This was the first time I've heard of it. http://www.inrich.com/cva/ric/news/vaapwire.apx.-content-articles-AP-2007-08-02-0015.html

This is from my local rag.

Thread title changed from "Woman arrested for filming motion picture" to "Woman arrested for recording in movie theater." That the theater owners want to prosecute tells me that they're wanting to make an example of this case... in other words, a conviction should send a clear message to others.

It appears I keep screwing up on my titles. Sigh. But yea, each time I go to the theatre, and it's rare now adays, I always see people with thier cell phones out, wonder if they're talking or recording.

I never understood the point, a while back a neighbor brought over a "copy" of THE HULK about two weeks before the dang movie even hit the theatres. Naturally I watched it, but the quality ALWAYS sucks on these bootlegs, not to mention it is totally illegal. What is the point!?

Naturally I watched it

I think that's the point...

LOL, well I don't go to movie theatres, and temptation was there. The movie still sucked anyway, lol.

I'd like to see them bust people who talk or take phone calls during the movie. I will say, though, that there are at least 3 warnings to silence phones these days, but how about an usher with a flashlight and an itchy trigger finger, ready to throw constant talkers out!

The occasional, what did he say, is all right. But the conversations and snickering. Ugh.

heath

Moderator note: We've taken a couple of posts out of public view for suggesting or advocating illegal activities. Please leave those kind of things out of the DVinfo world. Thanks.

Yeah, I just thought it was an interesting story. I know that there was a movement last year by the theatre industry to use signal blockers, but I think the idea died. The reason I posted the story is, I imagine that the theater industry will eventually have to adjust significantly because as these handheld devices get more sophisticated, people might try and steal like this more and more.

At the theaters here, before they show the previews they have a short animation explaining the rules, no talking, no cell phones and now they have a new one, if you see somebody filming, report them to the manager. Bootlegging is also a big problem here.

Where I work at is the neighborhood where they have all the electronics stores in Osaka (Den Den Town), kinda like Akihabara in Tokyo, they are always selling bootleg DVD's on small tables all along the street. Definitely backed by the Japanese mafia. Police come sometimes and they are all gone for a few days but then they always come back.

They used to sell cell phone disrupters here. Press the button and all cell phones within a 30 feet radius lose their signals. Read some article a long time ago that some groups here had formed and they would use the disrupters around people who used their phones in places where you shouldn't be using phones. Don't know if those disrupters are still being sold.

Digital projection, I've heard, promises to do some sort of watermark that shows up on cameras that reveals the theatre location, date and time. So you can't do much with that, bootleg-wise.

heath

Digital projection, I've heard, promises to do some sort of watermark that shows up on cameras that reveals the theatre location, date and time. So you can't do much with that, bootleg-wise.

heath

Nice pickup Heath.

That's the idea, but how well does it work? I bet the watermark would not withstand the heavy compression of a cell phone. Besides, clever pirates are going to filter it out before they release it on the Web.

I prefer the technology that detects people making a recording, allowing you politely tap on their shoulder as they exit the theatre...

I would rather the movie be stopped, that person be publically outed to the entire viewing audience and THEN carted away to jail. oh yeah, then resume movie about 5 minutes back from the point it stopped.

Moderator note: We've taken a couple of posts out of public view for suggesting or advocating illegal activities. Please leave those kind of things out of the DVinfo world. Thanks.

You know I was wondering why my post didn't show up last night and I reposted thinking I somehow accidentally didn't submit it. But thanks for informing, I'd of edited out a paragraph if I'd know :}

To briefly reiterate what I posted, I pretty much look down upon bootleging, despite have sit through a couple bought by friends. I'm way to much of a stickler for video quality and it's twice as hard to watch if it's a high visuals flick, like an action or sci-fi movie. I do however, sypathize somewhat with the girl in the article... if her reported reasons for recording the clip are honest. But I suppose the theaters can't distinguish between her and the persons that's gonna post it to youtube. What I don't understand is why'd she want to ruin the end of the movie for her little bro, instead of either taking him to go see it or waiting for the DVD to come out :p

Definately would like to hear about more prosecution and heavier penalties for the dude in the back with the trenchcoat, camera, and tripod. Not to mention the dudes running in and out of resteraunts selling them, as people in my area might be familiar with. I suppose it's better then drug dealing, but seriously people need to get real jobs and realize things are "illegal" for a reason. It also bothers be to the point of aggrivation that there are some people who hardly care about the quality of these things and won't even ever get the actual DVD. Some peoples standards are way to low and the area in question, while not exactly being great, is far from the "ghetto". I suppose it further bothers me, having prospects in filmaking myself, that alot of people and hardwork get put into making a movie look good, yet people are seeing the movies sometimes in quality reminiscent of mud.

If someone's really all that poor, they can wait for the DVD to come out and go to their local public library. (*warning* You've just been a victim of plugging by a library employee)

Digital projection, I've heard, promises to do some sort of watermark that shows up on cameras that reveals the theatre location, date and time. So you can't do much with that, bootleg-wise.

heath

So, does this really make a difference? So they know someone in that particular showing made a copy. Without a record of who was sitting where, what's the point? The bootleg is still out there being sold.

About the only thing this would be good for preventing is if the theater was in cahoots with the bootlegger. The bootlegger doesn't care if you know you've bought a bootleg.

Martin.

But what can you do with something that has large text over the video? I like that--no one can bootleg.

heath

If it has visible large text then I will not watch. If it is invisible, then it can be removed.

Seems like you might be able to do something like this with infrared. If you zap your TV remote control towards your camcorder your eyes don't see anything but the camera sees a flash of light.

If it has visible large text then I will not watch. If it is invisible, then it can be removed.

I work for an indy adult company here in Osaka and starting this month the boss is going to have me put a watermark of our company name on the DVD'S, probably right inside the title safe line. It seems several Japanese Adult Video companies are starting to do that because of all the bootlegging or posting it to websites or whatever. The bosses thinking is that at least it will have our company name on the video, whether it's on our DVD or someone rips it and posts it somewhere.

This might be of interest as it contains news reports ranging
from illegal in-theater taping to sting operations on boot leggers
doing illegal intheater taping,

http://www.natoonline.org/blog/category/movie-theft/

you can actually see the watermark, it's been happening since two towers and return of the king.

how can you spot it? just pay attention to brightly lit scenes like minas tirith in return of the king. i distinctly remember seeing it and being totally pissed off that i actually saw it. anyways, it's like red dot patterned after dices or somn like that.

I wonder if the watermarking can be used against the theatre, ie, studios and the MPAA can put pressure on the theatre where the piracy happened.

heath