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British Movie Theater Staff To Wear Night-Vision Goggles To Combat Movie Piracy

Ewan Palmer writes: Movie theater across the UK will be required to don military-style night vision goggles in order to help crack down on movie piracy ahead of the release of potential box office smashes such as Spectre and Hunger Games. The initiative is part new measures to combat piracy as in recent years, pirates have found new and inventive ways to illegally record movies while using a smartphone to film through a popcorn box. Kieron Sharp, director general of the Federation Against Copyright Theft (FACT), said: "The bigger the film and the more anticipated it is, the higher-risk it is. We have staff on extra alert for that. James Bond is a big risk and we will be working with cinema operators and the distributors making sure we will keep that as tight as possible. We really don't want to see that recorded. They [cinema staff] are on alert to really drill down on who is in the auditorium and who might possibly be recording. They still do the sweeps around the auditoriums with the night vision glasses regardless of the film. But sometimes extra security is put in place for things like Bond."

16 of 279 comments (clear)

  1. This is why I don't go to movie theatres by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    and only get my movies at the pirate bay. No hassles. No real spying. God loves AMERICA! The POPE is here!

    1. Re:This is why I don't go to movie theatres by Z00L00K · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The movies pirated at theaters are usually low quality and not very interesting to watch due to all the quality issues.

      Also consider the possibility that piracy of movies at the theaters may be performed by the employees themselves whenever that happens.

      --
      If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker would destroy civilization.
    2. Re:This is why I don't go to movie theatres by Solandri · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The high quality pirated movies are shot by theater employees using a camera on a tripod in the projection room (so the screen isn't distorted from a perfect rectangle) with a direct audio feed (so you get only the movie soundtrack - no people talking or coughing).

      So basically all this will do is increase the quality of pirated movies by weeding out the poorly-shot cellphone movies, and give the theater staff some cool toys to play with while they're pirating the movie.

    3. Re:This is why I don't go to movie theatres by Feral+Nerd · · Score: 2, Insightful

      The movies pirated at theaters are usually low quality and not very interesting to watch due to all the quality issues.

      Also consider the possibility that piracy of movies at the theaters may be performed by the employees themselves whenever that happens.

      I agree 100%, what kind of a miserly dork would watch a pirated movie recorded with a smartphone in a cinema. The amount of effort spent by the paranoid dickheads that seem to rule the media industry on preventing this sort of piracy is completely out of all proportion to the small amount of damage it does. It's a bit like swatting flies with a 12 gauge shotgun.

    4. Re:This is why I don't go to movie theatres by DigiShaman · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Yeah! Because theft of other peoples labor is so hip and cool!

      Hey asshole, why don't you at least take the time to, you know, actually pay for the product/service? You could always rent the movie later. It's a really neat concept in that the actors, staff, and the industry as a whole earns a profit thus growing it. It also puts food on table and keeps a roof over their family. Don't think you will would ever pay to watch a specific movie anyways? Perhaps then you shouldn't watch it either.

      --
      Life is not for the lazy.
    5. Re:This is why I don't go to movie theatres by DigiShaman · · Score: 4, Insightful

      No, that's your conclusion, not mine. What I said was, these people work in a capitalistic enterprising industry that's predicated on earning a profit. They work and stake their livelihoods on this paradigm. They do not have a right to earn successes anymore than you have a right to steal the fruits of their labor.

      I have no problem with you watching freely available content so long as those involved consented to its availability to you. But when someone creates a product and expect payment in return for consuming said product, to cheat the system is morally wrong.

      --
      Life is not for the lazy.
  2. how much lost really? by gmack · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If someone is so cheap that they will watch something recorded from a cell phone I'm guessing they will never be paying customers no matter what happens.

    1. Re:how much lost really? by Frosty+Piss · · Score: 4, Insightful

      This is why this phenomenon has never interested me. I mean really? A bad shaky out of focus version of a movie that I will be able to see on NetFlix in less than 6 months? Sure...

      --
      If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
  3. Really necessary? by exomondo · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I can't imagine that many people will eschew going to the movies for a smartphone camera recording. Maybe for screeners and Telecine rips but cam versions? Really?

  4. So by penguinoid · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Pirates will just switch from crappy low-res idiot-talking-on-the-phone theater recordings to high-quality pre-release torrents.

    --
    Don't waste your vote! Vote for whoever you want, unless you live in a swing state it won't matter anyways
  5. How about.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    How about keeping the movies goers out of the theatre, that will stop the piracy.

    Or yet...
    DONT make the actual film (expensive messy business and all that)
    Make a few "clips" and based on their popularity estimate the number of tickets sold.
    Deny anyone going to the movies (they must all be pirates after all, so its only reasonable)
    If you use Investor State clauses you could sue the government for expected losses based on the estimate of tickets that might have been sold.

    BOOM... profits through the roof, which when put into contact with Hollywood accountants turns into a loss so you can screw the tax payers again.

    No movie = zero piracy..... war has been won.

  6. Why? by TsuruchiBrian · · Score: 3, Insightful

    All it takes is for one lapse in security, not necessarily in your theater or even your country, and all the time and money spent trying to prevent that movie from leaking is wasted.

    This would be like buying a car alarm that self destructs if any car in the entire world is stolen.

  7. Re:The Stupid Brits can do what they want... but.. by 50000BTU_barbecue · · Score: 4, Insightful

    No, government is just the publicly-funded private police for the corporations. Thank Milton Friedman for that!

    --
    Mostly random stuff.
  8. Re: Or... let there be light! by TsuruchiBrian · · Score: 3, Insightful

    But it's not "required" that there be any IR light for the camera to work. Just like how cameras don't "require" fireworks or "rely on" fireworks even though some features only work on fireworks.

  9. Re:Or... let there be light! by GigaplexNZ · · Score: 3, Insightful
    So you're suggesting that since the MPAA isn't funding the IR LED banks, the theatres need expensive night vision goggles instead?

    I've seen people in the theater recording films with their smartphone, and the theater staff do nothing. The way you do this is by making sure that theater tickets assign seats, and have a "snich" app that reports the film, showing and seat of the pirate. eg "2 rows ahead and 4 seats to the right (of me|row)" and thus allow the theater manager to call law enforcement if needed.

    And how can you be sure they're actually filming it rather than just obnoxiously holding up their phone (using IM or something) without using the camera?

  10. So they already fuck the colours and.... by ruir · · Score: 3, Insightful

    This night googles have been used for years in the USA. So they jack you in price for sitting you in a glorified garage, already fuck the movie colours for it "not to be copied" to the point that for instance, the chromatic of several movies are definitely odd even when watching the original both on cinema and TV (Resident Evil, Chronicles of Ridick and Book of Eli comes to mind), and now they handle you as the enemy in the combat field, and teens cannot go there dating and petting without giving an hard on to the employees. I have not been in a cinema for years, and sure wont be in a near future. For me, it would be some place better than home, and not worse. A living room, they serving me lobster with me with I watched a movie, and with some naked female waiters, and I might reconsider it. Otherwise, I wont be paying to enter a glorified prison system. They are forgetting it is not your great-grandfathers time where they were awed by movies, nowadays we all have entertaining systems at home.