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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.

5 of 273 comments (clear)

  1. 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.

  2. 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?

    --
    Kwisatz Haderach
    Sell the spice to CHOAM
    This Mahdi took Shaddam's Throne
  3. 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.
  4. 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.

    --
    Let's stop dilly-dallying and just change "-1: Overrated" to "-1: Disagree" or "-1: Doesn't Subscribe to Groupthink".
  5. 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.