Slashdot Mirror
UK Copyright Group Tells Cinemas to Ban Laptops
Sockatume writes "Cinema chain Cineworld now has a policy banning anyone from carrying a laptop into a theatre, even if it is not used. The management claims that this is an anti-piracy move on the advice of the Federation Against Copyright Theft, the much-mocked source of all kinds of dubious anti-piracy statements. When it was pointed out that the laptop had no camera, the management made a temporary exception. For customers, the message is clear: leave your laptop in the car. For pirates, the message is clear: there is more money to be made slinking around cinema car parks looking for laptop bags."
Yes it is. Think about it.
Copyright has value, specifically derived from demand, which is people who want something but who don't have it. The value is finite, since demand is finite. When you pirate, you strip away a piece of demand and thus value (mathematically equal to the price of the item multiplied by the probability that you would have bought it anyway), and this value is transferred straight to the pirate. The copyright holder is left with something worth slightly less, and the life of the pirate is slightly better. This is, of course, assuming you don't keep the chain of piracy going...
So, yeah, it's stealing. Stealing by degrees.
You know, there is a difference between trolling and pointing out the flaws in your reasoning. Just saying.