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."

Comments

This is why I don't go to movie theatres

[Anonymous Coward]

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

Re:This is why I don't go to movie theatres

[Z00L00K]

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.

Re:This is why I don't go to movie theatres

[Solandri]

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.

Re:This is why I don't go to movie theatres

[DigiShaman]

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.

how much lost really?

[gmack]

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.

Re:how much lost really?

[Frosty Piss]

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...

So

[penguinoid]

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

Re:The Stupid Brits can do what they want... but..

[50000BTU_barbecue]

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