The TIFF, BS and night vision googles
p2pnet news Movies | Entertainment:- “For all the art and glitz of the Toronto International Film Festival, there’s a darker presence that’s not really talked about,” writes Guy Dixon in the Globe and Mail.
“It lurks in the corner, just out of sight …”
A representative of the porn industry, mayhap?
Nope. And there’s more than one.
It/they is/are, “watchers wielding night-vision goggles to other anti-piracy measures too secret for the festival to even talk about publicly – all of which are used to try to guard against illegal camcording and other piracy breaches as the festival screens its roster of 349 films,” says the story.
Ah, Yes.
Canada is, after all, the haven for camcording pirates.
At least, that’s what Hollywood says, and in a voice loud enough to make Canadian prime minister George W. Harper sit up sharply and pay attention.
Because after intensive lobbying on the part of Hollywood-flavoured US politicians and others with similar vested interests, the Canadian government adopted a new law making it a crime to use hand-held cameras to copy movies in cinemas.
“A law passed in June makes it a Criminal Code offence, punishable by up to two years in prison, to record a film in a movie theatre,” points out the Golbe & Nail, which continues to be front and centre in supporting Hollywood’s incursion into Canadian politics.
“If it can be proven that the intent is to sell copies of the recording, the punishment rises to a maximum of five years,” it states.
America itself has been named by at least one statistics gatherer as home to the vast majority of those who allegedly film the flicks in situ and then, by various means, peddle them illegally around the world.
But no matter and meanwhile, the G&M story continues:
“We do have very stringent security policies around anti-piracy,” said Natalie Lue, the festival’s director of operations and theatres. “The problem is that I can’t really go into them. That would be folly.”
However, she did note a few. For instance, in addition to hiring a number of security firms, there are the festival’s legion of volunteers. They are instructed on how to handle anyone recording a film or a tip by an audience member that someone may be wielding a camcorder.
Ms. Lue said no one has been caught at this festival, but the night-vision goggles did discover a couple who had a video phone out. They were asked to leave the theatre.”
HA!
Caught in the act!
But, No.
“Security checked the phone’s memory and found nothing,” admits the story.
Anti-pirate John Malcolm runs the MPAA’s (Motion Picture Association of America) worldwide anti-piracy operations and, “There is no question that pirate syndicates place a premium on – and they pay for that premium – to get early, high-quality copies of films,” he’s quoted as saying firmly.
But while Malcolm and music spindustry others claim the major studios are suffering terribly and are being forced to lay off support workers in their droves, in March, “Time Warner, Viacom, Fox, Sony, NBC Universal and Disney reported record revenues and now,” p2pnet posted recently, going on to quote the BBC as saying:
Summer box office takings in North America have broken the $4bn (£1.98bn) barrier for the first time. Box office analysts Media By Numbers say the $4bn figure outclasses summer ticket sales of $3.95bn (£1.95bn) set in 2004.
Their estimates suggest that this summer`s box office returns will stand at $4.15bn (£2.05bn) by the time the season officially ends on 3 September.
[Psssst. If you were at any of this screenings and you thought you detected a distinctly doggy odour, it may have been MPAA canine copyright cops Lucky and Flo (picture, upper right) prowling the aisles on behalf of the MPAA.]
Jon Newton – p2pnet
Also See:
Globe and Mail – Night-vision goggles help keep pirates at bay, September 11, 2007
Hollywood-flavoured – Canada caves in to Hollywood, May 11, 2007
film the flicks in situ – America: top movie pirate, May 17, 2007
p2pnet – Hollywood`s eye-popping summer earnings, September 1, 2007
BBC – First $4bn summer for US cinema, August 27, 2007
MPAA canine copyright cops – MPAA`s Lucky and Flo in New York, August 31, 2007
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September 13th, 2007 at 6:13 am
I really can’t wait to go to a theater, and have my glasses checked, just because you can buy glasses with an embedded hidden camera inside.. You should know all people who wear glasses are criminals!