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."

Comments

This is a "Placed" PR piece

[davecb]

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

This smacks of political timing

[thatguywhoiam]

Here's the deal. Bev Oda, who is our Heritage Minister (in charge of cultural things like copyright) is being hammered right now from a few different sides, mostly stirred up by her arch enemy, Ottawa copyfighter Prof. Michael Geist. She's in the pocket of all five big record labels, most of her political donations come directly from them (via CRIA). So I'm guessing this story is a plant.

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.

Re:Due South

[purpledinoz]

This is total BS. Has anyone been to any country in South East asia? I've been to Malaysia recently, and I had a hard time finding legit DVD stores. 99% of DVDs I saw were pirated DVDs. When I found a place where legit DVDs and CDs were being sold, I immediately realized why people don't buy legit movies/CDs. They're WAAAY overpriced. CDs/DVDs were being sold for the same price as in Canada. I saw a CD for 45RM (which is about $15 CDN). Which is fine for me, but the average Malaysian makes 3 to 5 times less money than an average Canadian. Imagine paying $50 for a CD. That's what it's like for a Malaysian to buy a legit CD/DVD. Of course they're going to pirate. No one can afford to buy a legit CD/DVD.