Film piracy

[Vertigo]

Just been into Brum to watch a preview screening of Confetti with the gf (not bad if you're into that sort of film), and upon entering was greeted by a guy who said he was from Fox security (tis a Fox film).

He was checking all bags and asking to look at mobiles and was taking any camera phones of any description off people and bagging and tagging them. When we came out there was an enormous queue as people waited to reclaim their stuff. Luckily I'd left my mobile at home and the gf's doesn't have a camera so he let her hang on to it.

Virtually every film you see these days has the anti-piracy warnings before it but this was taking things to a new level, obviously because it was a preview screening they're paranoid about people recording it. Anyone else come across security like this at a film?

 

[Vertigo]

They were indeed taking any and all mobiles that had cameras on them. I don't think they were worried about still pictures per se, probably just erring on the side of caution rather than trying to work out what video capabilities each phone had.

 

[Vertigo]

A few points I should mention...

That's my opinion as well. I'm all for stopping privacy, but if they wanted to take my phone off me I'd tell them where to get off, then demand a refund.

The tickets were complementary so there would have been no refund required, they'd surely have just denied entry to anyone not submitting to their rules.

But, How do they know you got a mobile, As far as i know only the police are allowed to Search a person a security gaurd or anobody else is only allowed to have a look inside an open bag, they are not allowed to touch anything.

There was no actual search. I was asked if I had my phone to which I replied I did and started searching my pockets before realising that I'd left it at home so I told the guy this. He just accepted that and didn't try to search me. Besides, there was only a single bloke, so he'd have been unable to search women even if he'd wanted to (or on seriously shaky ground if he'd tried!).

personally if they just gave us the D.V.D movie without all the utter crap (directors commentary, ect ect) in a standard dvd case with minimal packaging and charged £5 to £7 for the film, they would knock the bottom out of the illegal trade, but as it stands, they wont budge on the £15 to £25 they charge us now, so it will continue untill they give the people what they want.

Indeed. You also have to bear in mind that when we hear all the headline "xx billion lost in film piracy" figures, these suffer from the same problem as those put out for software piracy, namely that for every pirate copy of a film they reckon is out there, whatever the quality, they're assuming that this is £15 to £25 worth of lost revenue.

This just doesn't work as it assumes that everyone who has a pirate copy of a film would otherwise have bought the retail one if they'd not been able to source the pirate version, which just isn't the case. Many people will watch a pirate copy of a film they've obtained for free or a few quid but would never dream of forking out £15+ on it, so there was never any revenue to be lost in the first place. Sure, the viewer has obtained something for free, but the studio hasn't actually lost any money. The same applies with software. If a home user has a dodgy copy of Office Professional worth £400 but would never, ever have spent £400 on a kosher copy, then there was never any money for the software author/vendor to lost in the first place.

Don't get me wrong, I'm in no way condoning piracy, it just angers me when gross assumptions like this are made in order to inflate the figures and gain more of a shock value. I'm a programmer myself so I'm keenly aware of the effects of piracy.

 

[Vertigo]

I was under the impression the biggest problem was leaked review copies anyway. :/

It used to be. Screeners, as they are called, used to be a huge problem, as the quality was pretty much that of the final retail DVD, just without any extras and often with copyright warning messages or black and white sections every so often.

The studios put a stop to this over a year ago by agreeing to stop producing DVD screeners for all but a few films, and they're only now put out on VHS, if at all.

 

[Vertigo]

I don't get how a security guard from Fox is legally allowed to work in a non-Fox cinema and ask people for their equipment, unless that cinema employed them.

It would have been part of the contract that the cinema signed. If they want to put the screening on, then they have to accept a Fox security man on the door.

Incidentally this was at a Cineworld which was, up until recently, a UGC and was in the process of being refurbished. I suspect the cinema would be only too pleased to get all the screenings they can where complementary tickets are given away as it pulls people into the place who might go "ooh, quite nice, I'll come back here".