If you go see "Finding Nemo", leave your video camera in the car...

I don't know how or why anyone could stand to watch a movie taped off a screen, but Disney isn't taking any chances.
Thanks to state-O-the-art night goggles, they can see you and your little camera.

Dan C

http://www.msnbc.com/news/919970.asp?0bl=-0

ALBANY, N.Y., May 30 — With the widely anticipated computer-animated movie “Finding Nemo” set to debut in theaters Friday, the Walt Disney Co. has found a novel way to guard against people illegally taping the film in advance showings. Disney has hired security firm Burns Pinkerton, a unit of Sweden’s Securitas AB, to screen audiences using metal detectors and night-vision goggles.


THE AIM IS to catch people using video cameras to make bootleg copies of the movie for resale on the black market.
“Most people think the extra security is just for terrorism reasons,” said Robert Kendrick, a Burns security guard at a recent screening for “Finding Nemo” in Albany.
The practice is relatively new. Twentieth Century Fox, a unit of News Corp. Ltd.’s Fox Entertainment Group also used night-vision goggles in early screenings of May’s “X2: X-Men United” and more recently with “Down With Love,” starring Renee Zellweger and Ewan McGregor.

The heightened measures point to increased scrutiny the studios are taking in early screenings to prevent black market tapes from ending up for sale on city streets around the world.

STUDIO LOSE BILLIONS
“It’s estimated we lose between $3 billion to $4 billion a year to this problem despite strong anti-piracy actions by the movie industry,” said Rich Taylor, a spokesman for the Motion Picture Association of America which represents Hollywood’s major motion picture studios including Disney and Fox.

A warning about unauthorized recording has been printed on preview tickets for the last nine months telling violators that if they enter with their video equipment they will be denied admission. If the devices are used, they will be confiscated.

In April, a 33-year-old California man was arrested and charged with illegally videotaping movies in sneak previews. If convicted, he faces up to 26 years in federal prison.

Kendrick and his partner first check movie patrons using the metal-detecting wands because digital cameras are small and compact but they do contain metal parts.

Once inside, the guards sit 25-minute shifts monitoring the projection room’s camera and the entire theater. The night-vision goggles are used to span the audience to see if there are any strong lights coming from a video recorder.
“These goggles magnify the light and make the image glow,” Kendrick said.

 

We're supposed to believe there are enough rubes out there who would pay $5-10 for a dull-looking video feed on DVD, rather than wait and see the pristine $20 version with 5.1 sound? THIS is costing them billions? Any nitwit who would buy a dubbed movie isn't very likely to buy a legit one, it seems to me. And it isn't like Disney isn't doing okay. They should be more concerned about the copying of actual legit DVDs rather than waste their time with something like this.

ED

 

I agree with Ed. Who would want to buy a Kinescope movie?

 

They're actually not doing so hot.

 

This makes me remember the Seinfeld episode where Kramer got Jerry to start videotaping movies off the screen in the theater.

 

Yeah, but that fanatic will surely buy the regular DVD when it comes out.
So Disney loses nothing. I'd hate to think a diehard fan would settle for a--excellent term, Brad--kinescope.

ED

 

Even if that were true, this silly nonsense isn't going to help their bottom line any. From what I can see, they've got product saturated on store shelves, most of their DVD titles have been big sellers, and whatever problems they might have probably stem from outside holdings, not the Disney franchise itself.

ED

 

No kidding! Willing to buy two pirates but not an original--which, here, can probably be had for $15 and less in a week or two of its release--if that!
Some people....

ED

 

Some college-age kids of a worker at the office had a boot of the second Harry Potter movie shortly after it hit the theaters. They didn't bother to see it shown properly.

I just don't see the point of buying something of such dreadful quality.
Dan C

 

I used to see movies on VHS before they hit the theater. Most of the bootlegging of movies doesn't come from some guy filming it in a theater. People inside the studio are leaking the movies.

I've never bought a bootleg movie (or a bootleg of anything that I can buy legitimately for that matter). A friend of mine used to work for a major motion picture company in the early 90's and we'd watch the film at home before it was in theaters.

The results were usually pretty bad. I was one of the first people outside of the studio to see how bad "Judge Dredd" was. Ugh...

 

I have a friend who recently saw X-Men 2... on his computer screen after downloading it over night.

 

Why do these crummy quality boots appeal to people? The "coolness" factor - they can watch hot movie "X" at home while all the other schmoes have to go to the multiplex...

 

I agree, there's that snob "coolness" thing.

Sort of disturbing if you think about it a bit. Never leave that chair in front of your computer. Cyber movies, cyber sex, cyber music, cyber friendships...uh, excluding the SH Forums of course. We make real friends here.

I still think it's moronic to sit in front of a computer and watch a dreadfully taped bootleg movie. Give me the overpriced popcorn and a high quality presentation any day!

Dan C

 

Don't forget the big $$ that "foreign" markets represent to Hollywood. If the pirated dvd goes on sale before people can even see the film in a theater, at least some people will choose to see the film early, albeit in crappy quality, instead of waiting for a theatrical release where they live.

 

Excellent point.

Dan C

 

Wow! 2 strikes for Disney!...Disposable DVD's...now this...Gotta love the greed...