Posted on 01/21/2014 10:26:20 AM PST by Red Badger
As if you needed another reason not to wear your dumb Google Glass in public—or ever, actually—an Ohio man claims he was yanked out of a movie theater and interrogated by federal agents, who believed he was illegally filming the movie with his face computer.
The man’s full account is posted on The Gadgeteer, but we’ll summarize it here so you can get the gist of it before you’re engulfed forever in this ghastly winter storm.
Last Saturday, our Glass-wearing protagonist and his wife went to a showing of Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit at an AMC in Columbus, Ohio. About an hour into the movie, he says some federal agents yanked the Glass off the man’s face, pulled the pair out of the theater and took them to separate interrogation rooms.
The man, who’d just been trying to enjoy a crappy movie with his lovely wife on a Saturday night, says he was accused of illegally taping the movie and questioned extensively about “who I am, where I live, where I work, how much I’m making, how many computers I have at home, why am I recording the movie, who am I going to give the recording to, why don’t I just give up the guy up the chain, ’cause they are not interested in me. Over and over and over again.”
The agents also allegedly displayed this level of ridiculousness:
They wanted to know where I got Glass and how did I came by having it. I told them I applied about 1000 times to get in the explorer program, and eventually I was selected, and I got the Glass from Google. I offered to show them receipt and Google Glass website if they would allow me to access any computer with internet. Of course, that was not an option. Then they wanted to know what does Google ask of me in exchange for Glass, how much is Google paying me, who is my boss and why am I recording the movie.
After an hour of intense interrogation, the agents hooked the Glass up to a computer, and saw that all it was storing were personal family photos, he says. They allegedly went through his phone, too, and found nothing.
Then everybody felt really bad, and gave the man and his wife four free movie passes, so they can go see Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit again, twice.
Based on this strange tale, here are some things we should probably establish:
1) AMC needs to learn what Google Glass is, set out a policy as to whether its patrons can wear it or not. Yes, it’s pretty weird and suspicious that this dude was wearing Glass to the movies. Why would anybody do that, if not to film the movie? But having the feds remove a man from his seat mid-movie is pretty shitty, when what he’s doing isn’t expressly prohibited in the first place.
2) Law enforcement officials should make an effort to keep up-to-date on the latest technological advancements, so they don’t unintentionally behave like dodos.
3) Not that we couldn’t guess this before, but Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit is probably a move that you should not go see.
UPDATE: The man was wearing Google Glass that had prescription lenses, meaning he needed the Glass to see the movie. He also told Gadgeteer he could have moved a few rows up to see, though. We are awaiting a call back from AMC about their policy on wearing Glass — prescription or not — in theaters.
They will probably find a way to interfere with video cameras in the theater sooner or later
Did he video the interrogations?
These guys should instead be storming into the White House asking Obama, “who do you know”, “who do you really work for”, “who are these dangerous far left and muslim radicals you’re so closely associated with”, “where were you born”, etc, etc.
LAst thing.
I checked several local columbus news outlets, searching for references to the AMC theater or google glass. I found nothing in any local news outlet about this story.
I would think that a person being detained at your local theater for google glass would be a big news story.
All of these local outlets had several stories about the woman in California who was arrested for wearing google glasses while driving, so they clearly thought that google glass stories were interesting.
On the other hand, google glasses sure look like they are going to film what they are looking at, so I could see a theater questioning someone for wearing it.
Let's see:
The left gets all the left favoring false witness they want, plus a huge campaign contributions money laundering scheme through unions as well as celebrity guided direct contributions to leftist causes only, and all the government's got to do is enforce gouging the proles for tickets to watch crap.
Yes, it can be used to record things that you are seeing, just like those “spy camera” glasses that undercover sting tv shows use. It’s more like a smart phone, though, because the eyepiece actually has a display and allows you to input commands through eye movements.
Everyone needs remediation by watching that every 6 months.
Precisely.
He was lucky actually.
Always have legal representation when talking to law enforcement agents with an agenda.
Oh, I understand the feds investigates these things; but within one hour and while the movie is still playing? Like I said, at. The beck and call of a local AMC?
Theaters are a dying tradition anyway.
With digital streaming content, they will be able to upsell to home audiences ($20-30, you fill your room like it was one car at a drive in). You may even try to “capture” the stream.
But they could bundle it (as with the World War Z movie opening) by bundling a “DVD” with the purchase (if you help boost opening weekend/night receipts).
As it stands now, there are theaters that do one time only screenings of digital content (often as the DVD is about to go to the home market). Ticket pricing is higher.
That was my first reaction. I’m not sure what irritates me more - that some yahoo thought it necessary to get the flippin’ FBI in the movie theater, OR that the Federales made their big arrest and interrogated the guy.
The fact that he went to see this movie, which portrays Christians as the terrorists, proves that he’s not too smart to begin with:)
I now believe this story is BS. It may have been published (not blaming op) but it is bogus, that is, not true.
Consider the movie that was being shown:
Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit
I bet there was an FBI agent or agents at the movie, saw him and called in for backup..................
When Chris Dodd, now head of the MPAA, says jump the Department of Just-us asks how high on the way up.
Awww, now you done went and spoiled it for me!...............
Someone should phone the FBI and tell them the IRS has also been filming movies. That way the Tea Party investigation might actually move forward.
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