Foiling Cinema Pirates

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

------ Forwarded Message
From: Richard Forno <rforno () infowarrior org>
Date: Sat, 19 Apr 2003 10:12:04 -0400
To: Dave Farber <dave () farber net>
Subject: Foiling Cinema Pirates


I love the note about handheld PCs.  So you're telling me that someone can't
come from work straight into the theater? Metal detectors? Geez.

I'll say it again. These Hollywood folks are absolutely crazy....even if
someone records off-the-screen on a grainly 640x480 video from a Palm, does
that *really* make people not want to go see it in widescreen format with
THX surround sound and vibrations under the seat??  Come on......I saw a
piss-poor MPEG of Star Wars Episode 2 before it came to the theater, but
still paid to see the flick 3 times with friends in the theater.

Organized piracy, piracy from insiders, etc.  is a threat to
profits...college kids or someone with a PalmPilot are not.  Again,
Hollywood presumes everyone a criminal until they can be proven one in a
court of law.  Guilty until presumed guiltier. I guess that's part of the
current American philosophy of "pre-emption" of everything that *might* be
evil or bad....

Rick
Infowarrior.org

Foiling Cinema Pirates
LOS ANGELES, April 18, 2003
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/04/18/tech/printable550005.shtml

Hollywood sends enforcers with night-vision goggles into movie theaters and
puts metal detectors outside advance screening rooms, but still the industry
can't stop pirates from recording films and selling illegal copies before
their theatrical debuts.

The problem is that the pirates are adopting ever more sophisticated
technology, using tiny camcorders in purses and digital recorders about the
size of a fountain pen.

Some handheld computers "have an attachment that can record up to 122
minutes," said Jeffrey Godsick, executive vice president of marketing at
20th Century Fox. "Well, that's a whole movie in many cases. You can take
the attachment and run it through a small hole in a tie or a shirt."

< snip >

This technology would be a major improvement over the industry's current
measures of trying to block pirate recorders, including night-vision goggles
and metal detectors. Some of the piracy is an inside job: A pirate bribes a
projectionist to set up a tripod in the projection booth.

< snip >


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