essential liberties for temporary security, receive neither liberty nor security.
...because the projection bulb is so dim these days!
------------------
You may like my a cappella music
While I'm at it, from the article:
Camcorders account for 92 percent of all illegal copies of films that appear for sale over the Internet and are sold on street corners from Burbank to Beijing, according to the MPAA.
#1... Who's BUYING cam bootlegs over the internet?
#2... I live in Burbank. It's one of the most tame, bland, middle class, and heavily policed cities in Southern California. Trust me, there are no tapes for sale on our street corners. Not on the corner in front of the Costco, the AMC Theater, or the Ikea. I guess it sounds good next to "Bejing" though. Better that Chattsworth, at least.
If I remember right, when you look at a videocamera with something IR-sensitive, you can see the focus light that it uses to put a strong known pattern on the scene in front of it.
I wonder if they just need to glance in there, with the camera sticking out like a sore thumb, or if they actually need to see the camera itself?
Then it hit me: Hall Pass Monitor guy
I guess mr hall pass monitor guy has found a place in life afterall.
no god is good
I am Australian and am interested in seeing Fahrenheit 911, a movie that, by all accounts is of global significance. The distributors of this movie choose to release it in Australia one whole month after the US release. Until this idiocy is addressed I will download to my hearts content. Ie. When I am treated with due respect and not treated like a second class citizen because I live in Australia I will support these businesses by paying to see their movies.
Ha !
Serves the little shits right !
Hopefully they will plaster the little toerags face all over CNN so that everyone on the planet will know what wankers they really are.
If YOU feel better paying for what you use - pay. Expecting / demanding your own behaviour from other humans would be a sign of a perfectly narrow mind.
This already happens, and indeed is the case here. As for the poor not being to afford investigations, that is what the police are supposed to be for.
If someone decides they can do a better job and get it investigated privately and bring their own prosecution, then they have that right. Of course in a perfect world this wouldnt be nessesery because the police would have an infinate amount of resources, but then we have a police state, as a significant proportion of the population do nothing other than enforce the law. In this case that would have a police officer in every movie showing of every movie theitre.
The discovery of copyright infringement is rightly a low priority compared to things like Murder and Rape investigations, therefore the police are less pro-active in trying to get these things reported.
On the other hand, if they are reported, (As here when they handed the boy over to the local police) and they should investigate it properly. The movie companies have just provided some people with the tools to be easilly discover the criminals. Similar to when a person installs an alarm in their own appartment.
... you might want to learn a thing or two on the filmmaker.
Hack your mind out of its sandbox.
I missed that. I have got to admit it, three years minimum is silly for a crime of that magnetude. They must have really pissed Disney off bad.
Still, the original applies. I suspect he knew what would happen if he got caught, even if it is silly.
Ah, the land of the free (But not for much longer)
I for one welcome this move to stop the distribution of movies filmed by the audience in theathers.
:)
This will homefully deter people from spreading poor quality bootlegs.
However, this means that the average movie spread on the internet will be of higher quality. I wonder if the MPAA really has thought this one through...
A CAM version of a movie is not a replacement for buying it. But if the only copies spread on the internet are DVD-rips, this could have a negative impact on VHS/DVD rentals and sales
So if people were encurraged to bring cameras to the theatre and shoot crappy bootlegs, the internet would be flooded by a lot of different versions of low quality files. And anyone downloading stuff would get dissapointed.
A personal note: I once watched a downloaded movie "filmed in Tilt-o-vision(tm) in front of a live theatre audience" and I woved to myself never to do that again because of the poor quality. I guess the MPAA feels the same way
I don't like to see Screener movies. I prefer a good DVD rip and compression.
Wait until I get assimulated by the borg. I can piraH^H^H^H^share my waH^H^thoughts with the piraH^H^H^H^ collective.
Dateline nowish
Courageous anti terror law officials late last night breached a murky downtown theatre filled with potential criminals. Acting on a tip submitted by a courageous patriot our brave heroes bravely bested the bandit. Using stunguns and gas grenades the 16 year old felon (and suspected murder) was wrestled to the ground and wearing straight jacket, handcuffs and leg irons was dragged of to prison. In an impromptu press conference at the Dorothy Chandler pavilion Vice Chairman of Sleazy Pictures Entertainment, Joff Blackhole spoke to the thousands of gathered stars of screen and stage and said this was a great day for justice, truth and honor everywhere in the universe, when a sick twisted disgusting criminal like this could be brought to justice like this. A tearstricken Vice Chairman thanked his parents and his wife.
In other news, 20 American Soldiers were killed by terrorist in Baghdad officials haven't got any leads.
If Google really cared they would fix Android Chrome to reflow text, instead of discriminating
You really do have to put this into perspective - the police are just trying to rid the world of dangerous criminals and these people _are_ dangerous criminals! You have no idea what goes on in these dark rooms - hardcore drugs, rape, terrorist organisation, gang violence - the average cinema is a hotbed of criminal activity. Just the other day 4 men were arrested after gang-raping a 14 year old girl and beating her so much she is in a critical condition, and this happened in the back row of Touch Of Pink! Kids are being pushed into drugs and prostitution while watching Barney, gangs of teenagers with semi-automatic weapons often get involved with shoot-outs! I think its fair to say their are privacy issues, but im sure you just want to be able to watch the movie like anyone else without fearing for your life!
This comment does not represent the views or opinions of the user.
I seriously doubt that. A fan would want to see their movie in half-decent quality.
These crappy movies must be selling reasonably well to the general public because you see "dodgy" market stalls with very dubious DVDs for sale.... well, at least, I don't think many studios use dot matrix printers for the DVD covers
If they didn't sell then the copyright infringers wouldn't bother pirating them. I suspect it's the average Joe Bloggs who sees these things for sale, sometimes only a few days after they are in the cinema, and buys one.
Movies are not a charitable institution. Seeing them is not "a right" nor are they essential to your survival. If the maker wants to make more money by showing them in a cinema first, that seems perfectly reasonable to me.
We just received news of a terrible apostrophe accident in the vicinity!
Luckily we got here just in time....someone is going to bother watching one of those crap camcorder-filmed bootlegs, chances are they weren't ever going to pay to see the movie anyway.
If you're going to share a movie on the net, do it properly. Rip a DVD and share that.
-- Even if a god did exist, why the fsck should I worship it?
Yeah right, I can see the posting on /. that cops have been issued NV goggles, and the resulting 2500 posts by tinfoil hats who would be bemoaning the privacy intrusion!
Slashdot "libertarians": Small government for me, big government for those I disagree with. -1, I disagree with you
I just watched a bootleg version of the film, because it isn't in the theaters here in europe already. He keeps more in the back and let's other people tell their stories. It is biased but not as much as Bowling for Colombine with it's stupid number playing of deaths by guns. Sadly it is also not as funny as his previous movies. But I am looking forward to seeing it with subtitles in my local cinema on the big screen.
... you might want to learn a thing or two on the filmmaker.
You can also read the response to some of the critic in Michael Moore responds to the wacko attackos.
Before this degenerates into another "The MPAA suxx0rz" argument (oops! too late!), I'm going to field a question here:
Is there be a way to defeat these goggles by emitting light in a wavelength invisible to the human eye? And if there is, since creating a blind spot where you're sitting would immediately call attention to your evildoing antics (bwahahaha), would it be possible to use a beam, directed at the little window and the dude with the night goggles, effectively blinding them?
This is merely for the sake of curiosity, of course, since (a) I'm not about to go set up a camcorder in my local cinema, (b) The attendants where I live wouldn't know night vision goggles from ViewMaster ones and (c) Creating such an effect would immediately draw attention to yourself anyway.
So long, and thanks for all the fish
And really, people need to get some god damn education and perspective that use it. I get really pissed when I hear someone saying "Good, if they punish them harshly, it'll deter other peopel form doing it." Ok, fine, then why don't we make ALL punishments harsh? I mean if we want deterrence, why do we half-ass it.
Let's take speed traps. What a joke right now. One cop sits there, finds a speeder, pulls them over, and writes them a $50 ticket while others continue to speed. That's not hars. So let's make a harsh deterrent. Let's have cops with M2s (.50 cal machine guns) and radar guns. You speed, they anihilate you and your car. Now THAT'S deterrence.
But it's ok, right? I mean those people that get killed broke the law, they should have known better. The harsh punishment will make people think twice before speeding. Fuck justice, we want DETERRENCE!
This is an extreme example, but does well to illustrate what you advocate. Harsh punishments for near harmless crimes are not just. In the US, we not only have a sense that the punishment should fit the crime, it's law, the highest law of the land (US Constituion, Ammendment 8).
In this case you have a kid, who paid to see a movie, that is making a video tape. You have NO proof of intent to distribute or anything else. So you have someone, that already paid to see it, that is making a copy. Show me the harm in that. Even if he does distribute it, empirical studies have shown that, indeed, internet copying doesn't have the huge economic impact the media industry wants to claim.
So you have someone that is comitting a non-violent crime, with no apparent profit motive, and no intent to distribute (at least not that you can infer from the article) and you want a HARSH punishment?
Look, if you really believe in justice like that, you really should consider moving to a country like Sinagpore, where they have a police state and minor crimes are punished harshly. However here in the US, that's not how things are supposed to be done. It's not just idealism, it is Constitution law. That overrides all other law, federal, state and local. It is the guiding framework to which all our laws must adhere.
So if you really do believe in screwing people who commit minor offences, then you probably shouldn't live here.
America's cops have funding coming out the wazoo. That's why America is by some measures the least free country in the world. We have the money to lock anybody and everybody up. And have you seen the storm troopers, I mean swat teams? Night vision, submachine guns, and neato ninja suits.
Not single teenagers who deliver the rips we all enjoy leeching and watching.
They are normally formed by people who are either:
- working in cinemas, who can easily set up a quality camera and rip the sound CD.
- savy enough to be able to have acces to high speed servers
- video editing people, who put together film and sound of other languages. Sometimes some scenes are cut out in certain versions, so thy will have to fix this.
- some of the rare peple who can lay their hands on some of the preview DVDs for half an Hour to rip it.
This boy is no real danger to anybody.
What about projectionists that refuse to play police in a movie theater? I would certainly not engage in such a surveillance action (nor would my employer ask me to, but that's sheer luck).
Dear MPAA, if you want security, pay for it. Send over a security guy that watches the cinemas your reels are visiting. I for certain won't do your lousy denunciatory job.
Like the Chinese did it for centuries. The doctor was only paid if everybody was healthy. So nowadays it is the other way round! It is not in the interest of the doctor to cure you. Because that won't let him make any money.
We need a health revolution!
I admit to having done dumber things at his age, but no one should expect to get away with it due to age. There are enough things you can get away with for being young as-is. I have no doubts the teen would share the file with his friends, and that there would be a good chance he or one of his friends would eventually share it with the world.
SearchIRC - Now with live chat directory!
*whack*
"Howsabout some fries with that?"
*kick*
"How bout _this_ combo meal!"
*punch*
How's that read GPL again? I agree that I can do whatever I want with GPL code, but if I want to distribute it I have to share my changes. If I break it there'd be Slashdotters calling for my nads on a stick.
The agreement with the movie theaters is "I agree that I can come in and sit quietly and watch the movie. No, I can't record it. No, I can't sit in the back and sing the Spider Man cartoon theme at the top of my lungs. No, I can't piss on the people in the next row." Simply put, you're not allowed to disrupt their business. Yes, recording and distributing it before it leaves theaters disrupts their business, don't kid yourself. If you don't like it, DON'T GO TO THE THEATER. How difficult is this concept?
"An unarmed man can only flee from evil, and evil is not overcome by fleeing from it." Col. Jeff Cooper
Ignoring the actual issues involving the supposed 'crime', I find public monitoring a little uncomfortable.. esp in a darkened theatre. I guess they should just stick up a sign above the screen titled 'big brother is watching you'.
A little creepy for my tastes, freedoms are lost one inch at a time.... remember that folks!
Hell yeah! I'm sick of The Man pushing me around!
I'm going to boycott this theater and film.
But since I live in Pittsburgh and I didn't plan on seeing this crap film anyway it's not going to take mch effort...
I swear if I'm ever in LA I will not goto this theater. I SWEAR!
Dedicated Cthulhu Cultist since 4523 BC.
I know just how to stop those pesky ushers with their new fangled night vision goggles. It all amounts to one of two things. A really bright flashlight, or if you'd like to be more subtle, a laser pointer. Just blast him right on the lens, it should make for quite a reaction.
If the movie makers dont loose any revenue, nothing has been stolen.
And what happened to 'fair use'? I can copy a tape for my personal viewing later on. Why cant i do the same in a movie house? ( dont qoute me laws, im talking reality of why.. the law is bogus and shouldnt be respected )
Now when we discuss people SELLING copies, then i agree.. revenue was lost and there should be some legal action.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
Your ideas are intriguing and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter.
Support the First Amendment. Read at -1
I mean isn't that what stalker laws are for?
It sure isn't to catch movie recording theives, though that works for tax writeoffs to purchase them:)
After all, night-vision goggles are pathetically easy to spot, what with the three shiny green lights 'n' all.
That's an excellent idea to protect the consumers from those low-quality divx encoded from a recorded movie. Soon, thanks to the MPAA, only excellent digital versions stolen directly in the studio will spread around. No more desappointing downloads!
Those guys have solved what I was personnaly considering as the only remaining weakness of p2p. Good.
--
Go Debian!
Maybe not a full +1, but I'd give it a half point funny bump...
saying something like:
LOVE MOVIES, HATE PIRATES
See The Day After Tomorrow for an example (it should be on the pirated version too). No doubt a million tiny thought bubbles popped up from movie-goers with the question "What if it's a movie about pirates?"
"It's not your information. It's information about you" - John Ford, Vice President, Equifax
> Could this be argued as a violation of 8th ammendment rights?
In the US and UK, all your reasonable civil rights are being removed, piece by piece.
Sorry. Stealing is not a 'minor' offense.
I agree with it all, except for a minor quibble about the relevance of a 'profit motive'. The damage should be determined by how much any distribution of the movie hurts the revenue of the film producers. Whether the kid or anyone else makes a profit off the distrubution is immaterial.
The MPAA is screaming poverty, yet they are outfitting movie theaters with night-vision goggles? Something is very wrong with that picture. Don't they know most pirating is an inside job? Where do they think the screener rips come from? Or the ones where someone scans the film, and rips the sound digitally? Certainly not Joe Moviegoer. In all those trailers where the workers of the movie industry ask us not to pirate (which is before a movie to which you just bought a $10 ticket), I try to spot who the real pirates are. I already paid to get in the movie, you don't have to tell me not to pirate. That would be like telling a Nun to be celibate.
I hate sigs.
Just because you don't believe the punishment fits the crime doesn't mean it doesn't. Why is your interpretation any better than anyone else's? Last I knew, the Constitution was a document to be interpreted, not a checklist of items as you seem to imply.
They are doing this simply to make it a public spectacle and sensationalize it.
we did some tests and a pair of IR floods pointed at the audience at the sides of the screen makes it impossible for a camcorder to record the film without being massively washed out and looking like hell.
the movie companies are just trying to make examples and generate public fear.
if they pulled their heads out of their asses long enough to use simple solutions like I gave above it would be "solved". but they know that most bootlegs do not come from kids in a theatre but from staff at that theatre or in their own company.
that said, I have almost finised my head mounted high intensity IR strobe made from lots of Ir led's and I cant wait to use it at a theatre to see if I get the attention of a movie police.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
I'm all for busting the movie pirates. There isn't a reason for it other than doing something stupid.
Now if the threatre operators would just go crazy about the people who just have to answer/check their cell phone during the show.
Many good points, but the definition of loosing is
1. To let loose; release: loosed the dogs.
2. To make loose; undo: loosed his belt.
I guess you meant "lose" and "losing" but I can't be certain.
How so many intelligent people can spell a simple, commonplace, four letter word wrongly so often I will never understand. I see it a dozen times a day on this board.
BTW - I agree with every word you wrote. I'm sick of the "victimless crime" argument for ripping off films and music, and I'm sick of people thinking they have the right to free everything. Money in exchange for services folks - that's how the world works. "Free as in beer" is the exception, not the rule.
Speed traps are not about "stopping speeding". They are about "revenue enhancement". Harsh enough penalties as to make people stop speeding would be counterproductive to the true objective - to make some extra money for the agency writing the tickets.
"I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
If the projectionist is being paid $500 for each person he/she finds with a video camera, doesn't that call into question their impartiality? They have a financial motive to frame someone.
Say you set up your video camera on a stand of some sort (clipped to the back of a seat in the top row?) and deny that it is yours when you are cought. It is the projectionist's word against yours, and he has $500 worth of motive (a large one for a film jockey) to frame someone.
Hell, get a part-time job as a projectionist and buy a half dozen throwaway VHS cameras from the 80's off of ebay for $50/ea.. Set them up in the theater and then accuse whoever sits next to them of filming. You'll be $3000 richer in a jiffy!
Fred
"A fool and his freedom are soon parted"
-RMS
Cue "It's not stealing! It's copyright infringement!" arguments...
BUUWAHAHAHAHAHA!
8 of 13 people found this answer helpful. Did you?
Seriously man...I've seen a few camcorder bootlegs and they are PURE GARBAGE. My girl used to work in inner city schools and all the kids would have bootlegs they bought at the swap meet. 'Cause you gotta know the latest movies to be cool, and if they can get it for free, more money to be spent on clothes and shoes. I'd imagine the white trash viewers have the same reasoning as the ghetto trash.
Blar.
...that's ok right? 'Cause I can't afford it you know. Damn.
Blar.
At least that's how our legal system is supposed to work... Therefore the 16 year old kid shouldn't have been hauled off to jail unless they could prove intent to distribute.
I realize the laws now state that he can be for the act that he did, I'm just talking how it *should* be.. Not how it *is*.
Its also hard to use CP as a comparison, as even the act of viewing is a crime..... Not sure what would be a better analogy to show your point however..
---- Booth was a patriot ----
Perhaps they can start working on ejecting people who talk during the movie. Other moviegoers inability to have respect for other people is the main reason I don't go to the movies any more. Or if I do, I try to do it on a weekday, late at night.
This make me want to bring a broken camcorder with no battery and no tape to a show just to screw with them.
...Would fall under that category, and yes, it is illegal in many jurisdictions; without a warrant or permission beforehand. Now just videotaping the conversation, without sound is usually not illegal.
Just a heads up.
So you think that the total cost a speed cop giving someone ticket is less than $50 ?
Remind me not to buy shares in any business you start.
You're worse than dumb, you're dumb and proud of it.
No but, yeah but, no but...
You know, when I think about our troops fighting for oil, our cops ignoring violent crime to generate income via traffic tickets, and our Congress basing all of their decisions on how good the lobbyists and their gifts are, it makes me proud.
(Cue the patriotic humming in the background)
I can't wait until rape only gets you five years in jail, and making a corporation lose a profit gets you ten. After all, most Americans would agree that losing money is the most damaging event in our lives. That guy who raped your sister would've gotten off easy if he hadn't snagged her piggy bank on the way out.
(Jets soar overhead. Eagles cry. George W. Bush smiles that big, dumb smile.)
Thank you RIAA! Thank you MPAA! Thank you to all the corporations that never pay taxes! We're here for you!
(Crescendo to the end of America the Beautiful)
Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to bend over and take it in the ass for everyone making 20 million a year. GOD BLESS AMERICA!
But the movie I've dowAHHHHHHHH seen for download on p2p apps were studio rips, things not camcorder copys. I still think the biggest leaks are in the buisness.
What is the value of something if it can be copied (reproduced) for (near to) zero cost?
Fact is, after a song, a movie and anything else which can be stored in digital form has been produced, its value is as high as the cost of reproducing and distributing it. Using cheap PCs and broadband internet, this cost is usually pretty much negligible.
You're confusing value with cost. Cost is what you have to spend to create it (in this case create a copy), value is what people are willing to pay for it.
The fact that some people who would be willing to pay, will no longer pay if they can get a bootleg copy - therefore reduces the value.A neighbor of mine had a bootleg of a recent movie he downloaded and it was top notch quality. The video was near perfect and the audio was ripped directly from the dts disc. The credits were in french though so it obviously wasn't captured in America. Plus he was showing them on a home projector with surround sound so it feels like you are actually in the theater watching the movies. The movie release scene is way way bigger than some 16 year old kid in the theater and the quality is nothing short of amazing these days...
That includes all stealing? From a penny to a movie to a stickypad off a co-workers desk?
If the cop (or more likely 2 cops) are getting paid $30/hr, it only takes 1.2 tickets an hour to equal their salary. If we double the cost/hr to cover fuel, vehicle depreciation, etc., the ticket tag team only needs to write 2 or 3 tickets an hour to break even.
Wanna bet they're writing a hella lot more than 3 in 60 minutes?
And where do YOU live that speeding only costs 50 bucks? Here, it's $52 base + $4 per mile over. I've had 3 speeding tickets in 16 years on the road, and they were $90+ apiece!
GTRacer
- Still speeds
Defending IP by destroying access to it? That makes sense, RIAA/MPAA. Go to the corner until you can play nice!
Hmm lets see, most cops in my area make 11.00 an hour. So it costs them 88.00 a day for the cop, who sits on the toll road outside my home and pulls people over non stop. Lets say he can do 1 ticket every 10 minutes, thats 6 tickets an hour or 3000.00. Now I belive the last ticket I got was not 50.00 but over 100.00 for reckless driving. But we wont factor that. Most people like me simply mail in a payment. So they get a check. I would say thats a good profit. 88.00 + cost of a pen and paper for 3000.00. Oh yea, and add in a minimum wage job of entering the tickets.
Maybe this is to get people ready for omnipresent cops with night vision devices... they go to the theatres and get used to friendly ushers with NV gear, so it's not such a surprise when park police are rousting pot smokers in pitch darkness.
Intolerance for ambiguity is the mark of the authoritarian personality.
What a nice, insightful post. Good, quick discussion of some basic principles of the U.S. system that all too often remain unknown or, worse, misunderstood.
Kudos!
Bzzt wrong! I said total cost, not the cost of the cop's wages.
No but, yeah but, no but...
So I wonder who will first develop a Camcorder that has a focusing mechanism that can't be seen buy night goggles? The focusing mechanism uses a beam similar to the light coming out of a remote control. If you watch the screen on a camcorder while someone is pushing buttons on a remote, you can see the light being emitted from the remote. I suspect, not actually having night goggles at hand, that the front piece of the camcorder would light up like a flashlight while wearing the goggles.
So back to the question about who will develop the first camcorder that doesn't use this light touting it as a safety mechanism to prevent attention from terrorist (whatever marketing department can come up with). Do you think Sony, JVC, or Panasonic? Sony owns film distribution so I don't think they will be first; Panasonic takes current technology and mostly reuses it for good lower end stuff so they are out of the running. JVC probably could use a few emails to their R&D department giving the Infrared-less feature a spin towards safety.
At $150 a pop, I would be VERY surprised if the cops lost money on the speedtrap. Even at the rates deputies are paid where I live, that only requires they write three tickets per deputy per day to break even. And I can't recall seeing a speedtrap that couldn't manage three tickets per hour, much less per day....
"I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
So everyone bring an IR device with them to the theater. The human eyes can not se IR but the NV can and if everyone has one. How can they do their job again? I love the cat and mouse game! So if the whole theater it lit up with IR they CAN NOT do their job too well! Another slashdot workaround! I have a copy of spiderman it is pretty good. I recommend downloading it!
Traffic fines -- whether from speed traps, parking tickets, or red-light cameras -- are "stealth" taxes, pure and simple. States and municipalites COUNT on that cash flow for routine operations.
Why is it that the proponents of "one nation under God" are so eager to get rid of "liberty and justice for all"?
In that case, why not just set the camera to manual focus, or put some electrical tape over the IR transmitter. From what I've played with Night Vision, it'd be really hard to discern between the guy holding a soda and the guy holding a camera.
have you ever actually seen a CAM video? my $deity, it's worth NOTHING! Sneaking in is worth A LOT more than a 100 CAM copies.
In general, those that watch CAM copies fit into one of these categories:
a) wasn't going to see it in the theater or on DVD anyway but since it's there and free...nothing lost
2. already saw it in the theater X-times and wouldnt mind watching it at home sometime before the DVD comes out, and will buy the DVD when it does come out...nothing lost here either
III: Want's to preview the PG or PG-13 to determine if the little ones can handle watching it or if a sitter will be in order (you can't trust the ratings, after all LOTR and Austin Powers are both PG-13 and there's NO WAY I'm letting my 8 year old see that 1.5 hour long penis joke)... only loose sales if the movie is crap to begin with
D) just likes collecting things, probably won't ever watch it anyway...nothing lost again
in summary: CAM's don't loose revenue.
CAM movie quality is crap at best, most of them are barely even watchable, you might as well stand at the door and try to watch through the crack. Telecine or telesync caps can be near DVD quality though, and are usualy take FROM THE BOOTH by the guy that runs the camera using a $2000 camera! This is the real piracy "problem", not the kid with the $300 dv-cam.
- Disclaimer: Information in this post deemed reliable but not guaranteed.
In this case you have a kid, who paid to see a movie, that is making a video tape. You have NO proof of intent to distribute or anything else. So you have someone, that already paid to see it, that is making a copy. Show me the harm in that.
The kid paid for a one time viewing, nothing more.
The fact is that it's illegal to copy the movie in this fashion. Just because you don't see the point of a law doesn't mean that the law doesn't apply to you. I'm sick and tired of these posts where people basically say the law doesn't apply to them because they don't like it. Newsflash. It doesn't work that way.
Not everything is analogous to cars. Car analogies rarely work.
this guy doesn't have his *high-speed* internet yet. Else he would just download the .torrent like every other 13 year old out there. No need to go through the embarassment of walking into the theater in the middle of summer in a huge coat filled with video equipment. Or worse, HUGE pockets filled with video equipment.
Is that your Handicam in your pocket.....and perhaps a tripod? Or, are you just happy that your parents dropped you off at the movies?
796F75617265616E65726400
As a side note, in New Jersey, if you go to court, you're pretty much guaranteed a reduction in the number of points you get at the cost of a higher fine. This was tested by myself and virtually all my friends in at least 15 different municipal courts all over the state. They don't want you to fight the ticket, they just want to get your money, as much of it as possible and as easily as possible.
If con is the opposite of pro, is Congress the opposite of progress?
Speeding tickets only cost $50 because that is what you hand them in cash to avoid them giving you a ticket. You - "Oh, where did this fifty come from? Did you drop this, officer?". Cop - "You can go about your business, move along."
Vonnegut was right: Of all the words of mice and men, the saddest are, "It might have been."
I work for Homeland Security and can assure you, we've got bigger fish to fry than a teen bootlegger. Thousands of Coast Guard, Customs, and Border Protection employees are working day and night so your silly butt can sit there safely and snipe at us.
Check out the latest headlines about secure cargo container initiatives and US Visit. Alot of thining and time and effort are being put forth by people who believe in your basic right to be safe.
There ARE people outside (and inside) the US who do want to harm this country and there's no reason why we shouldn't work to prevent it. A sniping at those doing the work doesn't help.
You speed, they anihilate you and your car. Now THAT'S deterrence.
A lot of times, I'd go for that. I was about ready to kill a woman and her entire family yesterday for the way she was driving. (Wouldn't have been my "fault", either. Dead family, and I go home scot-free.) What is it about getting into a motor vehicle that turns reasonable, intelligent people into total assholes?
As for the punishment fitting the crime and minor traffic offenses not being a big deal, get on a major freeway at rush hour sometime. Look at the thousands of parked cars containing your city's primary workforce, and try to figure out how many millions of dollars traffic costs your city every day (plus stress, quality of life...). Then think about how all the people doing simple little things like cutting someone off, driving a little too fast to be safe, rubbernecking, etc. are causing that traffic. Your speeding is not just a pretend crime, you are endangering my life and causing untold harm to the economy.
A few large caiber bullets into your vehicle seems quite appropriate.
You said "empirical studies." Plural. Name two. Or STFU.
Night Google-ing Captures Spider-Man Movie Bootlegger
Which also seemed to make sense to me and would have been another first.
Sigs are dangerous coy things
1. Honest ones, who won't take the bribe
2. SERIOUSLY dishonest ones, who will take the bribe, then ticket you anyway. And hire a hitman to take you down if you go public about the bribe. (and this is not much of an exaggeration - couple years ago, a cop here was convicted for hiring a hitman to take out some lady who had reported him to Internal Affairs.)
"I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
In California its like $270 for modest speeding, $500 if you are more than 25-mph in some counties. Then your insurance company raised your rates 25% for the next three years. Thats another grand.
Why not pool all the traffic fines, and and the end of a year...send out rebate checks to all the citizens of the city that did not recieve any tickets?
I'd much rather have the police out monitoring the crime ridden areas of town, looking out for cars driving 10 mph looking for trouble, rather than trying to catch people on their way to work going 10 mph over the limit.
Take away the traffic citation revenue stream....and get those officers busy looking for REAL crimes....
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
As the movie companies are paying for enforcing the law in this case yes, thats fine.
The movie industry pays taxes. So do all of the people who work making movies, or in theaters or video stores. So do all of the people who benefit from the positive effect of exported movies on the US trade balance. Why aren't they entitled to have a little bit of their money invested to protect them from criminals who want to undermine their businesses and livelihoods? There is plenty of US precedent for laws designed to protect businesses from criminal activity.
I'm gonna buy a little handheld nightvision device and watch Spiderman with it...
once in a while we hear some stories about stupid thieves, why they want to use cam to make bootleg in theatre?
it looks horrible and unbearable
anybody really wants to watch that?
after all LOTR and Austin Powers are both PG-13 and there's NO WAY I'm letting my 8 year old see that...
I hate to be the one to point this out to you, but PG-13 means parental guidance is suggested for those under 13. 8 definitely falls into the "under 13" category.
Of course, I let my 8yo watch both of those movies. Before she was 8, even. Most of the really adult themes were way over her head. Not only that, but I teach her how to handle inappropriate materials. Scarred for life? I doubt she even remembers the AP movies now...
jred
I'm not a mechanic but I play one in my garage...
Speed traps are not about "stopping speeding". They are about "revenue enhancement". (sic)
I'll chime to that. As I understand it, the points that show up on your driving record are a result of the "criminality" of the offense. Next time you get a speeding ticket, contact the local district attorney and ask the charges be dropped to a civil charge. This means you pay the fine but do not have the points show up on your record. My brother has done this a few times successfully--every time he has tried. The fact that the DA would allow this to happen shows how all they want is your money. Of course, YMMV and IANALY.
What those who want activist courts fear is rule by the people.
I thought spidey sense beat night vision....or was that paper beats rock..
"If any question why we died, Tell them because our fathers lied."
hmm, not sure where 'assholes' fit in, but usually "idiots" are people who drive slower than you, and "maniacs" are people who drive faster than you. Which was this?
"I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
IN terms of when a bootleg hits its ussaly the crappy cam copy that comes out first then the Telesync witch uses a cam for the video source then a screener copy so if the MPAA is claiming the bulk of bootlegs of new films is cams they would be mostly correct Atleast for a while becouse once a screener hits allmost overnight the cam copys go away.
> I guess why you rent the camcorder LOL.
That's right, because if you rent a camcorder and then don't return it, you don't have to pay for it. What an insight!
Virg
You for got the "Dun dun DUH!" climatic music...
Not all night vision systems use IR. Some units just amplify very week light (which would not be difficult at all in a theater...there is actually quite a bit of light.)
I think most of the personal video systems with night capability use an IR illuminator (basically, just a light that is invisible to the eye but is visible to the camera.)
Some military systems use IR -- those are the ones that look like some exotic heat-sensor when you see the video. Others just amplify existing light. Those are the ones typically used by pilots...the resulting video is grainy and greenish, but is more or less a real image.
Evil is the money of root.
So, he stole one copy of a movie. Spiderman retailed for ~$19.95 on DVD (now $16.36 from Amazon.com) Of course that includes the cost of the media. 10 pack of DVD+R discs cost $29.99 from Best Buy. So, $19.95 - ($29.95/10) = $16.95. This is the value he stole from the movie producers. The punishment for his crime is "up to one year in jail and a maximum fine of $2,500." So yes, in this case this was a 'minor' offense.
Waiting for ad.doubleclick.net...
You know what would be really funny? If someone could get a video of the projectionist. Get one person with a camcorder with NO TAPE IN IT to go into the theater and get "busted" ... then as the ruckus goes down, have friend videotape it using the nightshot mode. Be aware tho, nightshot has an IR illuminator. Would be funny.
I think I'm going to have to make a hat with blinking IR leds on it for fun. You can test it with the nightshot mode on consumer camcorders.
Southeastern Virginia REPRESENT!
This is not a backup for personal use.
This is not a backup in case of media damage.
This is not a copy to lend to a friend.
This is plain and simple theft, and a sixteen year old damned well knows what theft is and has no excuse whatsoever. If they don't, arrest the parents as well for the obvious abuse and neglect that creates a sixteen year old who doesn't know that theft is wrong.
It's amazing what rationalization media thieves go through to justify their actions. If you don't personally know the individual providing you with media, it cannot in any way be construed as a loan. It is theft. Expect the consequences, and stop whining about your so-called "rights" -- you have no right to steal.
I do not fail; I succeed at finding out what does not work.
The kid paid for a one time viewing, nothing more
1) Where's it say that??
2) Even if it is true, maybe he was planning to talk to his friends during the actual showing, and then watch the tape at home (only once, of course). That'd be 'timeshifting' the movie, a perfectly legal thing to do.
The disagreement isn't just about what the law says.
It's also about the fact that THE LAW IS WRONG.
What the kid did is harmless, and does not justify spending my tax money to enforce this bad law. The law should be repealed.
I don't recall seeing that the kid was scheduled to be shot. Unless he settles out of court, it has to go before a judge, who could just tell him that that was bad and not to do it again. The actual punishment remains to be seen.
Meanwhile, the law says that a person who creates something owns it and has the right to limit who uses it and how he uses it.
This guy pretends to be someone he's not. He is also impersonating Seth Finkelstein by switching the 'l' and 'e' to form Seth Finklestein. Please mod this guy to -1, kick him off of Slashdot, then tell him how lousy his trolling is.
In some ways your right to copy is valid. :)
Well, gee, you could cut off the stealth taxes really easily -- just follow the rules. I've been driving since about 1973 and never been accused of a moving violation. (I did get *one* parking ticket in all that time. That's when I learned that my parking permit for the Indianapolis campus doesn't mean squat at the Bloomington campus of the same university. )-:
Anyway, if every driver would observe the posted speed limit, park according to the rules, and stop when he's supposed to stop, states and municipalities would be making $0.00 from those fines. Feel free to show us how it's done.
I generally use "asshole", or related terms, for the people that are being explicitly rude. Someone driving too fast in an open lane is being dangerous, but not rude. Someone cutting me off, tailgating, not using signals when they should, and so many other things that directly incovenience and endanger other drivers for virtually no gain to the perpetrator, they get to be assholes in my book.
I think a cooler name for a super-hero would be "Knight Goggles".
I personally think that harsh and consistent punishment is the way to go for laws because it makes people decide which laws to make and follow.
... Alternatively, it would have made people take the law off the books.
J walking is illegal but has no enforcement. However, it can be used as an excuse to stop some one. The result is the roads are slowed down, pedestrians are less safe, and the police have a way to harass you.
The UofM had police monitor the cross walks, but only issued warnings. The result People needed a babysitter to cross the street at the expense of the U, or they just ignored the lights. A few undercover cops and $300 tickets would have changed the way people obey the laws...
Same with drug laws. Yah, people say to be tough on drugs, how much time did Rush serve? Laws should have harsh and consistent punishment or they should not exist. By making them that way, people would have to decide.
Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: The Cineplexus Conflict
I agree with the other poster that you must still be in high school with homophone errors like "I upsold her from a 10x10 album to an 11x14 buy [sic] moving it in front of the 10x10. It worked, but I felt so dirty." I wonder why you felt so dirty; did you cream your pants from the upsale?
signature pending slashdot approval
If I recall, Stand Lee was suing Marvel and Sony because he wasn't getting the royalties he was promised (under contract) on the X-Men and Spiderman movies and associated spin-offs from the movies.
Isn't it ironic that the same movie studios that are lobbying politicians to combat piracy with tougher laws are the same studios that are reluctant to pay royalties owed to the real creators of the intellectual property? If you're going ask politicians to enforce the law, you should follow it as well.
Are you saying that once you pay $9 to see a movie, you should be granted the right to make a bootleg? If you pay double that, would it entitle you to go to the projection room and make a TXH-certified digital copy too? Harm is not always in the form of physical damage. It may not be a huge problem now, but wait until the next generation broadband allows you to download a pristine digital movie in half an hour. Your solution is, wait until the problem is very bad and impossible to correct to do anything about it?
Now, about Singapore. Women can take a walk after midnight alone without being afraid to be raped or robbed. There are not many cities in the US where you can do that. They may put lots of emphasis on security, but they aren't like the old Soviet where they broke down doors for just about any suspicion. That is a trade-off. Calling her a police state is an insult. Ask many Singaporean if they want Justice the American Style. Most of the time, they can't understand how bad the crime is in a country that is supposed to have "justice for all..."
And in response to this, to excercise my freedom of choice, not only will I not pay to see SpiderMan part deux, I won't even download it!
To the teen: dude, don't go down for attempting to pirate some POS movie.
I've never understood why Slashdot geeks are so keen to protect criminals.
anyone else find it pretty creepy that the projectionist is staring at people in the dark with night vision goggles? :|
-judging another only defines yourself
> And in keeping with that, they certainly should have the right to strip-search anybody that they choose.
The funny part is that they do have a right to strip-search people or forbid them access to their property. They have to notify you beforehand, but there's no law that says they can't post a sign on the door that says they can strip search you if you enter. Of course, that would be economic suicide due to loss of business and the potential for (civil) lawsuits, but the whole "all bags are subject to search" concept is legal because it is a private business.
Virg
That is why it is (currently) legal for me to make backup copies of a DVD or music CD.
That is why it is (currently) legal for me to take a copyrighted work I purchased and sell it to someone else, even for a profit.
That is why it is (currently) legal for me to take a copyrighted work I purchased and GIVE it to someone else.
That is why it is (currently) legal for me to take a copyrighted work I purchased and let a friend look/listen at/to it.
If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land,
it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy. -James Madison
Who the hell wants some crappy camcorder-made copy of a movie, anyways? I'll bet you only fans of the movie. People that buy that crap are only doing so to have a copy until the DVD is released. If they released DVDs and movies at the same time, there wouldn't be this problem. Or, at least we'd know his customers meant to infringe upon the copyright holders.
I can't help but get the impression you're trying to justify piracy. It doesn't matter if someone just might get the DVD when it comes out because they're a fan. And it's not the studios' fault simply because they don't release a DVD at the same time, or at the time you think they should.
Also, once again, copyright infringement is NOT stealing. Nobody is deprived of property.
It's theft of intellectual property. Just like how people "stole" Valve's source code, or people commit "GPL theft."
I don't know why people get hung up on terminology. Whether or not you use the word "theft" doesn't affect the severity of the crime, but I can't help thinking the only reason people bring this up is to lessen the negative connotation of associating piracy with theft. I'm sorry, but they really are the same thing. The law is clear on intellectual property theft.
type 5: sitting there bored, wants to watch a movie, downloads it and watches it. just easier than renting (happens lots at college)....a little bit or revenue lost for blockbuster
....revenue is lost, but its there own fault for the stupid dvd ads
type 6: hates the stupid commercials that come on dvd's, so downloads movies instead to avoid watching advertisements on something you paid for. Even if you bought what is being advertised, you often can't skip it.
They should have used cork or plastic plugs instead of nightgoggles to plug the analog hole, much more effective...
Why bother? You could already download it before the release date. Why bother making yet another horrible camcorder copy of it?
Why reinvent the wheel?
http://www.nforce.nl/index.php?do=nfo&id=70667 (released 06/30/2004)o &id=70624 (released 06/30/2004)
http://www.nforce.nl/index.php?do=nf
I don't believe in watching shitty cam or screener rips before I watch the movie in the actual theater.
But, I don't understand why this guy even bothered to try cam'ing the movie when he could have downloaded the rip that very day. What an idiot.
Way to perpetuate the myth. Look again (or look for the first time). Most of the crap on the P2P networks is camcorder or telesync. Very little comes from DVD screeners.
Sheesh, moderators, you're just a bunch of lemmings.
If the "security" is high enough in other theaters too, I never have to download another crappy quality movie rip again. In the future, all the pirated movies will be copies of prematurely leaked DVDs. MPAA and friends should better identify their real friends and foes, pretty much like /. does :D
_________________________
Spelling and grammar mistakes left as an exercise for the reader.
I recently rolled over at far less than walking speed over a stop sign at a COMPLETELY EMPTY intersection. Somewhere a cop hid somewhere (apparently he had nothing else to do), and five minutes later I had $150 (!!) ticket.
The funny thing is that I'd had the same ticket if I sped through this stop sign at speed 30.
It's also a great revenue stream for insurances. Didn't anybody else notice that government agencies (and also bigger companies) usually have a hard time to cross link their databases, especially if it would be for your benefit. Now when there's money to make for them suddenly the insurance autmatically knows about all traffic "offenses", so they can charge more because you are "high risk".
"Hundreds of people have put tens of thousands of hours into making a truly great picture, and the notion of having it stolen and sent out for free around the world is just plain wrong," said Jeff Blake, vice chairman of Sony Pictures Entertainment, the film company behind "Spider-man 2."
And millions of people paying $70.00 for a 2 hour concert ticket, a $5.00 pepsi, or $15.00 movie ticket is not also robbery?
boycott slashdot February 10th - 17th check out: altSlashdot.org
How many stories have floated around the internet news sites in the last year where a stupid criminal did something brainless like rob a bank with their own deposit slips, or made an anonymous extortion attempt using their real name? There are idiots in every profession, even criminals.
So a spotty teen loser with a low IQ gets busted because he didn't cover the autofocus and record lights with electrical tape. He probably also had the camera on a tripod in the third row with nobody between him and the screen where he could be picked out with ease. This kid deserves everything coming to him.
If you are going to record from a cinema screen, then you need to ensure the camera doesn't look anything like a camera. Hide it inside the head of an inflatable doll and put it in the seat next to you. Make sure all the light emitting parts are covered, like the view finder, rangefinder and power/record leds.
the AC
I may just buy one of those UK cinema goggles off eBay if I get a bonus next week. I've heard they are cheap commercial crap, with fixed focus plastic lenses, but for 75-90 Euros it might be a nice toy
Hemos is like...sci-fi fans;he thinks technology is cool, but he hasn't bothered to understand the science it's based on
In the US, we not only have a sense that the punishment should fit the crime, it's law, the highest law of the land (US Constituion, Ammendment 8).
In this specific case then, they should just confiscate the kid's camera and footage and ban him from the theater for a year.
Not noteable, IMO a rubbish article.
Camcorders account for 92 percent of all illegal copies of films that appear for sale over the Internet
Thats why I am so glad the stuff I download is from the other 8 percent.
Bet this
Do any of the cell phones with cameras in them take video clips? If so, wouldn't it then be illegal to take your cell phone (recording device) into the theater?
What about a wireless cam that doesn't actually record? If somebody someone broadcast the film to his buddy out in the parking lot, would that just be a copyright violation or would that fix under the new recording device law?
How the hell was this informative to the topic? Why wasn't it modded OT?
do i have higher standards or am i just taking too many crazy pills but who would pay $5 for a crappy copy of the movie when they could justpay $9 and see it on a huge screen and in full surround sound glory?
My brother has done this a few times successfully--every time he has tried
Your brother should try driving slower. It's a lot less hassle.
Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
Personally, I prefer beer googles to night vision goggles.
Why would somebody spend >24 hours downloading a non-guaranteed movie to watch on their tiny computer screen?
...etc...
- It's cheaper to buy a DVD than it is to take a friend/date to a movie. Sadly, DVDs are not available at time of movie launch.
- The movie is released somewhere else >1 monthes before it'll arrive at your locale.
- People can be obnoxious at theaters at times.
- Too many previews/ads before movies.
- No guarantee of satisfaction of a movie. You pay for a movie ticket without really know what you're buying. (Anybody who's ever seen the recent Rollerball movie can sympathize with me here.)
- Forget about getting food/drink at the theater, prices are way too high. It's not like watching at home where you can have dinner during the movie.
Seems to me the industry should be alleviating each of these issues instead of hoping one day they can guard theaters with ED-209.
"Derp de derp."
"I've had 3 speeding tickets in 16 years on the road, and they were $90+ apiece!"
And where do YOU live that your tickets are only $90? My last speeding ticket was $600 + court cost. Gawd I love California and the CHP.
-nB
whois gawk date unzip strip find touch finger mount join nice man top fsck grep eject more yes exit umount sleep dump
What's Homeland Security, FBI, and ATF have to do with this?
The goggles were issued and paid for by Motion Picuture companies (ie, Warner Bros..etc). They are attempting to protect their product, no different then the camera that watches you try on clothes at the local Army Navy store.
I should mention, that your comment makes you appear as nothing more than a curmudgeon. To use a story such as this to try and make your malcontent point is short-sighted. Surely there are better places for arguments on Justice Department policy and direction.
I must admit, i do find your comment +Funny. But not so much laughing with you, as at you.
-Malakai
A Dragon Lives in my Garage
In another, oh, two years, cell phones will have streaming movie recording capabilities anyway so you won't need a camcorder to record movies. when the night vision goggle guy comes up just tell him you were checking your voice mail for the last 45 minutes.
If the theaters are smart they'll be able to kill two birds with one stone here--the annoying people who chat on cell phones during movies plus people who record movies on their cell phones.
I don't know if it is wonderful or not, but I'm fairly certain the israeli government would be the best organization to ask.
Or just raise taxes across the board, as likely as not.
Personally, I am generally ok with the current system of traffic tickets. I just mislike hearing it characterized as a "safety" issue, when it really is a "money" issue.
"I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
> Cue "It's not stealing! It's copyright infringement!" arguments...
Yep, because it's fucking true.
The last guy walks up to you "Hey what are you doing?" Turn around from the video camera and Benders voice: "This" and tranq the guy lol
My only regret... is that I have... bonitis..
Exactly. Use as a (sub-)master for making further copies is one of the uses which are denied to you, unless the owner grants you license to do that.
Copyright law doesn't lay out a definitive list of what you can do with another's property; it initializes the list with a few commonsense exceptions and then says, for more rights apply to the holder of the copyright.
Selling or giving a legally obtained copy is not distribution. Making more copies and conveying them to others is.
Bravo sir, bravo. Couldn't have said it better myself.
'72 Dodge Charger, with a top end of ~180MPh, on a road with a 50MPh speed limit...
Use your imagination :)
-EnigmaRemind me never to hang out where you live. Eleven bucks an hour? I don't give a damned what the cost of living is (ASSUMING it is in the US) the cheapest I've ever seen certified law enforcement working at is about $13.50 an hour. Paying your cops too little is a sure fire way to crank up corruption.
"not likely. If everyone refrained from violating existing traffic laws, they'd invent new ones to nail you with. Lower the speed limits arbitrarily (the classic speedtrap - cross the town line, and suddenly the speed limit is 30mph lower), set up arcane regulations on parking (e.g, no parking in this spot from 9AM to 11AM on Fridays, the adjacent spot is fine except on Mondays from noon-2PM, that sort of thing), anything to get the revenue."
I'd like to hear the local Chamber of Commerce's reaction to that sort of parking regulations. Generally they're the ones who want the parking reg.s, so that someone doesn't dump a car in front of their door all day every day and make it harder for actual customers to come to the shop.
As for the other, see, this is exactly what I want to prevent. There are good reasons for most rules, but if e.g. people treat traffic laws as a game then eventually the city will begin to think, fine, if this is gonna be a game then we can play too, and guess what? the city is bigger than any one citizen so who's gonna lose? Squelching disrespect for reasonable rules makes it harder to argue for unreasonable ones. And it really undercuts the "one law was bad, therefore all laws are bad" crowd.
You don't have an inalienable 'right' to see a movie let alone copy it, it's a business transaction. You pay your $5-10 to go in, shut up (hopefully), watch the movie and leave. Period.
F*ck the punk, he only adds to already expensive ticket prices, he knew it was illegal, and he was obviously planning on selling it.
Say what you will, the people who are involved in those movies are working like anyone else and deserve their buck, brats like him ultimately affect their paychecks.
If the kid was homeless and starving and stole food, yes, I'd have plenty of compassion - but it was a movie, pure entertainment, and he's a thief and was trying to profit off of it.
'The unexamined life is not worth living' - Socrates
> Your brother should try driving slower. It's a lot less hassle.
Your policemen should stop trying to hassle people who aren't doing anything to harm anyone else.
> That'd be 'timeshifting' the movie, a perfectly legal thing to do.
Not for a public performance. Timeshifting is moving something when you paid a license fee to use it. A public performance is a one-shot deal and does not follow the same rules as a tape or DVD, so no, it isn't a perfectly legal thing to do.
then the MPAA would allow a culture of total lawlessnes to persist. they need to take these ridiculous, insubstantive, unnecessarily harsh actions in order to maintain the system and culture of intellectual property. michael parenti has a bit about police stopping bank robberies: in most cases the cost of the police stopping the bank robbery is greater than the money that would be stolen, but if the police didn't try to stop every single robbery "it would jeopardize the entire banking system."
How fast does someone have to be going before you think they are risking harm to others?
Lasers Controlled Games!
From now on, when I go to movies, I'm going to bring a sign that says "Screw you and your night vision goggles"
I'm sure it would cause some entertainment for poor bored projectionists.
> Your speeding is not just a pretend crime, you are endangering my life and causing untold harm to the economy.
Bullshit. I am not endangering your life IN ANY WAY by speeding. Cutting someone off, rubbernecking, etc. are what endanger your life, not speed. Speed does NOT kill, driving recklessly does.
And THE ECONOMY? Do you often pull irrelevant things out of your ass? Where the heck does THAT come in? HOW, exactly, is the economy effected in ANY way by me speeding? If anything, I get to work faster so I get a few more dollars of pay to spend in the economy, and my gas mileage goes down, so I'm spending more at the pump -- more tax dollars into "the system."
If the only differenc in my driving is that I go 80 instead of 65, you are really effected in no way whatsoever. The only difference is that you get mad (note: I don't MAKE you mad, you are the only one causing the anger) for some reason, which in this case, would appear to the outsider to be self-righteous -- especially when you present bullshit reasons.
What is the REAL reason you get mad? That if you were to drive that fast you might get a ticket, but when you see someone else going 100mph, there's never a cop around?
> A few large caiber bullets into your vehicle seems quite appropriate.
A few small calibre bullets into your head would cure you of your anger... One well-placed one, even. Hell a pointy stick could do the trick. It seems like you're getting upset for the sake of getting upset.
My friend worked, very briefly, in parking enforcement, giving out $30 tickets to all the poor saps who had let their parking meters run out at my university. There were dozens of people with this job, to the point where if you reached your car two or three minutes after your time ran out, you were sure to have a ticket already (no exaggeration).
My friend quit after realizing he was pulling in almost ten times his salary in fees every week; the whole thing was a moneymaking scheme for the university.
They could have hired a couple of people and still given out enough tickets for people to not want to overstay their time... but instead, they sent out dozens to catch every single person who overstayed even just a single minute (as is VERY common, because most people just put in enough money to complete whatever task is at hand, and sometimes it takes them an extra minute or two longer than planned - we've all been there!).
I have no doubt that giving out $120 tickets can be equally lucrative (does anyone still give out $50 speeding tickets? I need to move!). In addition, the California DMV has a habit of charging you a second time for tickets due to "paperwork error" (you can't register your car unless you've paid all outstanding tickets, and somehow the "paid" checkmark often doesn't get entered into the DMV computer system by the courts... oops!). This happened to my friend last month and the lady at the DMV shrugged when he asked, and said, "It happens all the time. But it isn't worth the extra hassle of going back to court and getting a notarized receipt for the ticket - most people just pay it again along with their registration."
Were those $600+ tickets just for speeding? How fast? And is the court appearance mandatory?
GTRacer
- Note to self: get others to drive in S.D.
Defending IP by destroying access to it? That makes sense, RIAA/MPAA. Go to the corner until you can play nice!
it's simple. if your capable of driving at higher speeds, do so. if you cant handle driving faster because you interpret things slower, DONT DRIVE FAST. then again that might be too much responsibility.
Quite so. Sometimes the reason is to get more money out of the public.
Squelching disrespect for reasonable rules makes it harder to argue for unreasonable ones.
Also true. My wife believes that the 55mph speed limit back in the day was the biggest single mistake of the government since Prohibition. It turned a majority (or, perhaps, only a large minority) of the public into scofflaws. And once people start thinking that there is nothing wrong with breaking a law, it just gets worse.
That said, I live in a place with semi-arcane traffic laws, primarily designed for revenue enhancement. Speed limit changes on some sections of a road for no reason, parking regulations that are enforced beyond any reasonable standard, that sort of thing. I think we're way too late to be talking about removing the incentive of the government to impose unreasonable rules....
"I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
I would fight my tickets, but each time I've tried its only made it cost more. One time I even got my license suspended. My ultimate solution was to finally do the speed limit. I do 30 in a 30 and 55 in a 55. I'm sure the poor people who get behind me hate me. But the cost of my insurance (267.00 a month) and the cost of the tickets and defensive driving classes were killing me.
Its a common problem in the united states. I make more money then the people we pay to protect me, and the people who educated me. The most important jobs are never well rewarded. Maybe thats why my teachers didnt' care and the police around here are such assholes.
You are either trolling or 15. Maybe both.
Lasers Controlled Games!
ok, you could be German as well, but I doubt it. If you were, you'd take into account the capabilities of the car as well as the driver.
Lasers Controlled Games!
who aren't doing anything to harm anyone else
Strange.. I was a witness in a criminal case against a woman who lost control of her car and killed two people, injuring another 4. What was she doing that was so bad? Nothing other than speeding. Lost control of her car in a turn that was clearly marked with signs that suggested a speed 10 MPH less than the current one on the road. Of course, she was already doing about 20 higher.
So tell the family that lost their parents speeding didn't harm anyone else. Moron.
Saying Android is a family of phones is akin to saying Linux is a family of PCs.
I think the bank robber should have worn a tinfoil hat to 'foil' the night goggles :-)
perl -e 'print $i=pack(c5, (41*2), sqrt(7056), (unpack(c,H)-2), oct(115), 10);'
There are speeding road blocks where I live. You can expect to pay a couple hundred dollars if caught in one of them.
It is a common misconception that harsher penalties lower crime. A lot of people don't commit a crime thinking about the penalty--they commit thinking about how likely it is to get caught. Personally I will speed a few times, but always make sure to slow down near known police blocks.
The whole point of even getting a sentence here is not to punish, but to help. The sentence is based upon how much time is expected to be needed to help the person.
"where there is demand, there will be a supply" this applies to everything. Already Spiderman 2 is starting to make the rounds on the net. Regardless of what they do (ie. nightvision goggles, rewards for turning in bootleggers etc) someone will always find a way to make a decent copy and you will be able to hit either the bad part of town, the usenet, IRC, p2p networks etc.. to find bootlegged movies. There is no way to stop it. However, make a good enough movie and people will still come to see it in it's proper forum "the theatre" just as a fan of your cd will still buy it even though he may have sampled it first in mp3 form. If someone simply can't afford to goto the movies or just is too frugal and gets the bootleg instead, nobody lost a sale since that person would not have spent any money to begin with. . . . kvn
Knowing many police officers and being engaged to one, I have a little insight into this one. In Texas specifically, it is illegal for municipalities to derive more than 10% of their income from traffic citations. If they do, the state fines them, and the municipality does not get to keep the overage.
Most police officers hate writing fines. Of course the people get upset with them, it takes too much time to do the paperwork, and they have to go to court.
Police generally set up "speed traps" in response to public complaints, or high accident rates in a particular area.
When police do monitor high crime areas of town, people that live in that area complain that there is too much presence and they don't feel comfortable.
So don't get mad at the officers, they're only doing what their CO's tell them to do. Get mad at the chief, the mayor, or the city council.
Saying Android is a family of phones is akin to saying Linux is a family of PCs.
It is never too late to leave the other guy looking like the only one who is gaming the system. If you want to stop the game, the first thing you have to do is quit playing.
> How is driving above the speed limit (to the point where you frequently get ticketed) not harming others?
How is driving under the speed limit not harming others? Your logic is completely flawed. The speed is not the issue in your statement, but you are claiming it is. Simply driving faster does NOT increase the RISK of an accident. It is flat-out wrong to say it does. It DOES increase the potential damage when one occurs, but that is not evidence in any way. If that is what you are relying on, you can say that there are fewer fatalities under 20 MPH, so that should be the nationwide speed limit. It just doesn't make any sense.
Sorry about another post, but I accidentally left this out.
> How fast does someone have to be going before you think they are risking harm to others?
About the speed of light, as long as they do so safely (and their vehicle can handle it -- that's something important I left out before -- my car simply will not go 95mph safely, so I don't). By your logic, if speed = risk, you better stay the hell away from airplanes.
If someone can't control a car at 85 on a highway, they have no business being behind the wheel of a car, even doing 35 on a long desolate road.
-----
> You are either trolling or 15. Maybe both.
In response to your statement to that other guy, age does not equal wisdom, and CERTAINLY not intelligence. His statement was very basic and sound in its reasoning. IMO, my statements were as well. Yet you, who seem to claim the high ground *booming announcer voice* "in the name of safety" */voice* have not given either of us any logical reasons why we are wrong. You are simply saying "this is how it is." I show how you may be wrong, and you simply act incredulous and repeat yourself. That isn't doing anyone any good.
Since you brought age into it, just saying "that's how it is" is the cowardly cry of stubborn old men who can't get their way, so they don't want anyone else to either -- not to say you are an old crab, I don't know you.
Camcording a movie ALWAYS leeds to a bad copy. Eventually, it makes it's way to the internet, where I download it and find a bad copy. I then delete it and start looking for one that's not camcorded. With all the screener tapes floating around, I don't think it would be that hard for somebody to upload one of them.
Barring that, I'll rent the DVD, rip it and upload it myself.
This message brought to you by Jack Schitt's Previously Shat Shit
Do you drive? Your arguement is absurd. Not only does speed make an accident worse, it also makes it more likely. Unexpected events come at you more quickly, you are less likely to be able to stop quickly, and poor handling due to bad roads is amplified. I am not saying that the speed limit should be 20 mph. Is there a speed that you think is unsafe? 100 mph? 120 mph? 150 mph? Or is it all about the mad 5k1lz of the driver in your mind?
Lasers Controlled Games!
> I was a witness in a criminal case against a woman who lost control of her car and killed two people, injuring another 4. What was she doing that was so bad?
Not keeping control of her car, or not knowing the road & conditions well enough on the road she was driving. I'm not suggesting everyone go 80MPH around 90 degree turns in the snow, that's lunacy...
> So tell the family that lost their parents speeding didn't harm anyone else. Moron.
The speed was inconsequential. She could have been going the actual speed limit and lost control, THE SAME RESULT WOULD HAVE OCURRED, and she STILL would have been liable for... what? Losing control of her car. IT WASL THE LOSS OF CONTROL THAT CAUSED THE ACCIDENT, NOT THE SPEED. And if the family brought it up to me and asked if I thought that the speed was what killed those people, yes, I would correct them.
You call me a moron, yet you haven't even thought about the case you were a witness to? You KNOW it could have been the same result at a lower speed, but instead, you let your emotions take over in place of logic. That is very dangerous.
If the case was as you present to me, I hope that woman went to jail. But don't kid yourself & lie to me in saying that speed was the defining point in the case. It was the lack of control, which is where personal responsibility comes into it.
It was the loss of control that causded the accident.
Therefore it was the speed that caused the accident.
It is much easier to lose control of a car at high speed. If you don't believe me you haven't driven enough. I think that in most cases most drivers are safe at about 10 mph above the posted limit. If you are constantly getting speeding tickets you are frequently going faster than 10 mph above the posted limit.
The cop (and the law) can't distinguish between who can handle 80 mph down a country road and who can't. That is why there are speed limits that apply equally to everyone. You might think you are a better driver than most. You might think that you are "safe" at 80, 90, 100 mph. The cop doesn't have to determine if you are capable of it or not, just if you are breaking the law, so he is going to pull you over and give you a ticket. Good! You deserve it.
Lasers Controlled Games!
So, just turn off autofocus on your handycam before you start taping. it's not rocket science people.
I have no problem with kids trying to fuck the system. Hollywood is a corrupt, over-priced, organized-crime-under-written, drug-fueled, Zionist-owned source of 95% crap movies. They don't deserve anything.
It gives me the warm tinglies to think that there are still kids out there willing and able to thumb their noses at the establishment, which is trying to subdue them with Anti-depressants, poisonous food, mind-programming out the wazoo, and the glorious prospect of adulthood slavery.
If you weren't rebellious when you were young, then you might as well have been dead. 'Good' kids were boring, dense and dull-witted, and what little sparkle of life they may have had is generally erased by the System as they grow up. Kids are not designed to sit quietly in rows and ignore their impulses to explore and push boundaries set by bitter old farts.
But I'm betting that you probably did bend the rules for yourself when you were fifteen. And good for you, if you did!
-FL
Try driving Rt84 or Rt91 through Connecticut on a sunny afternoon. More often than not, you might see a speed trap operated by 12 or so officers. The traffic speeds along at 80mph, where the speed limit of 65mph, and the tickets go for about $250. As the traffic (meaning: EVERY CAR ON THE ROAD except a few grannies and a couple of drunks) is going at 15mph over the limit, the good officers can pick and chose out-of-state cars, which reduces the appeal rate dramatically. It takes about 3 minutes to flag down a driver and write a ticket (I stopped and timed them)
Now, multiply $250 by 12 cops by 8 hour shift divided by 3 minutes and see what level of revenue enhancement we are talking about.
> As an aside I want to go into a movie theater with an empty camcorder (no tape). Would I still be committing a crime? Could I go to jail? Would it even make it to trial?
I'd guess that it wouldn't. The law forbids using a camcorder to record the film, but if you weren't recording, it's tough to convict you. What's likely is that they'd say you discarded the tape to avoid getting caught with it, and when you made it obvious you were doing it for a protest, they'd hit you with some misdemeanor charge for a fine (maybe disturbing the peace or some such) and wash their hands of it.
Virg
Unfortunately for you, technology keeps getting smaller! Concealed digital camera's with 2GB of storage and the ability to record sound+audio ALREADY exist! Screeners just need to get smarter, and high tech! and they can produce EVEN Lower QUALITY hidden cam captures of movies!
night vision goggles won't help spot a hidden cam! not if it's concealed during the entire duration of recording!
So there you go, don't get your hopes up..
https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html
That's not speeding, that's stupidity.
When I get ticketed for speeding when going down a clear, level interstate, with NO ONE in sight, that is revenue generation.
When the speed limit drops from 55MPH to 35MPH and increases back to 55MPH within the span of 1.5 miles for no apparent reason along a US highway, and there is a police officer waiting in 35MPH zone, that is revenue generation.
When I know that I am capable of driving at a higher speed than the posted limit, that my car is in good working order and that by all my cognitive abilities, it is no more dangerous to exceed said limit given the current conditions, yet an officer refuses to consider these factors and obey a relatively-arbitrary number posted on a sign, that is for revenue generation.
Slashdot: News for nerds. Stuff tha-- MICRO$OFT IS THE DEVIL!!1
The question is one of intent. Since you can't say for sure he intended to distribute the film, or even leave the theater with the tape, you also cannot say he broke the law.
To arrest him the way they did is basically to arrest him for thought crimes.
When I pick an item in the store, they don't tackle me on the spot and arrest me for shoplifitng before I've even made a move for the door.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
In every state, the local municipalities have no control over the speed limits imposed on highways. It's completely up to the state.
And what makes you so confident that your driving ability is above average? That's what determines the maximum speed limit (up to a point.. I think the highest now is 75). Is there nowhere near the road that a car could pull out? Is it two lane? Could there be any kids nearby?
An officer's job is not to consider all of those factors, it's to enforce the law when they see it being broken. Don't cry because you broke the law and got caught. There are these big white signs telling you what the limit is. If you don't feel like observing that limit, don't be surprised if you get a ticket.
Saying Android is a family of phones is akin to saying Linux is a family of PCs.
> you are less likely to be able to stop quickly, and poor handling due to bad roads is amplified.
All of which are taken care of when the driver takes responsibly for his actions. I consider tailgating at 25 MUCH more dangerous than simply driving fast. If you are responsible, you leave a lot of room between you & the person in front of you. If road conditions are bad enough, you shouldn't even drive at the currently-posted speed limit. Don't swerve, especially the assholes who go like mad from lane to lane. That's irresponsible. If there is heavy traffic, of course, don't expect to go flying past people on the median -- THAT is absurd. That is personal responsibility.
> Is there a speed that you think is unsafe?
If the driver can always keep control of the vehicle under the conditions, the vehicle can handle the speed well, the driver is RESPONSIBLE (such as knowing the braking distance for your car at a given speed, if you are going very fast -- but that is part of keeping control), then no. It's all about personal responsibility... My phrase of the day.
> Or is it all about the mad 5k1lz of the driver in your mind?
I wouldn't put it quite so l33tly, but yes, that is basically what it is about.
Infrared Security Camera
Okay, that's three words. What're you gonna do, throw me out? I paid for this seat, buddy.
Infrared LED Array
OK, two words and an abbreviation. But still fun when going up against folks wearing cheap goggles (the better ones should not be all too impressed). I guess one can build really awesome things with a 6V gel battery.
Fight hunger. Filet a politician and send him to a 3rd world country of your choice.
> It was the speed that caused the loss of control.
... faster than she could safely handle... She didn't know how to drive responsibly, yes it's here fault. Speed was the result of her choices. She is the one that chose to drive that fast. It's like saying SUVs kill people. No they don't, it's people driving the SUVs that kill people, not the vehicles themselves. (Plz don't take that as a cheap shot on SUVs, I mean quite the opposite)
No, it was the woman driving irresponsibly that caused the lack of control. That irresponsible action took the form of driving faster than she could safely handle.
> The cop (and the law) can't distinguish between who can handle 80 mph down a country road and who can't
Nope, but they can distinguish between who has smashed into someone else and who has gotten to their endpoint safely.
> That is why there are speed limits that apply equally to everyone.
Except for cops themselves. Yeah, they have certain training, but that does not make them awesome drivers. It almost always makes them better than average. If training was the key, NASCAR drivers should be able to go 200 on the freeway, but no, cops are allowed to break the law when it suits their purposes. Of course, if it's flagrant and publicized enough, they might get suspended with pay or something, but that's about it.
> You might think you are a better driver than most
Actually, no. I'm a pretty average driver, and I almost always drive w/in 5mph of the speed limit. Just because I don't do something myself does not mean that I feel that no one should be able to.
> he is going to pull you over and give you a ticket. Good! You deserve it.
And that is our fundamental differing. I believe that laws should be there to punish people who do bad things, not to limit your ability to do things that aren't bad. If I wreck & kill somebody, I deserve to go to jail because I deprived them of life due to my irresponsibility. If I am speeding down a deserted desert highway, I am causing no risk to anyone but, possibly, myself. However, I could still get thrown in jail for going too fast. You can say that a child could run across the street. They can do that while I'm going 45mph, same result.
No more having sex in the back row at Rocky Horror Shows?
Uh- One MAJOR problem.
Everyone thinks they are capable of driving at higher speeds.
(The Lake Woebegone Effect, where everyone thinks they are better than average).
It _is_ too much responsibility for people - particularly, as most people have no sense of responsibility at all. As long as nothing bad happens the first time, they assume they can keep on doing it...right up until the car crash.
(and even then, they'll claim it wasn't their fault)
85Mph in a 55 zone mountain highway / "small town enhancement" (revenue building) +construction zone 2x. The beef I have with it is that I was speeding before the construction zone and was lit up before the construction zone, but was ticketed about 100 feet into the zone . . . and it was coming back from my honeymoon just to put som salt in the old wounds.
On the bright side, My insurance company has not increased my rate for this offence (one more in the next 3 years and I'm toast though).
Court appearance was manditory if I wanted to contest the ticket. Would have cost me more to fight it than pay it so I paid it.
-nB
whois gawk date unzip strip find touch finger mount join nice man top fsck grep eject more yes exit umount sleep dump
I hate the prepopped popcorn that is delivered and reheated. Tastes like styrofoam.
Actually, that's not quite what's done. Practices may have changed since I stopped dating a chain employee, but the local Carmike cinema was (by company policy) getting the kernels delivered unpopped in the 50# sacks, popping it one sack of about 50 batches at a time in advance, yellow-salting it to (toxic) spec, and storing the popped stuff in large plastic bags. This allowed Carmike to hire lots of people too stupid to operate a popcorn popper (you'll put yer eye out!), since only the managers were operating the popper-- the minions only needed to operate a popcorn warmer (glass box with bigass lightbulbs), and add body-temperature artificial-yellow-flavored-grease.
Of course, since the popping was usually done mostly on a Sunday evening, and it was done all without preservatives (salt aside), the result was generally inedible by humans Tuesday.
The competing cinema in town (Regal) was a little better; they popped on a daily basis, with experienced (but still evil) managers mixing small remaining part of a batch left over (and bagged as by Carmike) from the previous night in with the first batch made before the matinees. They repopped in the evening as needed depending on theatre traffic (IE, Blockbuster 2nd matinee = Fresh popcorn). This resulted in a mostly edible product, especially after the first matinee, but still no real butter. =(
Disclaimer: this information is five years old, and may no longer reflect the behavior of either chain. But I still smuggle in my own popcorn... with real butter, dammit.
//Information does not want to be free; it wants to breed.
The MPAA is screaming poverty, yet they are outfitting movie theaters with night-vision goggles? Something is very wrong with that picture.
Crappy IR illuminated monocular goggles run under $200 apiece... or, based on local prices, under 30 tickets worth, maybe 40 after the split with the theatre. Well worthwhile capital investment, even leaving aside the value of the press the arrests provide in deterrence. Now, if they use the $3200 high-end milspec ones, that's a little harder to justify, but not out of the limits of a clever accountant.
//Information does not want to be free; it wants to breed.
...lipstick camera taped to your glasses?
Or maybe you want something even less detectable?
"A great democracy must be progressive or it will soon cease to be a great democracy." --Theodore Roosevelt
Ok, you're trying to be nitpicky about something without supporting your claim, because you _want_ to be right, but you can't prove you're right (which is what the dude you're futily arguing with is trying to say. Plus you're trying to be mean, which is, well, mean
;-)
Speed does not cause loss of control. Loss of control is caused by:
Loss of Friction of tires against surface (fishtail)
Lateral acceleration pushes the center of gravity past & over the friction points (roll)
Human stupidty (Lossed a wheel/steering shaft came off because you didn't tighten lugnuts / let it rust through / etc.)
Speed is only one factor. there is also turn angle, braking force (engine + brakes + tire compount + surface type + surface angle relative to gravity and vehicle velocity vector), friction area (tire size & tread pattern), and center of gravity.
You haven't proven it was simply speed. It was probably many of the above. If the driver was stomping on the brakes while turning, she can lose traction where simply turning would still keep you on the pavement. Why? When you are braking you add that much force to what your tires are trying to do--putting you that much closer to their limit when they skid or go into a roll.
The other side is that speed is relative to your vehicle. I'll wager that lady was driving an SUV (high center of gravity) or maybe an eco-box (skinny, low surface area tires). These vehicles tend to have the most pathetic traction. IMHO, the eco-boxes tend to be even worse the the SUV's
In the case of your accident, I feel it is one that is close to you emotionally (given the passion in your writing), and for this you have my sympathies. But the true cause of loss of control of any vehicle is not driving within your personal and vehicle driving limitations (i.e. reckless endangerment). This is what the grandparent is trying to say.
I had a sportscar. I drove on city highways at 90 mph. I now have a compact truck, which I won't drive faster than 70-75, even in eastern Kansas. Reason is simple... The car is stable at those speeds, the city traffic moved briskly, and the car was capable of emergency dodging and slowing adequately from that speed. The truck couldn't stop in twice the distance from that speed even with Mario Andretti driving, and probably isn't aerodynamic to even be stable driving straight at 90mph
To cause as many casualties as the lady you wrote about did I'll wager it was a large / heavy / long vehicle that can't handle tight turns (NOT a fault of speed in and of itself). Plus, you indicated she was probably going around 30 mph on a 10 mph turn. Exceeding the recommended speed (even if only determined for cornering purposes) by 200% is never smart. I doubt you'll find even among the proponents of speeding saying it's safe to drive at a constant 210mph down any (public) highway regardless of vehicle.
It is much easier to lose control of a car at high speed. If you don't believe me you haven't driven enough. I think that in most cases most drivers are safe at about 10 mph above the posted limit. If you are constantly getting speeding tickets you are frequently going faster than 10 mph above the posted limit.
The cop (and the law) can't distinguish between who can handle 80 mph down a country road and who can't.
I agree with this to an extent. You could determine the information, but it would involve a yearly driving skills test and a much more detailed saftey inspection on a per driver basis, which most people wont want to do or can't afford. Similarly to complie a list of speed limits by car, tire, mods, etc. for every road would be pushing speeding law down the overspecified road towards tax law and would be a mess.
The real answer is for people to be responsible, courtious, and be self policing. I'll have to tell that to the crotch-rocketers that cut in front of me at stoplights next time they pass
- Sig
Sure, the movie is going to look like crap, but it isn't like it doesn't already with a hand-held camera. You might even be able to hide the camera behind some of those oversize granny sunglasses if you wanted to. Such a rig wouldn't be cheap, but it would be under $1000.00 (US).
Right now, they could defeat such a scheme by not allowing bags or backpacks in the theater (though that might get some ladies pissed), but when pocket video recorders are out (heh, as if they aren't close already) - what will stop it then? Strip searches? Frisking? Both?
I am not saying bootlegging movies is right - it obviously is a blatent copyright violation. But their approach is very shortsighted (and it makes me wonder, with its shortsightedness, just how asleep at the wheel these guys are)...
Reason is the Path to God - Anon
They apparently didn't cought all of them :-)
:wq
What does that even mean? How do you take responsibility for your actions if you kill someone? There are situations in which you can't take full responsibility for you actions after they've occured. At least you can't make any sort of financial restitution. In any case, if that is your attitude, then you should look having to pay tickets as a simple consequence of your actions, for which the speeder must take responsibility. They know what the law is and are responsible.
If the driver can always keep control of the vehicle under the conditions, the vehicle can handle the speed well, the driver is RESPONSIBLE (such as knowing the braking distance for your car at a given speed, if you are going very fast -- but that is part of keeping control), then no. It's all about personal responsibility... My phrase of the day.
Ok, so in your opinion there is no speed that is inherently unsafe. I guess c is the only real limit in your world. While I agree with you about the tailgating at 25 being more dangerous than speeding in some situations your premise is untenable. In fact this discussion becoming absurd. In your other response you state that cops can tell "by the results" if someone is capable of driving at a certain speed by whether they arrive at their destination or not. I'll let you figure out what is wrong with that logic. I'm glad it isn't the cop's job to make that judgement call. They'll write you a ticket either way.
I believe that laws should be there to punish people who do bad things, not to limit your ability to do things that aren't bad.
The speed limit is there to keep those whose self assesment of the own skills is over-inflated from doing bad things to themselves and others. "Speeding" at 10mph over is fine with me. Excessive speed (because you are "responsible") is bad. Period.
Lasers Controlled Games!
To date, I've managed to have six different coworkers fired for stealing! Go me!
Unlike any other car I've ever owned, in this car, I feel like I'm sitting on a comfortable couch in the middle of a vast living room driving by means of looking through a picture window. The feeling of overwhelming power, security, and simple vastness is truly wonderful.
I always feel safe in my SUV, since I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that in any accident I will win. Almost everything on the road is smaller and lighter than I; so in a collision, I can expect to completely annihilate the other car and come through without a scratch. Hell, I once ran over some hapless bicyclist, and I didn't feel anything through my super shock absorbers! (I'm guessing it was a bicyclist since it took me forever to buff the damn blood off the chrome, and there was a piece of a bicycle helmet melted to the underside of the muffler.)
Best of all, the SUV drives in a very smooth and sure manner; this makes me feel safe and secure even when I'm chatting on my cell phone and adjusting the radio at the same time! Since my SUV is an automatic with great power-steering, I can easily steer with my knee, leaving my hands free for other things.
SUVs rock. Fuck the environment, and fuck you, you pansy-ass joke-for-a-car owner! I'll squish you next time you stop in front of me, and I'll probably not even notice that I've run your ass over.
You know that most of the time those NV goggles get employed for ogling the gropers, and general voyeurism. I'm not deriding it, I'm praising it. Yeah buddy, better living through technology.
Yep, it does serve as a deterent. It makes me want to avoid going to the theaters at all to see movies. They've gotten way to expensive anyway, and the thought that I'm being spied on by some schmuck wearing night vision goggles while I watch the movie doesn't make me feel any better about the experience.
As I've said many times before, the movie industry simply doesn't get it, if they really think they have a "big problem" with people like this teenager trying to capture a movie on videotape.
The quality of all of these bootleg movies I've seen is horrible. The sound is the typical, poor quality you'd expect from a built-in condenser microphone in a consumer-grade camcorder, and sometimes, you even miss a piece of the film as some guy gets up and walks in front of the camera lens! On top of all this, you've got to invest the time and hassle to download hundreds or thousands of megabytes of data before you can even begin watching one of these sub-par ripoffs on your computer screen. These just aren't going to serve as good substitutes for people seeing the move on the big screen.
They're chasing after what's largely a non-issue, and making criminals out of a few more teens in the process. Hurray for them....
The biggest problem I have with speed limits is that they're the same regardless of weather conditions or traffic. We have a stretch of freeway locally where the speed limit is 80 km/h. On a cold, rainy morning in rush-hour traffic, exceeding that by much would be silly, although a lot of people do. On a bright sunny Saturday morning you could do 140 and not be dangerous.
I'll give you 1 guess as to when you'll find a speed-trap out on that highway, though.
Speeding may contribute to accidents. When you start talking about street racing or similarly reckless actions, sure.
Far more though are caused by tailgating, passing unsafely, running red lights, not having the vaguest clue how to merge, failing to signal, cutting people off, drinking and driving, and plain just being bad drivers. If cops actually cracked down on the morons who can't go 2 blocks without endangering someone's life, they might reduce accident rates. But they can't, because they're out on the freeway with their radar gun handing out $100 tickets to people who aren't a danger to anyone.
-Speeding doesn't cause accidents.
-Smoking doesn't cause cancer.
But thats because instead of "cause" it should say there is a positive correlation.
Are you going to argue the point that there's not a correlation between speeding and accidents?
> If x = 0.9999... then 10x = 9.9999... so 10x - x = 9.9999... - 0.9999... equals 9x = 9 so x = 1. Therefore 0.999~ = 1
Do you have any explanation of that apparant paradox? I've often wondered why if 1/9 = 0.111~ then 9/9 should be 0.999~ but x/x = 1 by definition so 9/9 = 1, once again 'proving' that 0.999~ = 1. It's something to do with expressing a recurring sequence of decimals but i'd love to see an explanation.
Camera "phone" with internet feed so you don't even have to store the movie with you.
Even if they grab you, they can't prove anything since you don't have a copy of the movie with you.
But really, we all know it's actually the guys up in the booth making $10/hr producing the really good copies.
The party of stupid and the party of evil get together and do something both stupid and evil, then call it bipartisan.
Sorry, no news letter. I'm just another uninformed 'net whiner.
The biggest problem I have with speed limits is that they're the same regardless of weather conditions or traffic.
At least where I live, the speed limit in effect at a given moment is considered to be the lesser of (a) the posted limit and (b) the maximum safe limit for road conditions, vehicle, traffic density, etc. If you're driving 75 mph on a freeway with that posted limit on a day that is foggy or icy you can, and occasionally will, be ticketed for speeding.
Speeding may contribute to accidents.
The second biggest contributor to accidents, determined empirically by many studies, is speed differential. If you're going much faster or much slower than the rest of the traffic, you're a menace, even if you think you "can handle it". Beyond that, increased speed increases the forces in any collision that does happen, so accidents that occur at higher speeds are deadlier -- both to the speeder and anyone else who's unfortunate enough to be involved.
Speed does kill, and does so in large part regardless of the skill of the speeder. The driver error that causes an accident can be a non-speeding driver, but the presence of much faster-moving vehicle nearby decreases the odds that the accident is avoidable and increases the potential damage done by the accident.
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I always feel safe in my SUV, since I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that in any accident I will win
Two words:
Cement truck.
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it's simple. if your capable of driving at higher speeds, do so. if you cant handle driving faster because you interpret things slower, DONT DRIVE FAST. then again that might be too much responsibility.
Many think they can handle it. They're all wrong.
Don't believe me? Go talk to two people about it: An actuary that works for an auto insurance company and a race car driver.
The actuary will tell you that people who drive faster get in more accidents. He'll have all the numbers you could ever want to back that up.
The race car driver will tell you that professional race car drivers don't speed on public roads, in spite of their greatly superior driving skills and lightning-quick reactions. Why? Because it's what the *other* idiot does that will kill you, and the faster you're going the less opportunity you have to avoid the problem. On the track, all of the drivers are good; not so on the road. Oh, and because even professional drivers don't have cages and five-point harnesses on their family sedan.
Finally, if you really think your driving skills are above average, you might want to consider that well over 50% of drivers consider themselves to be above average.
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Go back and read my post, but turn on your speakers and make sure your volume is up!
The wonders of technology. *Thinks* I do so hope 'scratch and sniff' aromaspeakers do not catch on! Can you imagine how bad a thread would be full of goatse trolls? egads!
#hostfile 0.0.0.0 primidi.com 0.0.0.0 www.primidi.com 0.0.0.0 radio.weblogs.com
The kid makes a mental note to self as he's arrested: "MUST read SlashDot nore often...."
I RESTATE, it may be too much responsibility for some. If it is raining, and you are speeding. If there is alot of traffic, people or cars, DONT SPEED.
As for the race car driver telling you no other 'professional' race car drivers speed on public roads, he's a shit talker like you, probably just carrying conversation. And as for the 'other idiots' who cause the accidents, part of your responsibility when driving is watching for other bad drivers, you know, to avoid them!?!
lol, drink the milk from your statistics, as when it comes down to it, they dont mean much aside to giving people a reason to be idiots. Im sure you believe race car drivers are always obeying the speed limit, while i hope that is true when its most needed (raining, traffic), they probably dont when the roads are almost empty, or a bunch of cows are eating up the road going just barely the speed limit, ahh because its the weekend, my 9-5 is over, i can relax, fuck everyone else. But when its thought out, you know you shouldnt be speeding, or can be.
Now there are alot of people out there who have their perceptions skewed, inflated, off... In my 7 years of driving (not much) I have never gotten a ticket, and have only been stopped once for making an 'ILLEGAL' u-turn at 3am when there are NO CARS IN THE ROAD. Hey do you know this guy?
geez you cant say something without people taking responsibility into account. Trolling..? 15 year old..? Yes maybe those who dont understand responsibility...
ok, you could be German as well, but I doubt it. If you were, you'd take into account the capabilities of the car as well as the driver.
OH GEEZ THANKS, I AM SUCH A FUCKING IDIOT I GOT TO BE REMINDED TO TAKE INTO ACCOUNT THE CAPABILITIES OF A CAR WHEN I AM DRIVING. PEDAL GOES DOWN, MORE POWER, PEDAL GOES UP, OH SHIT HOW DO I STOP!?! DUH DUH, THANK YOU, DUHHH.
Hehe, yup. Or a semi, or train, or... a brick wall (he did say any accident).
> Are you going to argue the point that there's not a correlation between speeding and accidents?
Well, yes I am. The majority of accidents on the road happen at lower speeds inside city limits, usually when someone ignores stop signs or stop lights.
HOWEVER, there is a corrolation between speed and the intensity of the results. So it may be true that speeding puts you at a higher risk of dieing in such an accident, but if you start spinning out of control at 65 or at 80, you're pretty well f'ed either way.
What first hit me wasn't that he caught someone trying to bootlegging the movie, but that he was using night-vision goggles in a darkened movie theatre in the first place. What was he looking for (watching)? High school kids making out? Time to measure the "creeping me out factor"... How many projectionists watch their patrons?
You said it!
THANK YOU
You're welcome.
If you think excessive speeding isn't a safety problem for yourself and others you're the one that doesn't understand responsibility.
Lasers Controlled Games!
can't detect sarcasm too...i wouldnt expect you to since you have taken what i have said and called it excessive speeding. excessive speeding is a problem, not speeding above the limit, when possible. but! idiots who cant handle driving above the speed limit is another problem. then there are others who are so concerned in saftey that they actually limit themselves or even cause themselves to REQUIRE uneccessary safety. that is also a PROBLEM. add them all together and we got now.
can't detect sarcasm too You should probably substitute the word "either" for the word "too" in that sentence.
Lasers Controlled Games!
Revenue generation is indeed the true objective. Ticketing speeders is ostensibly done to reduce the number of speeders thereby saving lives. However, consider this: More lives could be saved by having fewer drivers on the road, no? By making driving tests more difficult, and by testing people yearly (how about those old grannies that crouch down so only their hands on the steering wheel are visible?) we could eliminate a lot of the dangerous drivers.
Now, this is total heresy, but we could go one step further -- if the goal is to "save lives" and all -- by banning personal automobiles altogether. After all, automobiles are the NUMBER ONE cause of death for people aged 5 to 44. We could replace them with public transport, and bicycles. There could be exceptions for people whose job requires the use of an automobile. Not only would lives be saved, but we could reduce the landfill, energy consumption, and pollution. But, NO! Personal automobile ownership is as American as baseball and apple pie (wasn't that a Chevy commercial some years back?)
Autogeddon Blues.
trying to inflate your ego by taking what i said and putting it as your own? what i meant is what i said, too, as in ALSO. the other part i left out because i felt it was too rude.
What you said was poor grammar. I was trying to help. Now please, continue your ranting.
Lasers Controlled Games!
neo-nazi!
Well that took longer than I thought it would...
Lasers Controlled Games!
And as for the 'other idiots' who cause the accidents, part of your responsibility when driving is watching for other bad drivers, you know, to avoid them!?!
You haven't been driving long enough to learn this, I guess, but that's not always possible, no matter how careful you are.
Here's a real-life example (happened to me): I stopped at a traffic light. The guy behind me didn't notice the light, or me, and slammed into the back of my car. Totalled it, in fact, and I didn't feel so great either. How was I supposed to avoid that, exactly? I'd have to have been psychic to know soon enough that he wasn't going to stop. I actually did see him coming in my rear-view mirror, realized he wasn't slowing and managed to get the car in gear, floor the gas and pop the clutch before he slammed into me. I was doing about 5 mph and he was doing about 50.
Now, in that example, speed wasn't relevant. Here's another one where it was. This one didn't happen to me, but I was about 100 yards back and saw it: A sedan was traveling in the center of three lanes on the freeway, moving probably 60 mph. A pickup was overtaking in the fast lane, going about 80 mph (all speeds and distances are my guesses). When the pickup got to about 40 feet from the sedan, the car suddenly swerved into the fast lane. With a 20+ mph overtaking speed, the pickup had about 1 second to react. She couldn't go right, there was another car there. She quickly went left, *almost* quickly enough to make it over into the emergency lane and around the sedan. But he didn't, he clipped the sedan, spun clockwise a bit and then rolled. The man driving the sedan was already dead, it was a massive heart attack that caused him to swerve. The woman driving the pickup died the next day.
At 65 (the speed limit), the woman in the pickup would have had lots of time to react. Even at 70, with normal reaction times, she would have been fine. At 80 she had no chance, and she was damned quick.
lol, drink the milk from your statistics, as when it comes down to it, they dont mean much aside to giving people a reason to be idiots.
With that attitude, odds are good that you'll be one of them. I just hope you don't take anyone else with you.
As for the race car driver telling you no other 'professional' race car drivers speed on public roads, he's a shit talker like you, probably just carrying conversation.
I see you don't know any racers. See if you can find one and talk to him, it'll be instructive.
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(repost for those overzealous mods)
Thou shalt not get caught.
I have no problem with kids trying to fuck the system. Hollywood is a corrupt, over-priced, organized-crime-under-written, drug-fueled, Zionist-owned source of 95% crap movies. They don't deserve anything.
It gives me the warm tinglies to think that there are still kids out there willing and able to thumb their noses at the establishment, which is trying to subdue them with Anti-depressants, poisonous food, mind-programming out the wazoo, and the glorious prospect of adulthood slavery.
If you weren't rebellious when you were young, then you might as well have been dead. 'Good' kids were boring, dense and dull-witted, and what little sparkle of life they may have had is generally erased by the System as they grow up. Kids are not designed to sit quietly in rows and ignore their impulses to explore and push boundaries set by bitter old farts.
But I'm betting that you probably did bend the rules for yourself when you were fifteen. And good for you, if you did!
Twitter supports and protects racists - by smearing their critics with the "Hate Speech" label.
type 5: from what I remember, money to rent a dvd was sparse in college, and when cach was on hand drinking beer was way more common that dl'ing a video. so, IMO, none lost there too.
#6? well, that's just issues and I don't think it applies to CAM's.
and keep in mind we're taking about CAM's and not the better quality dvd rips or SVCD TS's, that's a whole different topic.
- Disclaimer: Information in this post deemed reliable but not guaranteed.
If you want to stop the game, the first thing you have to do is quit playing.
I can't. I lived in Dallas. The Dallas City Council voted to set the speed limits so low that they were in violation of state law. They ticketed people for "speeding" in zones where they lowered the limits illegally. Eventually, the newspaper ran an article that stated something to the effect of, "If you get a ticket on these roads, fight the ticket, as the limits are all illegally set." Then the rate of people fighting the tickets jumped, it no longer became a good revenue source, and the limits were raised to the minimum allowed (but still below the recommended limit, according to the proper engineering studies).
Of course, Dallas also had the DUI squad disbanded because they were a bunch of perjurers that lied in court to send innocent people to jail. So driving late on a Friday could land you in jail, whether you were drinking or not. But that too is just a moving violation. And if you were thinking this was just a few cases, the total cases reviewed was in the thousands, and they proved it was going on for years.
No, the only way to not play the game is to not drive. Otherwise, you are quite open to being ticketed. Oh, and since you appear to be claiming that you do not violate any laws, you would appear to be unique. I have ridden with many people that claim to not violate any laws. They tell me to shut up after I point out 5 laws they broke in the first minute or so of driving. but then they never claim to not break any laws in my presence after that. But I have *never* ridden with anyone that didn't break at least one law, regardless of what they claim.
Learn to love Alaska