Smuggling camera into movie theater can get you arrested

610 WTVN Radio ^ | January 2, 2004

[flutters]

Ohio has passed a law that lets police arrest people for videotaping movies in theaters. Governor Taft signed the bill last month and it takes effect in March. The film industry is trying to prevent piracy and they have several methods to fight it, including bag searches for people entering movie houses. But some say Hollywood's tactics could backfire. A recent study found that three out of every four movies leaked on the Internet came from industry insiders. That led the Motion Picture Academy of America to temporarily stop sending ``screener'' tapes and DVDs to Oscar voters.

[cake_crumb]

"...I could easily explain the gun but the baggie of popcorn and the McDonald's cheeseburger might be a little harder."

FOFLOL!

[weegee]

The RIAA has been looking into this type of thing again since the EU may not respect the US's retroactive renewal of copyrights (for PD works) and the further extension of copyrights. The RIAA is nervous because famous jazz pieces and rock and roll songs could soon be public domain in Europe yet copyrighted in the US and they don't want to see such imports coming to America.

I believe that I posted some of the articles about this a year or so ago (I got them from SXSW's music headlines at the time).

[flutters]

However, it is apparently a common enough 'crime' that it was once done in a Seinfeld episode.

I must have missed that episode. I've never heard of this before. Never. Maybe I've lived a sheltered life.

[weegee]

The studios get most of the box office take (virtually all of it) while the theaters get the concession sales. The theaters are stuck with enforcement of their "no outside food" policy but now they can have rent-a-cops (but officers, none the less) pat down all customers before they enter the theater.

If outside food/drink is found while searching for "cameras", so much the better in the mind of the theater managers.

Grocery stores (and even convience stores) make money selling lots and lots of soda for $0.50. Theaters have a captive audience and think that $3.50 is a "fair price" (of course the promoters of the Last Woodstock thought that they were charging a "fair" price too even though that audience was there for 3 continuous days and HAD to buy something to survive).

[flutters]

I thought about taking a recorder to my first concert, but I couldn't figure out how to fit a shoe boxed sized gadget in my pocket. :)

[weegee]

It's largely a NYC and other urban area thing. People video a movie off the screen and then sell tapes from a card table set out on the sidewalk. Sometimes you can (reportedly) see the heads of audience members.

I've seen bootleg videos (often of movies that have been out of circulation for decades) and even the ocassional "current" release.

Some (like Pulp Fiction) were available on video in other countries while they stayed in the theater in the US. This is certainly true of foreign films that play the US (the US release lags behind the foreign release often by 1 to 2 years) but it can also be true of films that are released early in the year but withheld from video release because of an anticipated Oscar nomination/win that can be used to revive the theatrical release PRIOR to a video release (as was the case with Pulp Fiction).

Other bootlegs (like Kill Bill V.1) contain things like the reel changes that prove that they were made by someone who had access to a print of the film.

Theater shot tapes sound like they are subpar product and I doubt that anyone who owns one would watch it again after the legitimate release of the film comes to video. Industry made bootlegs are more comparable to legitimate product.

[weegee]

That reminds me of the What's Happening episode where Rerun got caught trying to tape a Doobie Brothers' concert and the tape deck fell out of his pants when he got up to dance.

[eiffel]

For the first time in over a year, I went to see a movie (LOTR) with my boyfriend and his family last night. Before it started, they showed a PSA asking the crowd not to bootleg videos, or download pirated copies (on behalf of all the stunt-people, in this case). Not very effective, I'm sure the announcement carried all the weight of an anti-drug ad for the people in the theatre.

...come to think of it, they also showed an anti-marijuana ad, along with at least 4 other commercials, for Coke, Snickers, Mazda, and Qwest. That we had to sit through advertisements after paying for our tickets really bothered the hell out of me. I tried to get my boyfriend and his family to riot, but they weren't having any.

[flutters]

lol

[Cultural Jihad]

I see your point about the broader community policing for the rights of a private company, but that is the duty of Constitutionally-authorized law enforcement agents, to protect the rights of all Americans.

[flutters]

I'm sure the announcement carried all the weight of an anti-drug ad for the people in the theatre.

Probably about the same as the FBI warning on video tapes.

I tried to get my boyfriend and his family to riot, but they weren't having any.

Party-poopers! ;)

[waterstraat]

What are they going to do if you dont let them search your bag, I wouldnt let them search my bag, and I dont have a camera. They better not try to restrain me from leaving while they send for the cops either.

[Rebelbase]

I saw ROTK on a bootleg DVD a week after it had been released.

[waterstraat]

but now they can have rent-a-cops (but officers, none the less) pat down all customers before they enter the theater.

People let them do this? I wouldnt, nobody is going to pat me down.

[Rebelbase]

"Midnight movies are great for sneeking in beer/liquor and pizza!"

I used to do that years ago until I knocked my tallboy over and heard it roll all the way to the front, releasing the aroma of spilled beer throughout the center seat section.

[Hildy]

Can you please explain the hooplah about KILL BILL. Sorry, I didn't get it. And I love Tarrantino. Pulp Fiction is one of my favorite movies of all time. I can talk about that movie forever, it was so fascinating, and fun and intelligent. Kill Bill? please.

[weegee]

There are some Kill Bill discussions in "chat"/General Interest" on FR that I participated in. I don't intend to derail this conversation on bootlegs/piracy/Hollywood to discuss the merits (or lack thereof) of any film.

[weegee]

I'd be happier about such laws if they were evenly applied and enforced.

[John Robertson]

I have. This slick character had passed himself off for months to the teenagers who ran a local cineplex as a "movie reviewer" who needed to tape the entire movie in order to write his reviews. Now think about that. Don't we see movie reviews the day the picture opens, or even before? He'd set up a tripod, and tape the whole thing. He was a pirate, of course. Once I informed the management what his game was, he stopped, er, reviewing movies at that theater.

[Cultural Jihad]

Oh, they're equally-applied. If the person who wanted to sneak his camera into a premiere showing had rather been creative enough to create his own marketable product instead, the same agents who were chasing him would then have been looking out for his interests.