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Canada Responsible for 50% of Movie Piracy
westcoaster004 writes "Hollywood is blaming Canada as being the source for at least 50% of of the world's pirated movies. According to an investigation by Twentieth Century Fox, most of the recording is taking place in Montreal theatres where films are released in both English and French. This has led to consideration of delaying movie releases in Canada. Their problem is that the Canadian Copyright Act, as well as the policies of local police forces, makes it difficult to come down especially hard on perpetrators. Convicting someone is apparently rather difficult, almost requiring a law officer to have a 'smoking camcorder' in the hands of the accused. Hence, the consideration of more drastic measures."
Benton Frasier would never do this.
------ The best brain training is now totally free : )
It's all that bitch Anne Murray's fault!
Looks like the South Park gang was right after all.
This sig intentionally left blank.
Ain't the "pirates" it's the 19th century business model they're clinging to.
Tip: Actors/Execs aren't worth the millions they're paid, and the everyday copyright infringement is proving that.
Tom
Someday, I'll have a real sig.
They're going to delay movie releases to combat piracy? Brilliant!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FjLLUdePnjY
(I believe a Canadian posted it on YouTube those dirty rotten pirates!)
chris at darkrock dot co dot uk
http colon slash slash www dot darkrock dot co dot uk
1) Hollywood says Canada is responsible for 50% of all piracy.
2) So to "punish" the Canadians, they'll take away the legal avenue to purchase movies in Canada.
3) And this leads to....????? Profit???? Less Piracy?????
Presumably, the Canadian legislature will ask similar questions?
You were mistaken. Which is odd, since memory shouldn't be a problem for you
..we're not a real country anyway.
Blerg.
Shouldn't you need an offending video camera to convict someone of this *anywhere?* The problem obviously isn't Canada (as much as we'd like it to be) but rather the laws everywhere else. Lets have everyone use these same laws and have a "delayed release" everywhere. Nobody will know the difference, except a week or two gap in new movies one time.
Sorry, but I just arrived from a 15 minute walk between buildings and my brain is frozen. (Which, I believe, is also Canada's fault.) Could someone please make the appropriate Sony battery-related comment?
What I'm listening to now on Pandora...
Well what else are you going to do in canada?!
So they're going to delay releases... so what? We'll either drive over the border to a "local" US theatre, or download a US-recorded pirated copy. Makes no diff.
It's not like there's a lot of good flicks coming out lately anyway.
"I don't get it." -- ObviousGuy
We're obviously going to need to declare war on Canada. This aggression will not stand.
Piracy is IP Terrorism.
51
Great. Now I'm going to have to watch a movie from behind some Canadian snow-back who slips over the border; his camcorder blocking half my view, and my only connection to the movie the flashes of the screen I get as his flopping head jib-jabbers "aboot" the militaristic nature of American culture.
Blame Canada!
Blame Canada!
It seems that everything's gone wrong,
since Canada came along!
PS: Canada is my #1 favorite foreign country, I love to meet Canadians who come to the USA, and I always enjoy visiting Canada.
The world will not get better through technology. We must seek to be better people.
The US is the other 50%.
So the Canadians will have to wait a few weeks longer before they get to see a movie in the theater. This would be done to stop 'telesync' copyright infringement in Canada, but I see it as an incentive to get a pirated copy from the 'net.
Blar.
......With their beedy little eyes makes them always look surprised Blame Canada Blame Canada their responsible for piracy anyway....
I think the invisible hand of the market has its middle finger extended
--A wise old fart named SC0RN
Every *single* comment on this story is by a raving canadian communist!!!
Keep it gay. Keep it gay. Keep it gay.
Singapore is the piracy capital for Tamil/Telugu movies. Dubai is the palce to go to get Bollywood movies. Hongkong is the piracy portal for China and Korea. Canada is probably a distant fourth when it comes to movie piracy.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
Excellent...
I guess that if the theatres delay the releases, I will just download later.
That was easy!
Canada probably doesnt give a crap if their film releases get delayed. They will see them when they're released right? Hollywood needs Canada's money more than Canada needs Hollywood's film releaes in theaters. Besides.. by releasing the films later in Canada, more Canadians will be forced to download them illegally.
Treat people like they're criminals, and they will become criminals.
Does anyone actually believe anything that comes from a company with "FOX" in their name?
Anyway, this article is a stupid BS attemp to scare the Canadian public into supporting stronger copyright laws. The threat of delayed releases is laughable.
And all this time all I thought Canada was good for was giving us Steve Nash. But Nash *and* that copy of The Transporter that I watched to make sure it's not worth paying $ for, well wow what else can one want?
I like basketball!!1!
So who the fuck is responsible for the other 50%?
ps:
Someone mod all the redundant South Park references appropriately.
Those nicey nice Canadidians with their "Ay" and hockey. Hollywood is going to implement tough DRM just because of them. Or, they will stop making movies until Canadidia plays nicey nice with them.
I'd say invade them, hell, their navy has 3 row boats, a buoy, and a guy that knows how to fly fish. Their Air Force has 2 crop dusters and a guy who once did the voice overs for Superman ("Look, up in the sky.") And their Army knows where the ground is when given a multiple choice. It's the Marines I'm afraid of, they know all the words to "I'm a Lumberjack". But, what really scares me about invading Canadidia is that they may want to hug us.
I'd say, send them all our illegals, but they already have the French, and thats worse.
Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong fix.
I'm a Canadian. I'm honestly not sure if the law applies to movies as well as music (I think it does), but in Canada, it's not copyright infringement if it's for personal use. You are free to download as much as you like if you aren't going to do anything bad with it (like sell it). If you are just going to watch it or listen to it, it's all good.
But we still have the CRIA ads in our theatres saying not to pirate the movies we just paid to watch. It has a tendency to piss us off. I have a friend who downloads a movie (any movie) before going to a theater to see a movie on general principles. The general consensus in Canada is that the CRIA is pure evil, and are kept on a very thin leash. We try not to give them money if we can at all help it. But we like to go to theatres, and we like our boxed DVDs, so most of us have extensive collections and go to the theatre frequently anyway.
But that being said, I'm sure that the vast majority of us pirates would be more than willing to pay a fair price for movies, if the price was fair, and the profits went to the artists instead of a cartel of gangsters.
The Globe and Mail fell for this too, back on the 7th as Pirates of the Canadians
In fact, the majority of the actual copies are inside jobs, taken from "screeners" sent to reviewers and from copies made by distributors and projectionists. It's amazingly hard for a Montreal cop to catch a "camcorder" who isn't actually in the theater (;-))
Many are copied from copies destined for Quebec, as they include both the english- and french-language versions, and can be identified by watermarks as being destined for or actually sent to, for example, Cineplex Entertainment. Which may explain why Fox was threatening that particular distributor...
--dave
davecb@spamcop.net
Recent movies including Children of Men, Borat, Night at the Museum and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest have been made available on the Internet days after they were released.
.PROPER. MAVENSSUPPLIER [xx/50]
Funny, Children of Men's release date was december 25th, whereas:
11/16/2006 2006 Children Of Men
Hardly days after they were released, more like a month before hand. This always happens around this time of year as prerelease dvd's get sent out to reviewers, so how the hell are they trying to blame us Canadians for this? Who the hell download's cams anyways? Certainly not I.
they wouldn't have to download them, would they?
Many films never even get shown in Canada, and since they're a very multi-ethnic society, they tend to want to watch movies from many countries that just plain aren't shown there.
It's one thing to want people to pay for a movie that shows in a nearby theater.
It's another thing to want people to pay for a movie that:
a. never showed within 100 miles of them; and
b. when it did show was in another bleeding province.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
I have a hard time believing Canada pirates more than places like china. I'd like to know exactly how they measure that.
I'm assuming they're using the "what unsupported accusation suits my needs best" method.
Telesync copies, IMHO are more of a "look at me, I'm l33t" kind of thing. I don't think they're very watchable. I've always been shocked that hollywood focuses on what is not the main problem.
I have a feeling the issue of telesyncs is more one of ego... it probably bugs the crap out of Hollywood execs that it's done.
Maybe that's the issue with hollywood... everything is ego driven rather than via rational analysis. If that's true, it's costing them dearly.
Did you know that 75% of all statistics are made-up on a spot and remaining 25% are highly misleading when taken out of context?
Please, Canada? What about China, India or Eastern Europe where you can get movies before they released and where pirated disks openly sold on the street? Well, no, BLAME CANADA!
This is nothing more than FUD spread by *AA in effort to influence upcoming bill.
"Convicting someone is apparently rather difficult, almost requiring a law officer to have a 'smoking camcorder' in the hands of the accused." Requiring proof is a *GOOD* thing. AFAIK, more proof should be required for most of the current RIAA lawsuits. (Screenshot of an ip address? That's laughable). Personally, I don't download any illegal movies or music, and I'm actually in support of the RIAA suing the people who actually download copyrighted content instead of the service providers. But should always be required for a conviction.
Open Your Mind. Open Your Source.
You mean _half_ the actors in Pirates of the Caribbean are Canadian??! And all this time, I thought Johnny Depp was an American!
... or we shall taunt you a second time (and steal the other half of your movies).
"In Canada, the theft of intellectual property is basically treated as a "soft crime," says CMPDA president Doug Frith"
That's because it is.
To bad, cause a Canadian Judge ruled that file sharing isn't illegal in Canada. See http://news.com.com/2100-1027_3-5182641.html for more information. The greed induced coma that record and movie studio's are in now will successfully ruin (read: has ruined) the industry. I personally don't go to the movie theaters anymore because of the following reasons:
:-P
1) I don't enjoy paying more than $10 so see a movie, and lets face it, i am too lazy to go out and get a movie rental card
2) I get a far better movie experience at home anyways, i have better sound/images and no jack ass sitting in front of me talking about what he thinks is going to happen in the movie next.
3) Most of the movies that come out today are crap. Also a great deal of them are ether remakes of old movies, or sequels. I would rather watch the original version of the movie an certainly not the 3rd,4th or 5th sequels of the movie.
Maybe if the industry would actually create something good, instead of shoving more of the same tired crap down peoples necks. I am so tired of seeing some pop culture icon (like jessica simpson, etc..) get a movie part. They aren't real actors. I don't find their lack of intellgence funny or cute. All they do is re-enforce the image that women should act stupid because it's cute.
It's the same with the music industry. They have new bands every few months now, and rarely are they any good....just more of the same pop culture or indy music.
As a consumer i have a choice. I choose to not spend money on crap. If i can get free crap and have a better experience in my own home, why wouldn't i take advantage of it? Maybe it's time to change the way you do business and actually create a model that inpires trust from the customer, in a way that will make them feel comfortable about buying something of yours and make them feel like they are getting something for that money.
-Pizentios
In fact, don't release some of them at all.
Once I was a four stone apology. Now I am two separate gorillas.
Where is captain copyright when you need him?
http://www.captaincopyright.ca/
Delay openings in Canada? That's a nice thanks to Canadians for providing a cheaper place to make movies. I have a hunch that there'll be more Canadian piracy if such tactics are introduced.
I was walking down a street and saw a bunch of time warner emblems in red paint marking the doors of file sharers, before the bombs came. I didn't know the american campaign fund, I mean warmachine, was running out of us funded arabs to fight :(.
Keep your eye on the fruit.
This 'study' is all about keeping the pressure up on Canada's heritage board, which is currently conducting a review with the aim to 'update' our copyright laws. As mentioned in a previous Slashdot article, they seem to be focussing on some sort of curtailment of our fair use provisions. Civil rights groups have been arguing against this, of course, so this is just another slavo from industry to try and push harder.
I'll be surprised if we have any rights left when they're done with this..
You mean I actually have to thank Canada for something? Ah, what the heck...thanks Canadia, and keep them movies flowing!
... isn't releasing Tom Cruise upon the world punishment enough?
I mean, this statement:
As much as 50 per cent of the world's pirated movies come from Canada, prompting the film industry to threaten to delay the release of new titles in this country.
Worldwide?! There is just no fucking way. We don't even hold a tiny candle to what goes on in Asia.
Also, as we know, the vast majority of movies leaked do not come from camcorder screeners, they are direct rips, leaked from the studios themselves by employees or connected people.
What they are really mad about is - 1. fair use is basically intrinsically stated within Canadian law, so its almost impossible to appeal, and 2. it is actually LEGAL to bring a camcorder into a theatre in Canada. The establishment can certainly bar you from doing so - its their theatre - but there is no actual law against doing this. Its basically a FUD piece.
If Jesus wants me it knows where to find me.
Releasing and timing this allegation might be related to ease the criticism that the Canadian government is facing just recently.
A recent Slashdot article pointed out, that a Canadian university professor shed some light, how the minister in charge is refusing to meet with Canadian musicians, but consults on a regular bases with the Canadian leg of the RIAA. Canada is under heavy pressure from the state to change laws, related to IP. Such allegation is probably a well-co-ordinated propaganda step to rally support for the government in trouble and to justify possible changes in legislation.
Well Canada is only one country out of >135, and not even that big in terms of population. If half your problem is Canada alone, you should be rejoicing in the streets!
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
Please stop APK.. you're only hurting yourself.
And just how big is the download market for movies dubbed in Chinese again?
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
I read this over at the movieblog.com where the owner of the site put up a very nice and articulate video about what he feels would be the real effects of this delay. You can watch the video at http://www.themovieblog.com/archives/2007/01/open_ video_letter_to_20th_century_fox_on_canadian_relea se_dates.html/
Advancing the practice of extremely shady accounting in order to avoid paying taxes and royalties?
90% of the fucking horrible movies released worldwide.
Remaking the same movies over and over with slightly changed scripts, or even the exact same one. (Parent Trap, Freaky Friday, Poseidon, etc. The wikipedia entry of movie remakes has had to be split into 2 pages)
Honestly, I don't give a flying fuck about what the movie industry perceives to be these horrible wrongs perpetrated against them. They're making money hand over fist doling out the same tepid crap over and over again.
09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0 is the magic number.
Oh no, you mean the MPAA has to produce actual EVIDENCE!? Hold the presses!!
I applaud canada for sticking to it, instead of letting them just charge people without evidence.
Finally the MPAA doing something I support. This will get rid of the crappy quality bootlegs on Limewire, leaving only the high quality DVD rips.
Everyone knows you can't trust a Canadian... you just can't. Thanks MPAAfia!
If this is anywhere close to being true, it is probably related to the fact that Canadians lead the world in digital download sales growth but that we don't currently have any legal way to download TV shows or movies (for example, the iTunes Music Store Canada offers neither).
More likely is that this is a planted PR press release that the Canadian media have uncritically fallen for. This "starting revelation" comes out at precisely the same time Canada's Heritage Minister is set to release sweeping new changes to the Copyright Right Act that perversely restrict user and fair use rights. Canada's current minority government is neo-con and pro-corporate, denied global warming until about three weeks ago, and only rose to power because the previous government had been in power for 14 years.
In other words, no one should be listening to the government or the Canadian Recording Industry Association. Last year, the major Canadian indie labels left CRIA. In fact, according to documents recently obtained under the Access to Information Act, last year eleven professional organizations representing most Canadian copyright holders in the music industry, including songwriters, composers, performers, record producers, and publishers, wrote to Ministers Oda and Bernier to reject CRIA's new opposition to the private copying system.
So they want to help curb piracy by delaying the release of movies to the Great White North. That's not necessarily a bad thing. Instead of being bombarded and possibly swayed by snazzy ads, trailers, etc.., we would have more information at our disposal find out before a movie even hits our screens whether its worth shelling out 10$ to go see or not. Either looking at US ticket sales, online reviews, chatting with friends in the US, etc..) So in that regard, it would be saving us from some of the Hollywood drivel! :)
It's better to burn out than to fade away
I stopped going to movie theaters about three years ago. I read on the bottom of the ticket I bought a warning that said "cellular phones with cameras are not permitted in the theater."
I did enjoy watching movies on the big screen, but if that's the way you treat your customers, then fine. I'll take my business elsewhere.
I've since abandoned them for live shows at bars and concerts (in small venues). It's a little more expensive, but they treat their customers with more respect. And there's beer.
A government is a body of people notably ungoverned - AC
It's llike the current administration does:
Programs in cities that succeed in stopping teen pregnancy get more money.
Schools in cities that don't effectively increased student achievement get less money.
(Hint: the successful programs don't need more money - they're doing the job. The schools who aren't need to be analyzed and fixed, not clobbered.)
"Win treats sysadmins better than users. Mac treats users better than sysadmins. Linux treats everyone like sysadmins."
I mean, this statement:
As much as 50 per cent of the world's pirated movies come from Canada, prompting the film industry to threaten to delay the release of new titles in this country.
Worldwide?! There is just no fucking way. We don't even hold a tiny candle to what goes on in Asia.
You are correct. I attribute this "50 per cent" statement either to deliberate hyperbole or the belief in Hollywood that only American movies count, so perhaps changing this statement to read "50% of pirated American movies come from Canada" would be accurate.
I should say that I'm American. Hollywood and most Americans think that "Them durn foreigners can't make good movies. They just make those weird films where everybody talks and nothin' gets blowed up." The "Best Foreign Film" Oscar is a just sham to make foreign film producers think that "Hollywood cares" when in fact, they don't. They think any foreign people who make films are just sadly misguided. So yes, I certainly believe that when Hollywood talks about "50 per cent of the world's movies" they have equated WORLD = USA.
so what's the big deal? ;-)
LoB
"Anyone who stands out in the middle of a road looks like roadkill to me." --Linus
You folks do realize that there are more than a few Canadian nationalists who would cheer on anything that stops or even delays what is considered by them to be US cultural imperialism.
I laughed at the part near the end where Fox says they want to help train theatre staff to catch people with camcorders. A year or so ago I went to the local cinema and saw some kids with a camcorder, watching what they had recorded. They were sitting in the almost empty lobby (it was a slow night), right in front of the food counter, in plain site of the ticket takers. None of the staff seemed to care. The staff were not much older than the kids with the camera. They might have gone to the same schools. And I'm sure the staff are not paid enough to really care.
...but is it really a surprise?
And it even goes on to say:
20% of a type of piracy != 50% of all piracy. And another thing:
If it's a criminal offence, it holds a higher burden of proof. This shouldn't be so shocking but perfectly reasonable. Maybe it's for personal viewing? But it gets better:
Maybe because it's nowhere near the level you claim?
It's, for the most part, a civil offence! Maybe it's our liberal way of thinking, but locking someone up for several years for pirating a movie just doesn't make sense. I could go on and on, there are at least a dozen or so additional laughable quotes.
1.3 billion people, plus or minus.
I am a little more proud to be Canadian now. Really. I am. Good for us.
..::ALWAYS : watching::..
I don't think I've ever seen a movie recorded by a camcorder in a movie theatre, but I would think that the quality would be awful. If so, who would want to watch them? Maybe the small percentage of people desperate to see something as soon as it comes out, but aren't those the same people who are going to want a quality version and buy the DVD when they can? Is there evidence that the movie companies lose ANY money this way?
More like Blame America ... 25 million americans have "pirated" a movie, according to yesterday's Slashdot headline.
This is just as stupid as the War on Drugs - don't take it to Columbia and Canada! Fix the damn problem in your own country.
I read a few comments on here that must have been from Americans posing as Canadians. One stated that Canadians don't get all the movies up here...Well, that's not true. We get every movie Hollywood puts out. Sure, small-town Saskatchewan may get movies later, but that's because their theatre may only have one screen.
To say we are responsible for 50% of movie pirating is wrong, they mean Canadian theatres are the location of 50% of the telesyncing that takes place. So by delaying our movie releases, we will be less likely to be the first out with a TS on bittorrent. This is significant because, as the article states, it is much much easier to prosecute a US citizen than a Canadian citizen in terms of pirating. In Canada, the usher has to catch the guy recording the movie, then get the police and charge him. In the states, he/she can be charged after the fact if it is proven he/she recorded it earlier at a movie venue.
So you may think what the big deal is with delaying the movies in Canada...well, it will force all of the Telesyncing to be done by US citizens in US movie theatres, and therefore it will be much much much easier to prosecute the pirates. By moving 100% of the pirating to the states, they can effectively control litigation of the offenders. It is actually quite clever. It WILL result in more people downloading movies in Canada I'm sure (since we will be unable to watch them legitimately) but it will (and it's a gamble) hopefull curb piracy in the states.
50% of the piracy comes from Canada. The other 50% comes from the US and the other 50% comes from Asia. Europe comes in last with only 50% of the overall piracy.
Also, a recent study of divorced couples showed that in 100% of all cases the couple were married. Therefore, marraige leads directly to divorce.
On behalf of all Canadians...
You're welcome.
-Cerv
PS: We promise to seed more.
If I knew the wedgies I gave you back in 6th grade would have resulted in this . . . I might have taken a moments pause.
In Canada, there is a levy on all pretty much all recordable media to 'compensate' the music and movie industries for 'piracy'. This was done with the encouragment of those industries. Since they've agreed to (and indeed lobbied for) this levy, doesn't that give Canadians the right to copy the media of those who are getting this compensation? After all, it's already been paid for....
(Yes, I am a Canadian. No, I've never pirated movies or music.)
Shock and Awe on Ottawa!!!! If those hosers are stealing our intellectual property then this means war!!! Let's go get 'em for the RIAA and MPAA boys! It won't be over til it's over over there!
-"...bad old ideas look confusingly fresh when they are packaged as technology" - Jaron Lanier (Digital Maoism on Edge.o
Properly reworded.. Canada Responsible for 50% of Movie Piracy in English Speaking North America. Funny since Canada is 50% of English speaking North America... the US is the other 50%.
In Canada there is a tax on blank media that is collected and turned over to the associations that represent the artists and producers. So I have this disk that I have already paid for copyrighted material on, all I am doing then is puting my choice of copyrighted material on the blank disk that I ahve already paid the copyright holders for via the default copyright tax on the blank media. I am not stealing anything. Why should I pay copyright duties twice.
Undetectable Steganography? Yep, there's an app fo
"snow-back?" SNOW-BACK?
Please, the correct term is Frost-back. You insult my people.
- In hell, treason is the work of angels.
Take a look at who has made this study that "50%" of all piracy comes from Canaduh...The Movie Frigging Industry!!! Where are they getting this data to back up their claims??? Yeah, out of their asses!!! I maybe one of the few people that actually loves going to the movies, and also I buy tons of DVD's! I never download "Cam" movies as it just spoils the whole experience for me. I agree with everyone that if they implement this draconian measure to delay movie releases here in the land of high taxes, and great beer, then it will even further increase piracy. The only real way to stop Cam movies is to advertise that the staff members are patrolling to see if it is happening...of course, the staff members could be doing it themselves.
I pay extra for every bit of blank media I buy, which supposedly goes to the artists to compensate them for the downloading I might do.
;)
So, although I'm sure there's loopholes that will be pointed out... the basics of it is that I'm paying for the content. The CRIA is just giving it to me at a discount, because I'm doing the downloading and burning myself instead of them having to press a CD/DVD.
It's not piracy if I'm paying for it. And I'll happily buy a spindle of DVDs to support artists.
If I knew the wedgies I gave you back in 6th grade would have resulted in this . . . I might have taken a moments pause.
There are quite strict laws in Canada against copyright infringement... if there is proof of infringement, it should be trivial to shut these places down.
If they don't have proof, then why would they conclude that Canada was the cause? The article isn't clear on this matter.
I'm rarely one to pull out the 'R' card... but doesn't this sort of gross generalization and assumption seem almost racist to anyone else?
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
It won't change my movie habits, which is to say: I don't pirate anything. I either go to the theatre, rent, or buy the DVD like a good little consumer. I'm serious.
But that's me. For pirates and consumers of their wares, release delays will only stimulate a market for piracy. There will be more reason to copy stuff and transport it across the Canada-U.S. border, translate the bad copies into French in Quebec, and distribute it just as widely internationally as before. Maybe you'll catch a few more pirates or tapes trying to cross the border, but that's about it.
If there's a problem, then there needs to be better policing of current law, which is more than adequate to prosecute pirates and other violators. It's that simple.
It's probable this is one element of a media push preceding the introduction of even harsher, DMCA-style copyright law into Canada.
It's a terrible toll that piracy is taking on the movie industry -- why, poor Will Smith got evicted from his apartment and he and his son (his real son!) had to live in a bathroom in a subway station! I believe they recently made a documentary about it.
"Destroy science and religion. Science would re-emerge exactly the same; but not religion." - Penn Jillette, paraphrased
It's a little-known fact that we Canadians can't help it. You see, Canadian eyes have evolved to become standard-resolution camcorders, which combined with our natural Wi-Fi transmission abilities create an environment of natural data-sharing. Birds gotta swim, fish gotta fly, and Canucks gotta record and distribute media via our own genetic superiority.
Other little-known facts:
- Polar bears are in fact robotic killing machines with laser eyes.
- Igloos are the same as missile silos
- We only have gravity 82.5% of the time
- The Canadian "accent" is in fact a high-frequency encryption only understood by other Canadians
- Sulfur dioxide? Breathable.
- It's not cold, you're just a pansy
- Poutine with a Beavertail for dessert covers all the major food groups
Now if you'll excuse me, I have a seal to hunt if I want to eat this month (seal oil being a major component in Poutine cooking).
- In hell, treason is the work of angels.
PS: Canada is my #1 favorite foreign country, I love to meet Canadians who come to the USA, and I always enjoy visiting Canada.
:-(
That's too bad... It's getting harder and harder to visit the USA
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Amendments to the Copyright Act are currently in the process of being drafted. This is probably an attempt by the U.S. movie industry to influence that process.
http://outcampaign.org/
The story tells us that camcording is illegal in Canada. That the theaters are using night vision to catch people doing it. That Canadian police are arresting and convicting people who do it. And that anyone can rent the movie at blockbuster and copy it - in the US (which has ten times the population) as well as Canada. The 50% claim is highly unlikely.
This little statistic was almost certainly made up, to pressure Canada into taking away more fair use rights.
On the other hand, word has it that the guy who bypassed HD DVD's AACS encryption is a Canadian programmer. (With possible help from a NZ cryptographer. Google "My first experience with HD content being blocked".)
I wonder whether the price of going to the movie is a factor in any of this? Does anyone have a chart of how much it costs to watch a film, in various countries, taking into account all taxes paid at purchase?
Jumpstart the tartan drive.
Wow, what a topsy turvy world Hollywood is: I steal your goods and it makes you rich!
n ey spears would all be penniless paupers and the industry would be bankrupt, and we would have no more movies or music.
If the **AA were correct, record and movie producers/directors/actors/musicians/singers/brit
When that happens I'll agree with you. Until then I'll just consider that you must either be a shill or brainwashed.
Pirates fight global warming!
1) only consort with criminals; and/or
2) have confused video stores for houses; and/or
3) just make stuff up as you go.
By the way, most of our 'ouses have more than 2 walls ("both walls").
This ham-fisted FUD is designed to distract the opposition from the real objective, proposed changes to Canada's copyright law.
-- "At Microsoft, quality is job 1.1" -- PC Magazine, Nov. 1994
> Fix the damn problem in your own country
That is not profitable. It does not lead to endless debate. It does not allow for endless dog and pony media releases. It does not provide a good background for daily finger pointing. It doesn't give rise to vigilante conquests or make use of the "hero of the day" methodology (eg. Nancy Reagan "Just Say No" and Tipper Gore's parental warning labels).
All of the idiocy in the world can be explained very concisely and simply if one refactors everything to make the profit margin, from the point of view of the most influential and powerful (usually the ones behind the scenes) individuals, the most important attribute.
The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq--profit margin from multibillion dollar spending bills (taken from the taxpayers and given, preferentially, to the military subcontractors). The war on drugs, the insurance mess, the stock market, even the events leading up to and the subsequent media circus resulting from 9/11. It's all about profit margin and public perception.
Now that you have been told the truth, dear citizen, please do not feel that you have any ability to do anything about it. The system is carefully designed to protect itself and prevent individuals, except those specifically ordained by the system, from being able to make any real impact. Go back to work, pay your taxes, accept your place in society.
Is there any wonder why I'm homeless? This is my punishment for exposing too many pyramid schemes within the overall system. I'm supposed to be demoralized. I'm supposed to become dejected. I'm probably supposed to feel like a failure, or dishonored, and commit suicide.
Instead I'm going to sit in one of the wealthiest communities in the US and raise a stink so terrible that heaven itself will have to come down to earth to heal it.
the NPG electrode was replaced with carbon blac
Stop horking the movies, eh?
The only real time i go see movies at the movie theatres is in the first week or two otherwise i wait until the movie comes out on DVD...them pushing it back a week or two will probably mean that i wont be going to see the movies at all...and i'm sure i'm not the only one to think that way. Not because i wont watch something a week or two after it is open but it would piss me off that i cant watch them on opening day like i should be...hell maybe it would piss me off enough to download a copy of that said movie just to prove a point. And yes i go fairly often enough (I'm planning to go see 2 movies in the next 3 weeks which i'm sure is above average). If they want to find a solution for this let them think of one without pissing off the customers who do pay to watch it in the theatres as opposed to the "few" who pirate the movies. Here's a creative solution....if someone gets caught add their "mug" to a wanted list that they display on the walls of the movie theatres...if someone reports that they saw one of those guys at the movie theatre the guy gets a free movie ticket for reporting the guy and this at least will make it harder for them to keep sending the same people over and over again...and at the very least will add to the expense that it takes to operate... Another option is if you notice the guy beside you has such a camera the movie theatre should reward you for leaving the movie to talk to them to tell them about it in a way that the guy wont know it was you who told on him...
I think what drinkypoo is trying to say is simply that there is no right to make money at any particular activity.
:)
There are tons of professions and industries that have disappeared or been relegated to fringe activities... coopers, glassblowers, phrenologists, jesters, scribes; the list goes on and on and on.
Would society really be better off if we were required to use wooden barrels crafted by masters to store liquids?
Should psychologists be required to have a professional read the bumps on someone's head before making a diagnosis?
Perhaps we should all pay a "scribe tax" on every photocopy we make?
The point is, times change, and sometimes professions and entire industries just become... obsolete. It sucks for people who earn their living that way, or who have a romantic attachment (think of the mystique around "the age of sail"), but overall it's okay. Life goes on. People find new ways to live, and new ways to express themselves and interact with each other.
Digital media and the Internet may have made big production movies and TV and platinum albums a thing of the past. A pity if you like Cecil B. Demille, not such a shame if you like live jazz.
> Presumably, the Canadian legislature will ask similar questions?
No, they wont.
Their level of incompetence is as staggering as yours and key posts are held by people
who have worked for the entertainment industry.
Compare this to Ohio, where a movie theater owner can detain you for having a video camera turned on anywhere in the building. Doing a local news expose on health conditions at the concession stand? Busted. Testing out a video camera in the local Wal-Mart, where a movie is being shown on the demo TVs? Busted. And better yet, it's a first-degree misdemeanor on the first offense, and a felony each time after that.
t ers0304.htm
Other states have similarly ridiculous laws:
http://www.ncsl.org/programs/lis/CIP/tape-in-thea
If someone can suffer such bad quality movie instead of paying 10 bucks to watch it in theater, the movie industry is unlikely earn even a penny from them as well.
This is to instill a 'panic' in th epress, to accelerate the lobbying/vote buying effort by the TrueEvil consortia in Canuckistan.
It has come out how the RIAA and MPAA lined the pockets of MPs and administrators, practically buying unpopular legislation. Now this "news" comes out - to distract the public from the corporate pay-for-votes aspect of the story.
'Sides, it's too cold to go to the movies, ya' hose-head!
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
I'm a Canadian and I resent that tax among other things. I now live in Texas.
I call BULLSHIT! Ten times over...
The government is on the verge of introducing an update to the Copyright Act to make it at least as restricitve as the DMCA. However, it is a minority government - the bill may fail due to opposition pressure, or the government may fail for some other reason before this is passed.
This is nothing more that lies aimed at cranking up the pressure, trying to convince everyone of "...the fierce urgency of now..." when things are no worse than in the USA.
Regardless of the law in Canada, it is still illegal to copy and offer for sale any copyright work. You can and will be arrested for commercial piracy.
Yes, it's difficult to sue for "file-sharing" or similar - the RIAA has to meet a reasonable proof before being allowed to proceed, like they should in the USA, and they would actually have to prove damages to collect (and in Canada, if they lose, they owe the legal fees of the other party!). However, I doubt this makes Canada the hotbed the RIAA and MPAA would like to portray us.
Does anyone seriously believe that piracy is costing the movie industry so much that they are willing to abandon a country full of customers to make a point?
I'm pretty sure this. is responsible for 50% of piracy. Can someone explain to the MPAA that Waterworld is not worth $20, in any possible way? It could be on a disc made of solid gold, and still not be worth money.
Obviously it's a small example, but the reason people aren't willing to part with $20 for a crappy movie is because... well, it's a crappy movie.
And what accounts for the other 50%? This. Stop punishing me for paying for movies. Every time I see this, I want to give you my money even less.
If you ask me Google and Youtube are the worlds most lethal source of movie/video piracy. Every movie made in India reaches Google/Youtube within weeks. Ofcourse they reach Bittorrent etc as well. But the damage done by Google to Indian Movie/Music Industry is phenomenal. Hope a day comes when the authorities in India finally wake up and ban (yes BAN) Google Video/Youtube and other pirate repositories to get them to fall in line.
It is in Quebec. The two countries should not be confused nor be considered one any longer. The sooner Quebec separates from, or is kicked out of, Canada, the better for everybody.
Camcorders are not allowed to smoke in theatres in Canada
Interestingly, the two articles linked to in the story differ as to the level of piracy coming from Canada. The story from The Globe has a direct quote from Snyder saying that 20% comes from Canada. The article from CanWest Global says 50% but I can't find a direct quote anywhere in either article that substantiates that figure.
If pressed, I'd say that the 20% number is better supported. It almost looks like the 50% number was pulled out of someone's ear.
Additionally, as Michael Geist reports on his blog, the current changes to the Copyright Act that the industry is trying to buy from the government would have absolutely no effect on this. So, once again, it's apparent that the proposed changes have nothing to do with piracy but have everything to do with robbing average citizens of our fair use rights.
Give a man a match: warm him for an instant. Douse him in petrol and set him aflame: warm him for the rest of his life.
parent is not a troll, just a failure to perceive the latest iteration in the "Soviet Canuckistan" joke.
Slava k partiy i lyoodyamn, tavarishchi! (long live babelfish)
Still hoping for Gentle Treatment...
Right now, unless it's a top hit in the States, we in Canada have to wait years to see an American cable or other TV production. So if movies are delayed, I'll lose my reason to go to the theatre, just like I don't watch broadcast TV anymore.
You mean you actually have to do something like prove that a crime was committed? That's what really upsets Hollywood -the fact that the Canadian justice system actually requires actual real proof of an actual crime having taken place unlike the USA where Hollywood have bought so much of the Government and DOJ that they can just point the finger and say "He did it. Jail that man!"
Conor "You're not married,you haven't got a girlfriend and you've never seen Star Trek? Good Lord!" - Patrick Stewart
Made all your damn movies.. you think we're going to buy them when you try and sell it back to us?
Geez.. what's your price on good beer, clean water, and softwood lumber these days anyway?
----------------------------
Esobofh - Currently drinking fresh mango juice.
I'm too lazy to find the stats to cite this fact, but I can't believe no one's mentioned it yet:
Something like 90% of the population of Canada lives within a 3 hour drive of the American border. Having grown up in the Niagara Region I know that I can get into downtown Buffalo in 30 minutes if the border crossing is quick.
Are they going to turn me away if I state that my reason for entering the country is to see the latest blockbuster 3 months early??
I'd rather have both a piracy tax AND habeas corpus instead of having neither.
Find Escorts, Strippers, Massage Parlours, Swingers
PS: Canada is my #1 favorite foreign country, I love to meet Canadians who come to the USA, and I always enjoy visiting Canada.
Revoking habeas corpus and treating everyone who wants to cross the border like a terrorist is severely reducing the number of Canadians willing to travel to the US. Well, certainly reducing my urge to, and I used to visit the US several times a year.
Hollywood has been busy bribing the Conservatives in Canada to change the copyright law etc., and now they want to produce a straw man in the form of "50 % of all movies are pirated in canada", so the Conservatives now can say that they are clamping down on this organized crime...I say bullshit!
Last time I went to the theater, what did I see, but the occasional employee wandering around with the infrared goggles checking for camcorders...I suspect that the real pirates are to be found in Russia, taiwan etc.
People must wake up and realize that most stories featured featured by the radio and TV news media here in North America are produced by vested commercial interests (like hollywood) and the TV networks usually run them as legitimate news to save money on actually producing real news content.
With the changes of the ownership rules and the fair-balanced rules and the requirement that to have a real news division (in the US), by the Regan Rupublicans (back in the early 1980's), we now have "the news" owned by a handfull of mega corporations (Canadian right-wing governments followed the US like the US-wannabies they really want to be and enabled the concentration of the media corporations here in canada). On top of this all, we pay levies here in Canada on CDR disks and MP3 players etc...at some point, the world is really going to get so out of whack and unbalenced towards the have and have nots that I would not be supprised that another violent revolution of the class structure or similar, emerges fron some future pissed-off generations.
yeah, good luck getting Canadian law enforcement to come down hard on piracy.
Maybe if the U.S. obeyed a WTO judgement against them once in a while it would be different. But so long as Canadians, justifiably, think of Americans as dishonest crooks, the MPAA is fighting an uphill battle.
They don't realize that the Canadian government has no control over what happens in Quebec!
This is nothing but a PR campaign to convince Canadian legislators to pass the new copyright bill they're considering at the moment. It's the one that would eliminate fair use from Canada.
In Soviet Russia, I ruled you
"They don't realize that the Canadian government has no control over what happens in Quebec!"
Canada has federal police. They're called the R.C.M.P.. They exercise federal power everywhere in Canada.
The pursuit of absolute tolerance leads to the most rigorous and ludicrous intolerance. - REX MURPHY
Canada is like jock-itch, it won't kill you but it's pretty damn irritating.
OK - so let me make sure I understand this correctly.
Fox sends a copy of a film to the theater on 123 main street. It plays there for 3 weeks.
Without changing the copy of the film, They can tell which screen, which date, and what time the film was recorded? Interesting
And I would assume that that particular copy of that particular film would NEVER be shown either before or afterward in another theater, in another town, in another country.
Sounds like bullshit to me. Methinks they place too much store in the tinfoil hats they borrowed from the props department.
We're number 1; We're number 1. !!!
... it's a truck stop! No wonder your friends had all the videos - it's probably 6 days by stagecoach to the nearest theatre - and those probably wouldn't have 'talkies' yet.
I come from a city in Canada the size of Chicago. It's called Mooseknuckles Alberta.
Amount of $$ I've spent at allofmp3.com: greater than $100
Amount of $$ at spent at iTMS: about $.99
Not sure how Hollywood came up with that statistic, but the majority of releases originate from Russia these days. Almost every release tagged "TC" are actually Region 5 dvd's put out in Russia to stem piracy there. These are NOT retail DVD's but more like workprints on DVD's. They are not DVD quality, but are still above VHS.
Delaying releases in Canada may get rid of some of the really quick, crappy "cams" that circle the net, but I can't possibly see this reducing piracy IN CANADA. I think the goal of the delayed Canadian releases would be to lower piracy in the USA. USA is a much larger market and I hate to say it, but Hollywood is going to sacrafice us Canadians to increase their profits in the states. I dont really see this working but who knows. I know delayed releases will make me a little less inclined to spend money going to the theatre (not because I'll pirate the movie, but because it will be less time to a DVD release than normal). This is yet another case of the **AA punishing the people that actually pay because they hope it will make them more money in the long term.
'Camcording' movies in theatres is the true underpinning of Montreal's economy. Who knew?
According to an investigation by Twentieth Century Fox, most of the illegal recording, or "camcording," is taking place in Montreal movie houses, taking advantage of bilingual releases and lax copyright laws.
It must be true because Fox is such a reputable and honest source of information.
"They are using Canada because they can have the movie out on the street in the Philippines and China before it even releases there."
Right! In China, they love to see movies in English and French!
How can Canada be responsible for 50% of piracy? Don't they have, like, 5 people up there?
I'll be delighted if Hollywood decides to delay Canadian releases, utterly ecstatic!
1. The canadian pirates will let their american buddies do the dirty work, which means no more finger-pointing by Hollywood.
2. The canadian viewers will happily download even more movies because they don't feel like waiting for them. Keep in mind we canadians have far better broadband penetration and average bandwidth than the USA, so it's ridiculously fast and easy. As a bonus side-effect, less people will go to the cinemas to pay for movies they got off bittorrent weeks prior.
3. We will stop being so "nice" to american filmmakers who love to shoot their films in Vancouver and Toronto, and they'll have to start paying taxes like everyone else.
4. We'll send our legions of kamikaze squirrels to feast on the diminutive testes of MPAA execs. Fear the squirrel!
-Billco, Fnarg.com
I looked at Statscan website and there are 21 million people between the ages of 15 and 59 years who may have a computer and high speed access. I'm sure most are not very Web/Internet literate enough to be able to download and burn a movie let alone record it with a camera and then convert it and make a torrent of it. So say about half of them, 10 million people (a large city), can do such a thing and then divide that number by the amount of movies released per year, those people are responsible for 50% of all movies "pirated" in the World?
I agree with a previous comment it's got to have something to do with Hollywood and MP Bev "do-anything-for-money" Oda.
Canadian pr0n?!
... of Strange Brew
"Canada Responsible for 50% of Movie Piracy"
Wow! The entire country of Canada is at fault? Shit! Someone get Bush to bomb the fuckers back to the stone age!!! Oh, wait...the US seems to be a little preoccupied elsewhere at the moment.
I reserve the right to think for myself. Others' opinions are optional. Puppy on lap = typos...not illiteracy.
What is needed is a cam that can 'broadcast' the video it captures. Then someone else in the crowd can store it separately.
Fuck Hollywood, the CRIA, RIAA and the MPAA. EH!
Remember, kids, when you download movies (or music), you're downloading COMMUNISM!!
Someone set the alarm.. I'm going to sleep off another 20 years of this stupidity.
-SS "Teach the ignorant, care for the dumb, and punish the stupid."
Perhaps the industry is earning less profit because their movies suck?
A dollar theater opened up in our area, you could see new movies (from 4 months ago) all for $1 per person.
All the popcorn, candy, and extras you expect from a 'big time' theater.
People stopped going to the $8.50 per person theater, saying - gee - I'll just wait for the new release to be shown at the dollar theater.
Eventually, the Big movie theater paid $8 Million to buy the $1 theater from the original developer (profit!).
The $1 theater now charges $6 a person, the new owners let it run down, don't clean it, don't fix broken light bulbs, etc.
Who cares if people copy trash movies on the internet, most people will not waste the time or bandwidth to download it anyway...
When you go out, go out to live theater, real actors, dancers, singers - stop watching a light bulb, and enjoy quality entertainment performed by Real People.
You to convict someone in Canada, you need evidence?? What the hell is wrong with those people?
Patrick Doyle
I mod down every jackass who puts his moderation policy in his sig. Oh, wait a sec....
So, now that they can't catch the pirates from the Internet, they're accusing a whole country of being responsible of cheap cam-rips? PLEASE!
In Kuwait, there's a known street in a known area, full of shops selling pirated movies: ALL DVD rips. And if I wanted a movie, I would never download a cam-rip! It's an insult to my bandwidth!! I'd wait for the DVD to come out and then one week later, a decent DVDrip is released.
Now don't get me wrong, we do have rules & regulations regarding copyrighted material, it's just that nobody cares...
Mod points are a dangerous tool. Abuse them wisely.
"Hollywood is blaming Canada as being the source for at least 50% of of the world's pirated movies..."
"Their problem is that the Canadian Copyright Act, as well as the policies of local police forces, makes it difficult to come down especially hard on perpetrators. Convicting someone is apparently rather difficult, almost requiring a law officer to have a 'smoking camcorder' in the hands of the accused. Hence, the consideration of more drastic measures."
So Canada is acting (unjustly according to Hollywood) in the notion that thier citizensa are innocent unless they are proven guilty beyond a shadow of doubt.
What a backwards country, thinking of of well being of its citizens over Corporate Revenues? Where are the lobbiests!?
"Enjoy what you're doing! If it becomes drudgery, you're doing it wrong!" - Jim Butterfield
I just came back from a film, in Montreal. At theatres it's common to have staff check your bags (especially at downtown theatres) for camcorders etc, and of course there are warnings everywhere about how it's a crime to film a movie in the theatre (even if it isn't). These measure I support - hey, it's their theatre - but the big studios coming out with this FUD just as the government seeks to change the Copyright Act is way over the top. And so are their statistics. Unfortunately, these obvious tactics have been know to work, let's make sure this time it doesn't: Inform yourself and don't just sign a petition, but sign up and write your MP. Visit the CPPIC for more.
As far as the threat to delay movie releases, please do! It may give the small domestic film industry a little opportunity when some moviegoers arriving at the theatre choose to see a Canadian film, instead of the delayed American crud that they thought was out.
If i could i would move there and turn in my passport. I use to go there as a truck driver and i never wanted to come back. Even though i was a butthead yank they were still nice to me. When you go to there casinos you dont get taxed. And there smoke was prime if you know what i mean.
Hint: It's the ones in it for the money I'm calling clueless twats. I know I could have written that sentence a little better, but everybody else sems to have gotten it, so calm down, k?
Linux, you magnificent bastard, I read the fucking manual!
A country respecting its citizens more than the corporations.
So Canada would pass whatever law they want. I hope Ottawa has the wisdom to see thru this.
they didn't say "Downloaded" movies.. they said pirated movies.. and last i checked it was pretty common for open street stores that were filled with nothing but burned illegal copies were considered pirated copies, the language they're dubbed in is fairly irrelivant. so i'm not sure what your point is.
I was just wondering.. if it's ok for me to record a movie on the television on recording equipment for personal use.. why can't I record what I watch in the cinema for personal use?
Just wondering whether if someone caught with a camera in a movie theatre could infact defend his right to record his own experiences for personal use.
K.
I think one thing that gets left out of the equation is that pretty much up until napster pirating movie and music was a much smaller problem, mainly because most average people had no idea how to even go about getting a movie or songs free. And really the industry only made a big deal of the whole napster situation (which I believe made the whole pirated media problem major news) because they didn't think they were making the money they should have been making. they sat there and said hey how come we are not selling as many albums and movies well it must be the pirates taking our money. What they fail to realize is that they themselves the studios and record labels are actually part of the problem as well. People have been able to copy albums and movies for a very long time since the introduction of VHS and cassette tapes. But people were still willing to pay for the product because it was worth their money, and a lot of people like myself will get mp3s of new bands to determine if they are worth buying. It was a quality product in their eyes, the problem now is there is a lot more quantity and a lot less quality. If the product was up to snuff more people would buy it legally, but frankly there are a lot of people who think the products the companies are producing aren't worth the money. There are 2 different kind of people out there those who just will not pay for a movie or album and those that will. Those that don't want to pay won't and they will continue to steal it period. Do I download music yes do I pay for it not often, becuase I refuse to pay 15 dollars or more for a album with 2 good songs, it is not worth my hard earned money to get the 2 songs I want, can I get it legally through one of the many online music stores maybe but then I have to find which one is selling A) the songs I want and B) has it in a format I can use on the player I want to use. I still buy several cds a month, do I buy as many as i used to buy no because IMO there is not as much worth buying or for that matter downloading it is IMO crap for the sake of a better word.
The problem is not so much people stealing the movies or music so much is it that the record companies and movie studios have at least recently been putting out a lot of stuff people just don't want. They try and equate pirating with an actual loss of money, but the fact of the matter is that most of the people I think are downloading the content are saying this isn't worth what you are asking, it is substandard so to speak and they would not have paid for it anyway and you can't lose money you were not going to get in the first place. (With movies you could include rental fees for movie X but I really doubt the studios are getting a very big cut in that instance) If you look at movie releases recently they tend to put out more movies than used to be the case, whereas maybe 10 years ago you would have maybe 2 or 3 movies a month that would stay in the theaters for a few months to now where on occasion you can have 10 or 15 movies a month get released and then with in 3 months are on DVD. The studios keep trying to make more and more product and sacrifice the quality of the goods. It has been proven time and again when they release a good movie people will flock out in droves to see it, look at LOTR, Spider Man, X Men, they all did very very well in the theaters because they we quality movies.
Another point is that the studios tend to focus on box office sales to determine if a movie was successful and profitable but why would you or I go pay 10 dollars or more to watch a movie when you can just wait 3 months and buy or rent it on dvd. I seem to remember a time when it could take almost a year or longer for a movie to come out in stores so if you wanted to see it you had to go to the theater or just wait. I know nothing of what the profit margin is on a movie in the theater versus releasing it to the store, but I would think (I am probably wrong) that the studio makes more money from the theater run than on dvd sales (although dvd sale
That is because, by definition, overhauling an entire business model will result in a significant reshuffling of an industry. To ask for anything else is absurd. However, if the **IA wants to survive, that is what it will take. Personally, I hope they die.
I've downloaded a fair number of movies (reaches for Anonymous coward checkbox), and not once have I seen anything to indicate that it's from Canada. Lots are academy member preview dvd rips, not a lot of Canadian academy members. Lots have theatre fulls of giggling Japanese; again, probably not a Montreal thing. I've seen a lot with Spanish subtitles (never French). I just don't see any evidence of this claim.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollywood_Accounting
Ok, I made the percentage up.
Hot damn. Makes me proud to be a Canadian. Now I'm working to raise that from 50% to 60%
They can profit on $300 million movies. In fact the individual executives profit a lot more on those movies, even if the companies don't necessarily do any better (I'll believe they're losing money when Paramount folds).
Why would they charge less? If you could sell your car for $5000 over list price you would, right?
Good points. I also thought I would add that laws protecting culture are different in Quebec than in the rest of Canada. French-language, home-grown entertainment is vigorously protected. Every year or so the province's "language police" make headlines for some stupid thing, like forcing a computer store to take down its website because it didn't conform to being bilingual enough, or forcing cities to change street signs to French. http://www.efc.ca/pages/media/calgary-herald.16jun 97.html
http://newquebec.blogspot.com/2006/07/beaconsfield -to-language-police-get.html
Quebec probably just doesn't care enough about protecting "outsider" entertainment which competes directly with its own culture, and I wouldn't be surprised at all if the enforcement agencies were turning a blind eye to piracy in Quebec movie theatres for that reason.
But I think the idea that Canada is responsible for 50 per cent of movie piracy is a total load and a FUD attack by the movie companies on our copyright laws, which they hate because they still allow us to make legit copies and downloads of THINGS WE ALREADY OWN (better make that clear).
I hate having to pay a levy on every pack of blank DVDs and CDs I buy, but that's the law and I just look for the deals (discs are always on sale somewhere.)
And I find it freeing that if I buy a CD, and it's invested with rootkits and proprietary players and crap, well, I am within my rights to fire up Limewire or uTorrent and download the cracked version of the album I just bought so I can put it on my MP3 player without having to go through some nightmarish DRM scenario with Windows Media Player.
They're talking about CAM copies... and seriously, who cares? Of all forms of pirated video, the CAM is the lowest of the low, the worst possible quality. The only reason I'd ever watch a cam is of a movie I *really* want to see and is not going to be available at a local theater for months.. and even then, i'll still go watch it when it arrives, because cam copies just stink.
I'm curious: Do you have the foggiest idea how the Canadian government works? Are you at all aware of the implications of the minority government situation at the moment?
I ask because it sounds to me like you saw a party with a C in front of it's name and you're making assumptions from there about how they govern. From what I've seen of the Conservatives in Canada under the minority government, they've slowly been doing exactly the things they said they were going to do: Reducing costs, reducing taxes, and governing a nation.
They claim they're going to have us debt neutral within a decade. If that's the case, we're not looking at a Reagan or a Bush or a Bush II. That being the case, it's irresponsible to compare the two governments on the basis of one dirty 'c' word.
It's been a long time.
My town doesn't show english movies, and I don't want to watch American or English Canadian movies dubbed in french.
So my choices are to either:
- drive for about 6 hours (2 hours going, 2 hours coming back + 2 hours stuck in Montreal's traffic) to watch the movie in english, which I won't do since it's insanely expensive (fuel+time+movie ticket)
- download the movie in english and watch it at home (no money for Hollywood)
- wait for the movie to come out on DVD and rent it (no money for Hollywood, at least directly)
So either they come out with an FM transmission system for theatres (one FM station for english dialogue, one FM station for french dialogue, bring your own headset, bring/rent a receiver), or I'll have to download the movie (illegally if I want to watch the movie without anyone spoiling it for me once it's out) or I try to avoid any movie conversations with people until it comes out on DVD and I can rent and watch it (6 months later).
That's ridiculous. They're not losing sales from people who will watch a crappy cam (and I don't care how high the relative quality is -- they're still crappy). People who want to see the movie will still go to the theater to see it, and people who don't, won't, regardless of whether or not it's available as a 350MB torrent with people standing up in front of the camera and the filmer caughing into the mic. I find it much more plausible that they're losing DVD sales from DVD rips, and those aren't limited to any particular country other than the first in which it becomes available (typically the US, I'd guess). As for box office sales, I'm guessing the craptastic selection of movies has more to do with perceived "losses" than anything else. Cam's just make a good scapegoat, and if they did not exist, Hollywood would blame the war in Iraq for being too exciting, or something. "Damn you W., you're providing unfair competition for our viewing audience!"
https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere
Stephen King tried this with a book a few years back. I'm trying to locate further info, but without any success...
I suppose that shows how either he was ahead of his time, or that the model doesn't work in todays economy.
"Be afraid to die until you have won some victory for humanity" -Horace Mann