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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.
... but where the hell is the correlation between a preview and a pirated full copy of a movie?
We figured out a long time ago that it's easier to elect seven judges than to elect 132 legislators.
Promotional Previews are specifically released in order to help promote the film through positive word of mouth and newspaper reviews..
Do they really think this is somehow going to help them make more revenue if there's no buzz on the street, amongst friends and no reviews in papers?
Talk about stupid. The movie industry seems as stupid as the RIAA labels..
MABASPLOOM!
Prediction: by August, there'll be a press release noting that revenues for Ocean's Thirteen and Harry Potter were low, and that it'sss all the faults of those tricksy pirateses stealing their preciousss, and that (surprise, surprise), the only solution is that the Canadian government "harmonize" its rules with the US by passing something equivalent to (or worse than) the DMCA.
Now what can we do as a nation to get them to pull their crappy movies from our theaters?
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So in an effort to curb CAMCORDER pirated videos, they are getting rid of previews which will generate word of mouth, reviews, and more sales?!? It's not like we're talking about copied DVDs, or direct rips with full Dolby 7.1 surround sound, we're talking about PoC hand held camera recordings with a single audio channel, wiggling around through out the movie, with people blocking a chunk of the screen and audience noise over the movie...
I hate to break it to them, but anyone who is watching a copy of a movie from that medium was not in a position to actually buy a ticket or DVD.
-Rick
"Most people in the U.S. wouldn't know they live in a tyrannical state if it walked up and grabbed their junk." - MyFirs
Most of the quality rips you find on bitorrent and such are actually ripped from inside the projection room as opposed to down in the audience. This won't cut back on pre-release copies in the slightest, and honestly I'd bet most of the copies floating around now are from the US and not Canada. This is mostly a PR thing to try and pressure the Canadian government into bending over and lubing up for the MPAA, and has nothing at all to do with piracy.
Curiosity was framed, Ignorance killed the cat.
the term previews is used frequently for the trailers, commercials, etc. that are shown prior to the beginning of a film. i've been in theaters where they have their canned deal and it will say something about 'following the previews'. i don't know if this is common across all of the u.s. but it is how i have heard it used in each of the areas where i have lived in the u.s.
occasionally I've had passes to showings of films a week or two before they came out - and i always have had to explain to people that it was an 'early showing' or some such. if I just said preview, they wouldn't know what I meant, so I think the usage is pretty common.
It's hard to believe that's how Micronians are made. Why don't we see it right now by having you both kiss one another?
That's all there is to this...the only people who will be hit by this are the movie critics, and the MPAA is hoping they will raise a fuss about this...I *hope* the critics have a clue about this, and don't take the bait....
ttyl
Farrell
CAN-CON 2019 - Ottawa's only book oriented Science Fiction Convention! October 18-20, Sheraton Hotel, Ottawa, Canada h
Can't say I was really looking forward to seeing Oceans Thirteen. Twelve just struck me as party amongst the upper echelons of Really Really Really Good Looking® society flouncing around in their "aren't we simply FABULOUS darling?" way while deigning to let us watch. One also gets tired of Mr. Clooney being the Sexiest Man In The History of This Planet or Any Other Since His Personal Image Consultant Taught Him to Stop Wiggling His Head Like That.
More to the point, if Warner thinks they can push Canada around with their fabricated numbers they are in for a surprise. The US isn't necessarily every Canadian's favourite country right now and bully tactics are likely to backfire. Plus, if Harper caves he will be judged as an American tody-boy and his Conservatives will find themselves back in the political outhouse for another 15 years, the same way they were after Mulroney sang Danny Boy to Regan like some desperately sycophantic wiener. Harper knows that so he won't be able to make our laws Just Like America, much as he'd love to.
You have to realize that Canada gave away a lot to get the softwood lumber deal, just to see American industry continue to sue us us, obstruct business, and pay off the government to ignore it's own obligations under NAFTA. Canadians are cheesed about this, among other things, so the idea of a puffed up American lawyer dictating how we should run our country is...unwelcome.
So to my American friends, don't worry, we'll take care of business on our end. It would really help, though, if you could slap these Napoleonic dweebs down a bit yourselves.
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