Slashdot Mirror
More Performers Are Demanding Audiences Lock Up Their Phones (nytimes.com)
More performers -- and other venues -- are discovering a new anti-piracy technology called Yondr -- including comedian Dave Chappelle. Slashdot reader HughPickens.com quotes the New York Times:
Fans are required to place their cellphones into Yondr's form-fitting lockable pouch when entering the show, and a disk mechanism unlocks it on the way out. Fans keep the pouch with them, but it is impossible to snap pictures, shoot videos or send text messages during the performance while the pouch is locked.
'I know my show is protected, and it empowers me to be more honest and open with the audience,' says Dave Chappelle...But some fans object to not being able to disseminate and see live shows via videotape...
"In this day and age, my phone is how I keep my memory," one live-music fan told the Washington Post, adding "If you don't want your music heard, then don't perform it." But the device is becoming more common, and according to the Times it's now also being used at weddings, restaurants, schools, and when movies are being prescreened.
'I know my show is protected, and it empowers me to be more honest and open with the audience,' says Dave Chappelle...But some fans object to not being able to disseminate and see live shows via videotape...
"In this day and age, my phone is how I keep my memory," one live-music fan told the Washington Post, adding "If you don't want your music heard, then don't perform it." But the device is becoming more common, and according to the Times it's now also being used at weddings, restaurants, schools, and when movies are being prescreened.
.. holding mobiles and tablets. That is why I do not go to concerts anymore.
I'm guessing the man would be all for tying a body camera to every police officer on earth, but god help you if you point a camera at HIM. Do that and you'll have to put it in a DRM-enabled "satchel" and pay a few hundred bucks for a ticket to see his drugged out ass.
Maybe someone should mention to Chappelle that he hasn't been relevant since he literally clicked his heels three times and went back to Africa.
That's one Olympic-level strawman you've built there - probably gold-medal caliber!
Are you too dumb to see the difference between police officers - agents of the GOVERNMENT who we HAVE to deal with - being required to videotape their interactions with citizens and a PRIVATE performer that you only get to see on HIS TERMS and who NO ONE IS FORCING YOU TO SEE?
Or maybe you just trust that those government agents known as "police" will always do the right thing?
Not wasting a cent on any performer who engages in this nonsense.
Good. You stick to your guns and never go to another live show again.
I'm sick of people like you trying to film shows and blocking my view. Instead of me being able to enjoy a show, I have the experience stolen from me so while some narcissistic tool holds their iPad above their head to take shakycam footage with abysmal audio, and all I can see is their poorly exposed image on the iPad's screen.
It's a LIVE performance. The entire point of the exercise is what's happening right in front of you at that very second. Whatever you're recording on your phone or iPad is a miserable substitute. Try actually paying attention to the show instead of fiddling with your widget.
One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors - Plato
Been better if the audience just said a collective "Fuck you" and walked out...
I'll now ask you to kindly elaborate as to exactly how your recommendation would have helped anyone.
You can try and make a point about being an "adult" and "choices" and all the usual BS excuses, but nothing you will bring forth can excuse the stupidity of paying a LOT of money to see a live performer in order to disrespect and ignore the piss out of them and their performance all evening with a cell phone in your face or theirs.
Or someone will upload the video to youtube or bittorent... where others will watch the show and guess what? Fewer ticket sales. If money was not an issue, most of these performers would not mind cameras. But they have to make a living... so no cameras, no piracy.
Nonsense argument. The Grateful Dead was a band that allowed recordings of their concerts and it didn't affect attendance one bit as far as anyone can tell. They cultivated a genuine relationship with their fans unlike too many of the overly entitled "artists" we see today. If a crappy cell phone recording of your concert makes people want to go less then you probably weren't selling anything worth attending in the first place. A good concert cannot remotely be replicated by a shaky video taken on an iPad. I think a lot of performers are trying to hide behind this stuff to cover their lack of actual ability and the poor value for money of their concerts.
Like emergencies. Can the phones be retrieved quickly enough in the "fog of war". Can a police situation be recorded?
Are you one of those people who panic when the little notification on the phone says "No Service"? I know several who have become so worried by the "what if" scenarios that they get all nervous even if it dips out of LTE these days. I do have personal experience in students losing letter grades because they wouldn't put their cellphones in a pouch for a required lecture attendance. Which is all to say that they were more worried about (fill in the blank) than passing a course
This isn't aimed at you specifically, but what I am seeing in society. If it is so important to you as an individual that you never are witout immediate access to that little smartphone, you probably shouldn't go to any shows. Something that 20 years ago didn't exist is now controlling your life, and as likely as not, you don't feel even a little more secure.
That's why I am really concerned about the home surveillance systems offered today. They always show some parent - usually a mother, all pleased and relieved because the surveillance camera shows her children getting home from school, or the pets are safe.
If this follows the smartphone path, mom or dad will be checking more and more often - after all "what if one of the children hurts themselves while I'm not looking, or what if a burglar or rapist breaks into the house at that moment when I'm not watching?" So next thing you know, mom and dad are paranoid as all hell, and watching over their house at all times. Work/vacation/ during sex....
If smartphones are any indicator, this is the future.
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
Don't like it? Vote with your wallet. Don't attend concerts / shows that require you to lock up your phone. You won't be missed by anybody.
Slashdot still doesnâ(TM)t support Unicode after it was added to the HTML standard in 1997.