Slashdot Mirror
Warner Brothers Pulls Canadian Previews
A number of readers let us know that Reuters and others are reporting that Warner Brothers is canceling movie previews in Canadian theaters, starting with Oceans Thirteen. A Warner VP said, "Within the first week of a film's release, you can almost be certain that somewhere out there a Canadian copy will show up." Recently, the International Intellectual Property Association placed Canada on its Priority Watch List, along with the likes of Argentina, China, Russia, Turkey, and Venezuela. This community knows, thanks to Michael Geist, that the claim is mostly ficiton.
Those are called trailers, and they're not stopping those. They're canceling early screenings of new movies.
... On theglobeandmail.com below:
M .20070508.WBmingram20070508112009/WBStory/WBmingra m
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGA
The Globe And Mail is one of Canada's largest daily newspapers and has some amount of influence. Also, Mathew Ingram is somewhat influential in the "blogisphere" up north. I think he's hit the nail on the head. Too bad the studios won't be paying attention.
This is my opinion. To make sure you don't steal it, it's covered by the DMCA.
to Harpo to "harmonize" Canadian copyright laws with the U.S. This is part of his "deep integration" hidden agenda he's going to implement the second he gets a majority government. You know, all of those "extra" laws Canada has on the books that "hinder" trade? He's already sold the tar sands to the oil barons lock, stock and barrel.
Don't forget, the "piracy" claims come from an industry whose reputation for "creative accounting" is cited as examples of such in accounting textbooks!
I disagree with you. I think that this is an excellent move by the film industry and should be encouraged. In fact, they should take it to the logical conclusion and stop making commercial movies altogether. That would prevent piracy. Movies suck. Do not cripple the 100 billion/yr computer industry that creates jobs for families to save the 5 billion/yr movie industry that creates trash and destroys families.
Avoid Missing Ball for High Score
There seems to be a lot of confusion here. I take it they don't do this in the US.
In Britain (and I assume also in Canada), there's often a showing before the release date. Usually a day early, sometimes a week early. This is usualyl billed as a "special preview" or something to hype it up and to make people feel they're getting something special. Actually it usually just means the effective release date is the day before the posters claim.
So perhaps the headline should read "Movie piracy delays Canadian Release by up to a week".
First, it amazes me that someone could continue to give credence to the movie industry's, when provided with a clear and concise debunking of those arguments such as Michael Geist's. Second, you're completely wrong. The movie studios tried to do marking of the type that you describe. In order to do it in a way that would allow it to work even after the movie had been camcorded and compressed, it was a pattern of big colored blobs visible to moviegoers. It failed, completely and utterly. If the studios put the identifying marks in unimportant scenese, the pirates cut it out of the video they released. If they put it in important scenes, fans complained. As far as I'm aware, those colored blobs aren't used anymore, for those two reasons. A video watermark that survives camcording and compression, such as what you describe, is as fictional as the the rest of the industry's arguments.
Not only were the British still here afterwards, you lot had to rebuild the White House after we'd burned it down.
You didn't meet your objectives
I'm in Canada. Cuban items are allowed for sale here. It was meant as a poke in the eye to their industry.