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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."
It's funny they had no problems with mobile phones that certainly have good cameras now a days, but with a laptop. Oh well, maybe that changes soon too.
I'm just waiting them to take off our eyes while in movie theatre.
Important caveat, neatly snipped from the start of the post.
No kidding!!! What do you say at this point?
Because when you start watching the movie and realize it was a waste of your money, you can fire up the laptop and watch a different one.
Banning laptops in a theatre to stop people from recording movies in a theatre makes about as much sense as banning people from drinking if they possess a valid drivers license because they could decide to drive home (the irony that one actually usually uses a driver's license to prove one's legal drinking age notwithstanding).
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
Or maybe conveniently located rentable lockers will start showing up at the theater, which you can pay to store all your potentially infringing devices. Dump your laptop, phone, and any pens or pencils which may be used to write down dialogue. Also, when you leave the theater, please make sure to stop by our convenient memory erasing station, so that you don't carry unauthorized memories out of the theater.
"Anyone who [rips a CD] is probably engaging in copyright infringement." - David O. Carson
I tend to walk to the cinema. I've also known people travel by bus and train. This is not the US. People don't all drive everywhere.
While it seems like a rather silly policy, why on earth would people be taking their laptops into the movie theater? Are there that many occasions when people don't go home prior to going to a movie?
You don't have a job, do you?
From summary: For pirates, the message is clear: there is more money to be made slinking around cinema car parks looking for laptop bags.
What? Sigh. Once again, all together now: Piracy is not stealing.
So that advice is for thieves, not pirates. But wait, there's one more oddity in the same sentence: "more money" - which assumes that money is made at all by piracy. It's sad that even among the IT elite (/.), such myths are propagated.
L'homme est né libre, et partout il est dans les fers.
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I can't wait until they try to ban the man with the camera in his eye.
I'm sure he doesn't welcome his new robotic eyeball's overlords.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
My laptop always travels in my backpack wherever I go because I use it all the time, I'm always out and about. Before a movie I don't want to go all the way home to drop it off, and I cannot leave it at work without losing access to it until the next work day. The policy really puts a damper on portability for anyone who wants to be entertained by a movie. It's a step backward for a foolish reason.
The rest of us will forego the spanish inquisition, the extortionate prices and the hassle in general of getting parked and bothering to go to the cinema, we will instead sit at home watching our bootlegged copy, pausing it to go to the loo and still have the poeple walking infront of the screen, laughing and coughing.
Actually I feel like doing piracy vs cinema:
Cinema:
Pros
Cons:
Piracy:
Pros:
Cons:
Well, where I live, we have subways, bus, and a great transportation system. I don't need a car, and yet I travel with my laptop. And I see a lot of people doing the same in the bus and subway. So much for sarcasms huh.
Wow, way to be auto-centric. What about all the people who don't drive to the theater? And for that matter, who the fuck are you to say what is or is not a valid reason? I most certainly have gone to a movie directly from work; I have had many jobs which do not require me to dress like a trained monkey. And working from home is not the only reason to take a laptop back and forth; for a while I used my last work laptop as my home system too, because I was between powerful computers at home, and they did not mind.
I think your comment is the most arrogant thing I've seen on slashdot in days. Not getting any at home?
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Yes lots of people do strange things like go watch a movie, go to a bar, go to a restaurant, go to the grocery store, etc. on their way home from work.
Students sometimes even go watch a movie after studying at the library and so on.
There's no plan to use the laptop, they just don't want to leave it in the car to get stolen. Or they're catching the subway and don't have a car to put it in.
For customers, the message is clear: leave your laptop in the car.
I have a better answer: When they ask you to put your laptop in your car, ask for your money back and leave. Is it really worth being treated like a criminal to see that movie right now? Customer service matters. If the proprietor of some establishment is a dick, don't give him your money.
Stop-Prism.org: Opt Out of Surveillance
I wonder if this has more to do with the Twitter effect (see Brüno) than stopping piracy.
It seems rather implausible (to be generous) that someone would try to illegally film a movie using a crappy webcam on your average laptop (particularly if they manage to do it with the laptop in the bag). If you think about how a laptop is likely to hurt them financially, the reason should be pretty clear.
Aside from the obvious absurdity of someone trying to record a movie with their laptop -- how much of a problem are off-screen recordings for the movie industry? I may be naive -- but I really have a hard time imagining someone saying -- "I was gonna go see this movie in the theater, but I have a copy that someone recorded with a video camera in the theater! This is just as good! Now I don't need to go see it!"
Am I missing something here, or are these anti-piracy groups really that dense?
To the haters: You can't win. If you mod me down, I shall become more powerful than you could possibly imagine
Well they don't really need to send a blinding light at the camera.. they can just project (near-)IR light from the projection booth, make it vary randomly in intensity, and all but the most well-equipped cameras (with a *very* decent IR blocker that can at least block the frequency used by the theatre; no, the standard IR blocker does not cover this, as pointing a TV remote at your camera will show) record utter junk.
It's even a relatively cheap solution; certainly cheaper than having personnel run around with nightvision goggles trying to catch people, or checking people's bags and banning cameras, etc.
But in the end, it still only takes 1 person - a projectionist not adhering to policy, a print shop that has a mysterious 'leak', a review board member wanting some extra crash - to get a transfer to a format that distribution groups can use, and the whole world will have access in no time.
Where I live we have trains, bus, and a great transportation system. I don't need a car either, I walk. I have never seen anyone bring a laptop to a movie theater, ever. So much for sarcasms [sic].
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Or maybe conveniently located rentable lockers will start showing up at the theater, which you can pay to store all your potentially infringing devices.
Ooooo - I like that idea. Then, while you're in the theater, the duly authorized officials from the RIAA and MPAA can search your hard drive for stolen music and movies. :)
Stop-Prism.org: Opt Out of Surveillance
"After a short time a small boy appeared. Sorry I said, I want to see the manager.
It turns out the small boy was the manager."
Yeah... that kinda makes you sound like a prick. Waving around a BBC ID like it makes you special and somehow exempt from the rules everyone else has to follow isn't the most endearing quality either.
Who are these people who watch theater video camera recordings of movies? That's really sad. At leaste be a self-respecting pirate and get a decent copy.
many small laptops can fit inside large coat pockets. anyone with a backpack may have a laptop. no one walks on the sidewalk with their shiny laptop cradled in their hands unprotected. so of course you don't see anyone carrying a laptop to any theater: they're securely under covers 99% of the time
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
Gee gosh. You meet your wife/friend/furry-afficionado after work, have dinner and then go to movie. In your briefcase you have your notebook.
God dammit, that just ruined any desire I had to go see "Where the Wild Things Are"
"Lack of speed can be overcome. In the worst case by patience." --Znork
I don't have a car. I commute by bus and ferry. There's a Cineworld on my way home that I frequent, but now cannot as I carry my laptop to work every day (I use it to get in a bit of work/browsing on the 2 x 30 minute ferry crossing daily commute).
Cineworld Southampton have therefore just lost my business. This is particularly stupid of them, as quite often (even with newly released films) I can count the audience members on my fingers.
Myself and friends used to emit a fairly loud "Yarrrrrrrrrrr" every time a "Piracy is a crime" warning came up at the cinema. Sometimes even heard an answering one from across the cinema.
Don't know how it is in other chains but at Vue cinemas in the UK they now use night vision cameras to monitor the people watching the film. ]I once saw a spoof anti-piracy ad involving night vision and silenced sniper rifles - life imitating satire, so I guess I know the next step.
Secondly, this monitoring strikes me as being like the millimetre wave scanners at airports. Sure it's nominally for justifiable purposes but every time I see a message saying they're monitoring us with night vision for copyright purposes I have a mental image of a couple making out in the dark at the back of a cinema and a security guard in an office somewhere watching them using light-enhancing CCTV going "Oooh, go on! You dirty minx! Oooh, you like that, do you?". Seriously, copyright or not, it's not OK to watch cinema goers watching the film - that's plain just creepy.
One week a month, I get paid extra for being at most 15 min away from ssh 24/7. So I have to carry a laptop and a 3G usb key at all times.
Of course I don't go to the movies anymore, the experience sucks so much with all the stupid jerks talking and/or forgetting to turn off their phone.
How about people who live in the city and walk or use public transportation?
What about people who own hatchbacks and are not comfortable leaving a laptop bag out in the car?
The movie industry is only making "pirated" content even more superior to the "genuine" product. They're missing the fact that most of the pre-release torrents are coming from their employees or from DVD replication houses to begin with.
The Christian Right is Neither (Christian nor right). See: Matthew 23, Matthew 25, Ezekiel 16:48-50
Maybe that's because they leave them in their bags instead of holding them up in the air and waving them around while shouting "Hey, everybody, look at my laptop!"
Just a thought.
Unless you were trying to say that you have never, ever seen anyone bring a bag more than 30 cm wide into a movie theatre, in which case I would have to ask you just what kind of movies legally bind people enjoy.
the standard IR blocker does not cover this, as pointing a TV remote at your camera will show)
Oh wow, I didn't know this, that's nifty. Purple lights! Woo!
Ezekiel 23:20
Where can I get this free popcorn and soda? And on a related note, where is all this free beer the OSS people keep talking about?
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...please make sure to stop by our convenient memory erasing station, so that you don't carry unauthorized memories out of the theater.
Where was this device when I made the mistake of seeing 'Ultraviolet'? /shudders
There's no need for the condescension. I have never seen someone bring a laptop into a movie theater either and I can see perfectly well. Then again, most of the theaters around here won't let you in with a bag larger than a small purse since they want to prevent people bringing in outside food much more so than piracy. A manager at one theater was even fired a few years back because she was demanding to have people turn out their pockets and open their purses to reveal any candy or drinks they might be trying to sneak in. I almost thought she was kidding when she demanded to see what I had in my pocket. Compared to how unfriendly our movie theaters are, this does seem kind of tame.
So yeah, depending on where you live it might be perfectly reasonable to never see someone bring a laptop into a movie theater.
No piracy, problem solved.
Is that a candy bar in your pocket, or are you just happy see this movie?
First of all, the chances of that happening are extremely low. Second, if it was happening there is nothing you could do about it from the movie theater. That's why you hired the baby sitter. If you're really so worried, you could just not go to the movies in the first place.
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Either he's using the UK definition of "fag" (aka "cigarette"), or this dude really knows how to throw a party.
Actually you could flood the theatre with IR and have a legitimate reason. Disney's venues have Hearing Assistance headphones that receive IR signals. If you look up at various locations you will see black boxes with little clear nubs all over it.
open source sub sim. I might start coding again for this. http://dangerdeep.sourceforge.net/contribute/