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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."
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.
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.
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.
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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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
Ya but the guy working at the movie theater can finally feel like he looked cool wearing the night vision goggles.
"I use a Mac because I'm just better than you are."
Its the deterent. Now that people can and will be caught it'll make people think twice. And what if the 16 year old gets a harsh punishment? You think you'll enter a theatre again to pirate a movie you already paid to see so some stranger can see a crapy copy for free?
this may deter other people from bootlegging it as well, which is the purpose of most laws deterrence.
As much as we may dislike some of the tatics they may be trying to use and as much we are trying to protect our rights to copy legitimately the stuff we paid for copying a movie in a theater with a cam corder is not one of them.
It's worth it, if only to keep a crappy copy of a movie out of circulation, complete with coughing, laughing, and a fratboy constantly getting into frame as he gets up to piss every 30 minutes from the beer he smuggled in to the theater.
Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
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.
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?
"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.
And if they're smart they slip out the fire exit with your $500 video camera.
You know, normally I'm as anti-RIAA/MPAA as the next slashdotter. But you're just insane! All of your arguments can be applied against you in the same manner.
Is it your god-given right to receive free entertainment, at the cost of the filmmakers?
If not, then don't you think there's a good reason for this law to exist: to deter people who would steal copies of the filmmakers' films?
If not, then at least won't you recognize that every CAM-copy distributed on the internet is no better than sneaking in the back door of the theater? If these punks had been caught doing that, shouldn't they be subject to arrest under the law? Maybe the penalties for that would be a little lighter, but if you think about it from the perspective of the theater owners and filmmakers, a single CAM copy is worth thousands of back-door pilchers.
2 words for all those who still are trying to record movies in the theatre... flash bang
"This is you left and that's your left. This is your right and that's your right. You're gonna die!
Stealing something because you don't agree with the law is no defense. No-one is accusing this thief of being a witch, or declaring the world is round, or being black. He was caught with a camcorder, filming a movie.
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.
Also, once again, copyright infringement is NOT stealing. Nobody is deprived of property. That doesn't mean it's not a bad thing, but your comparing it to rape is incredibly extreme.
Between not having them jab a spike into your balls, and making the jerk who wants to do that feel like he's bad at torture, you go with making the guy feel bad.
Okay, next time I get tortured, I'll give them your name.
meh
Or would you not mind if I broke into your house, raped your wife/partner, took your tv and computer and set fire to the place on the way out? Surely if I don't see anything wrong with those actions I shouldn't be charged with any crimes?
I love these strawmen arguments. NOT THE SAME THING. There is no physical damage or loss here. Now, if you said "would you not mind if I paid to get into your house and have a conversation with you and your wife, then left, whilst secretly taping it all" that would be closer analogy. Kinda creepy, but not illegal in many jurisdictions. And of course it doesn't sound like something to get all upset about, calling for people's heads on pikes, etc.
Just like the music industry's argument of "You can't go onto a car lot and steal a car, so why 'steal' music?". No. But if you were able to borrow a friend's car for a minute (like you borrow their CD to rip it), and use a machine to make a perfect replica of the car, I bet your friend wouldn't give a crap, and neither would anyone else.
As the movie companies are paying for enforcing the law in this case yes, thats fine.
As you obviously care about this so much, why dont you present the cops with a box of Night vision goggles. I'm sure they would be very greatful.
The cops are underfunded. They always are. Yes, the cops should be able to buy things like this, but in real life if they wanted things like that they would have to get private individuals to pay for it because there isnt the budget.
BTW, here is an update on the Law. Murder is *not* ok and the cops try to find murderers to the best of their ability and resources. It just happens to be easier to catch someone with a camcorder in a movie theitre, because you have a good idea on where to start looking for them.
Grow up. This boy was a criminal. He is too young to go to jail in the US, more's the pity. He was just unlucky enough to get caught.
Out of interest, exactly how would night vision goggles help the police to find murderers? indeed The only use for night vision goggles i can think of is while chasing someone down a very dark alley of some kind, during which, For them to be useful, the perp involved would also be blind without them.
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.
There is no physical damage or loss here
Almost got it right! There is loss. Loss in seeing the value of the movie being diluted because some cretin put it on the internet for free.
Same thing as when the American Government prints some more green ones. You still have the same amount of dollars int your bank account, but every one of these dollars is now worth a little less.
You didn't loose, but you end up being a little less rich. Oh wait, that's the definition of loosing.
Write boring code, not shiny code!
No one is breaking in; one must pay to enter a cinema theatre. If you want to come into my house, pay me for that, and make a copy of my TV, then you are welcome.
For once and for all: (illegal) COPYING IS NOT STEALING
<Sigh>
*I* am only replying to the deluded parent who seems to think that a law prohibiting the use of recording instruments in a cinema is as bad as a law outlawing witchcraft, or removing the rights of coloured people. I chose an extreme example to show how flawed those arguments can be.
In a nutshell - the kid broke the law, get over it. Is the law a good law or a bad one? I'm opting for the good law side of the equation. Is "theft" involved? Beats the fuck out of me, but the little shit shouldn't have been doing what he was doing and should have known better.
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!
Good gawd, this guy compares some idiot bootlegging a movie to the victims of witch trials, Galileo, civil rights activists and the American revolution -- then gets modded INSIGHTFUL?
Please, people: Don't drink and moderate. Think about it, won't you?
Someone has to say it...
In the United States, the movies watch you!
flinging poop since 1969
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?
Most obvious example: Phone conversations cannot be tapped without a court order because people have a reasonable assumption of privacy.
Which is one of the privacy guidelines established by the Supreme Court in determining government encroachments of your privacy. And with your specific example, there are also guiding wiretap laws.
However your privacy "rights" where it regards interaction with other private citizens are not nearly so developed. For instance, with very little reason, your employers can monitor your email, search your company-supplied desk drawers, etc. If you let me in your house, I'm not aware of any law that would prevent me from ruffling through your filing cabinet.
Now granted, there are some related restrictions. For example if I found your credit card number in one of those cabinets I couldn't go billing things to your card--but that's credit card fraud, not an issue of privacy. If I broke into your house to search, that's breaking and entering, not really an issue of privacy. (Breaking and entering laws might exist in part to protect our privacy, but breaking and entering is illegal because state legislatures say so.) Little by little, legislatures and courts are beginning to more narrowly define privacy rights with regards to interactions with other people (especially employer/employee relationships), but it is by no means as established as when the government may or may not tap your phones.
The grandparent's post, in its proper context, remains largely accurate; I have no idea how you got onto wiretaps. We're not talking about the government here, we're talking about movie theater people with NV goggles searching out movie pirates. Not only do I see absolutely no way it matters whether you expect they're doing that or not, but while we could argue all day about whether or not it is right, good for business or even effective, I see it as the fundamental right of theater owners to protect their revenues by stopping pirates. If they choose to use NV goggles to help them do so, that's their business.
In short, you were way too quick to try and pounce.
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
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
There is loss. Loss in seeing the value of the movie being diluted because some cretin put it on the internet for free.
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.
Money is an abstract representation of the value of an object or service. While one might need more coins to pay for the same product if more money is added to 'the system', the value of the products remains the same.
Site & blog: http://www.mayaposch.com
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.
I do not normally engage in this kind of obvious flame war but I thought that I would address some of your concerns so you can stop your self-induced hysteria about the law.
In the examples you pointed out above (Galileo, witches, etc), indeed the LAW seemed poorly suited or established.
What is at the heart of your concerns is known as the legitimacy question - from where does the legitimacy to enforce law come?
For example, what is the difference between a police officer and a gun? Both can compel us - at threat of death - to do an action but yet we insist that the police officer is legitimate.
The answer to this question depends on the government. For most of the middle ages and, in fact, right until WWI and WWII, the sovereigns of Europe and most of the world insisted that they ruled by divine mandate. The will of the King was law because the King was a god appointee. (This is the view of the Saudi royal family).
What is interesting about this is that the King is outside the law - he can break any orders, he cannot be reviewed, he can even be cruel for no reason.
Hitler answered the legitimacy question in terms of biology - German Aryans were the obvious biological vehicles of power and thus derived their right to rule over the lesser people by virtue of superior "race."
The American constitution answered the question by saying that the people are the sovereign. This means that every man - including the President - is bound by the law, that the law ought to be blind and equally open to all, and that the burden ought to usually be on the government (hence "innocent until proven guilty," "proof beyon a reasonable doubt," etc).
The ultimate arbiter of American government legitimacy is the people, at this level most specifically vested by form of a jury. Your fate is decided - not by God, nor the state, nor a judge - but by a group of random citizens like yourself who can understand and be swayed by your situation.
This is forever enshrined in American law by the 7th Amendment, which, along with the First, is probably our strongest safeguard against tyranny. (This is, in fact, the principle upheld by the Supreme Court in its recent "detainee" decisions).
Thus, if in self defense you were to kill a man who threatened your child with a knife, a jury might very well be able to put themselves in your shoes and say "given the same situation I would react similarly" and acquit you, even though you had murdered a person.
A conviction by a jury carries with it the assumption that you are punished by society and members of society who say that you broke the societal norm and did not, in fact, act the way they would in the same situation.
This is the reason that higher courts are loathe to overturn jury convictions. That only happens when there is absolutely incontrovertible proof of innocence (with never really existed to that level prior to DNA) or a gross miscarriage of justice (for example the jury trials in the South where no white man would fear being convicted of a lynching or similar horrid act).
In America the government is not a man with a gun but random people who decide how reasonnable you were in taking your action.
Back to the question - did this kid break the law? Well, he has his day in court to argue his side but, on a prima facie decision that he did perform all of the allegations, then he did break the law.
As you can see from the comments any group of 12 is likely to convict him because his behaviour was unreasonnable and outside the societal norm. He deserves to be be punished - he ought to be punished - precisely because he violated our laws and mores and this is not then some witch hunt of injustice unleashed upon an innocent bystander. He is legitimately punished by the government - the people - for breaking the law.
What you can see here is that, in America, the law isn't what is on the books because a jury can acquit. The law is a hyrbid of the written law, the legal
Your ideas are intriguing and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter.
Support the First Amendment. Read at -1
At some F911 showings in rightwing areas, they have cops in the theater, supposedly to quell possible disturbances but in reality apparently just to intimidate people.
Hmm...you have any evidence to back that up? Maybe there's actual reason to fear far-left extremism and hyperbole that is thrown out by Michael Moore (I admit, his movies are entertaining...unfortunately they are chocked full of lies). You know, anti-capitalists have this thing about rioting (see: Seattle G8 summit) to prove that they are peace-loving, bleeding-heart individuals.
I think it's rather funny that because someone sees a police officer in a theatre in a conservative area you assume that it is for intimidation. Perhaps you should collaborate with Moore on his next film, since you guys seem to do the same level of research before spouting off something as fact.
BTW: I'm not a fan of Bush...in fact...I can't stand him. However, left-wing nuts must be pointed out along with the right-wingers....
Peace.
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!
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.
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.
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"
Fred
"A fool and his freedom are soon parted"
-RMS
BUUWAHAHAHAHAHA!
8 of 13 people found this answer helpful. Did you?
C'mon, renege on the $500 bonus?
You forget, these are the same people who claimed that they lost money on Forrest Gump, so they wouldn't have to pay Winston Groom, who wrote it (or at least the book on which it was based) the profit-based percentage he was owed.
In light of that, I fail to see how you expect them to be honest with minimum-wage theater workers who won't be able to afford legal recourse if they get stiffed. Sure, $500 is less than a percentage of millions, but these are some greedy motherfuckers we're talking about here-- no dollar amount is too small to weasel out of paying.
~Philly
You have seen too many Chuck Norris films and too little of real life.
Torture ALWAYS works. Always. Every single time. Because torture is a really terrifying affair, and having seen it on film does not make you an expert.
I have met and interviewed torture victims. There's nothing glamorous about it, and I really wish you didn't trivialize it so.
You forget, these are the same people who claimed that they lost money on Forrest Gump, so they wouldn't have to ... the profit-based percentage he was owed.
No movie has ever made a profit; it is called "Hollywood Accounting". This is a well known practice to anyone who has taken even an intro to accounting course. The studios purposefully look for suckers to sign over rights in exchange for a share of profits they know will never appear. This is a perfect example of why EVERYONE, regardless of whether you're a sculptor, painter, or renassaince actor, should take take a few basic business courses so those who have taken a lot of business courses can't jerk you over.
Once someone is broken down too far, they'll agree with anything and even make up detailed stories which support what the interrorgator wants to hear. It's a survival instinct. If I think you'll stop hurting me if I tell you the sky is green, it's entirely likely I'll eventually beleive the sky is green and tell you so. Breaking down someone's sense of ethics/responsibility/community is hard, and it's a short step to breaking down their sense of reality.
So yeah, it works, in that the victim will tell you anything. But the victim has to be in a mental state to actually know the right answer, and therein lies the problem.
Of course, in a lot of instances, the goal of torture is simply torture, so the information is moot. Wonderful world, eh?