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Warner Brothers Pulls Canadian Previews

Posted by kdawson on from the camcorders-eh dept.

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.

11 of 273 comments (clear)

  1. Maybe I missed something... by Corpuscavernosa · · Score: 4, Insightful

    ... but where the hell is the correlation between a preview and a pirated full copy of a movie?

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  2. Shooting themselves in the foot by neoform · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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..

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    MABASPLOOM!
    1. Re:Shooting themselves in the foot by compro01 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      they're trying to reduce sales. then they can claim that teh ebil PIRAT3S! are stealing everything and convince the government that they need to "modernize" canadian copyright and IP laws.

      it's not stupid. it's moderately smart and it seems to be working quite well in the US.

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  3. Self-fulfilling prophecy by Tackhead · · Score: 5, Insightful
    > the studio said it will immediately halt all "promotional and word-of-mouth screenings"

    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.

  4. Awesome! by jollyreaper · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Now what can we do as a nation to get them to pull their crappy movies from our theaters?

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    1. Re:Awesome! by CodeMunch · · Score: 4, Insightful
      Buy Cuban cigars - that's what I'll be doing with my Ocean's 13 pittance.

      I'd rather support our godawful tobacco taxes than let those wankers try to dictate how our fair use should work.

  5. WTF are they thinking?! by RingDev · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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
    1. Re:WTF are they thinking?! by superbus1929 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      No, this isn't about any sort of legitimate concern; this is a political move.

      Warner - and the MPAA by extension - want control of Canada the way they have control of America. This is a political tool to get publicity, and get a few ignorant members or a Tory Parliament to bite and draft up a version of the DMCA for Canada.

      The message is clear: assimilate or else.

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    2. Re:WTF are they thinking?! by Fallingcow · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Exactly.

      This has nothing to do with what they say it does, and everything to do with making everyone think that Canada is some major rogue when it comes to IP law. This move is, itself, an advertisement for their political position.

  6. Re:Seems straightforward to me by orclevegam · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.
  7. Publicity Stunt by MPAA by farrellj · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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

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