The MPAA releases report on best methods to prevent movie theater piracy

The MPAA has released its annual "Best Practices to Prevent Film Theft" for movie theater owners, and as expected the trade group wants theaters to use extreme measures to avoid camera-based piracy.

"The MPAA recommends that theaters adopt a Zero Tolerance policy that prohibits the video or audio recording and the taking of photographs of any portion of a movie," the MPAA says in the report.

Thankfully, the MPAA has removed a paragraph from last year's edition in which they claimed the industry loses billions every year due to piracy as that figure has been generally debunked.

Now, if a suspect individual is spotted recording, the MPAA says movie theater employees should take immediate action and have the local police notified. "Theater managers should immediately alert law enforcement authorities whenever they suspect prohibited activity is taking place. Do not assume that a cell phone or digital camera is being used to take still photographs and not a full-length video recording. Let the proper authorities determine what laws may have been violated and what enforcement action should be taken."

Additionally, the MPAA warns about concealed recording equipment and all the possible locations they could be hidden once they get into the theater. "Movie thieves are very ingenious when it comes to concealing cameras. It may be as simple as placing a coat or hat over the camera, or as innovative as a specially designed concealment device (e.g., a small camera built into eyeglass frames or a camera built into the lid of a beverage container)."

Read through the entire attached PDF, it is a fun read.

Written by: Andre Yoskowitz @ 16 Nov 2013 21:06

themind

Hand those dangerous criminals over to the state.

17.11.2013 01:06 #1

mukhis

what MPAA does not understand is that the people are tired of overpriced movies and optical discs. you go to a movie expecting 3D, and more often than not, it is a post-production one, which means it's fake, and they charge high for that. you buy an expensive blu-ray only to find there is a remastered version after a few months. for audio discs, they always put at least 2 craps out of 10 songs. piracy will NEVER stop until the movie/audio industry realizes these.

17.11.2013 02:26 #2

xboxdvl2

Quote:Movie thieves are very ingenious when it comes to concealing cameras. It may be as simple as placing a coat or hat over the camera, or as innovative as a specially designed concealment device (e.g., a small camera built into eyeglass frames or a camera built into the lid of a beverage container)." dont forget the pen cameras.

i have the big screen tv,a ps3 and 5.1 channel surround sound.car still runs smooth and computer still works but its a bit outdated.

17.11.2013 06:56 #3

KillerBug

...And now there is google glass, which has a perfectly valid and reasonable use in a theater; it lets you surf the web, text chat, and email while you are sitting thru the awful movie your girlfriend insisted on seeing.

Movie theaters stopped being attractive to me about the time I was old enough to go by myself. The only two kinds I'll even consider going to now are the ones with good restaurants (and alcohol) right inside the theater so I can eat, drink, and be merry while ignoring the movie, and drive-in movies (where neither I nor my date see anything past the first 30 minutes if all goes well).

Theaters are a monopoly of sorts...that is why people actually prefer to stay at home watching a crummy CAM recording rather than going to see it with 20-channel sound and 3D. The only exception might be people who can't afford to go...and those people not going doesn't affect profits because they can't afford to go anyway. The experience is just terrible, a 1980's executive's vision of what his ideal theater (that he himself wouldn't go to) should be is the norm with the corporate theaters, and the smaller ones normally get movies about a week before they are on bluray. Now (and for the last few years) they go so far as to ban your devices, making the whole experience even worse.

I can easily afford to go to every new movie in the theater, and I can afford to buy just about every new movie on bluray. Not only is it not worth the money to do either, let alone both, but I feel like I am supporting the enemy by doing so. I wait for them on Netflix and if they don't get there I really don't care...that's the studio's loss if they don't want to make money from me watching their film.

17.11.2013 08:41 #4

BobL

Wow... so with the MPAA encouragement, some guy watching a security camera sees someone texting on their phone and suspects them of recording the movie... So he calls the police. They come in and grab the guy and whisk him away, only to later discover he was just texting his friend. That only needs to happen a few times and let the press get wind of it, and then people will become afraid to go to the movies in fear of being falsely arrested. That will surely help ticket sales! Good job, MPAA.

17.11.2013 09:43 #5

mukhis

Originally posted by BobL: Wow... so with the MPAA encouragement, some guy watching a security camera sees someone texting on their phone and suspects them of recording the movie... So he calls the police. They come in and grab the guy and whisk him away, only to later discover he was just texting his friend. That only needs to happen a few times and let the press get wind of it, and then people will become afraid to go to the movies in fear of being falsely arrested. That will surely help ticket sales! Good job, MPAA.
+1!!!
i am sure MPAA is gonna pay that way for all they are doing.

17.11.2013 10:16 #6

beanos66

17.11.2013 14:08 #7

Mrguss

The way I see it:
1.- MPAA & RIAA are a Corporate Terrorist, terrorizing their own guess just like the U.S. Govt. does to their own citizens.
2.- The "New Theater Experience" it just get worse as time goes
bye.
3.- Why go to theaters and get bugging by selfish, & un-respectful hosts, managers & maybe other guess ...and the worse: Over-pay-for, for just aggravations?
4.- As Corporate Greed increase; also Poverty increase.
5.- Is no way in hell to stop Piracy and/or sheering; since Capitalism is Unsustainable.

6,7,8,...I can keep going like forever.
Just saying.

+5000

17.11.2013 17:43 #8

KillerBug

Originally posted by Mrguss: Capitalism is un-sustanable. Communism is unsustainable. Capitalism (not cronyism, but actual capitalism) does very well, its only weakness being that crooked governments (all of them) offer a deal with the devil in the form of unearned short-term market advantage in return for long-term government control. Lack of government control is not the problem, any government control is the problem.

18.11.2013 17:36 #9

baxter00

Originally posted by Mrguss: The way I see it:
1.- MPAA & RIAA are a Corporate Terrorist, terrorizing their own guess just like the U.S. Govt. does to their own citizens.
2.- The "New Theater Experience" it just get worse as time goes
bye.
3.- Why go to theaters and get bugging by selfish, & un-respectful hosts, managers & maybe other guess ...and the worse: Over-pay-for, for just aggravations?
4.- As Corporate Greed increase; also Poverty increase.
5.- Is no way in hell to stop Piracy and/or sheering; since Capitalism is un-sustanable.

6,7,8,...I can keep going like forever.
Just saying. Not to mention the instances of bedbugs and lice that seem to be cropping up in some U.S. theaters.

19.11.2013 09:22 #10

Mrguss

Originally posted by KillerBug: Originally posted by Mrguss: Capitalism is un-sustanable. Communism is unsustainable. Capitalism (not cronyism, but actual capitalism) does very well, its only weakness being that crooked governments (all of them) offer a deal with the devil in the form of unearned short-term market advantage in return for long-term government control. Lack of government control is not the problem, any government control is the problem. Most of the Govt. officials are like prostitutes that are selling themselves to the best Corporate bettor.
50%+ of all Governments in the world are manipulated by corporations. They write the new laws & the Govts. apply it to us. [It gets worse by the minute when few Rich families control the whole country; like Bahrain, etc.]

Now in order to get Capitalism on your side. People need to have capital in the first place. (Only the people with money are gaining from it, not to mention that all the Capitalists Governments/Countries laws are made only for their benefice).

On the another hand: Most of the entrepreneur need an initiative capital around $73K and only few people became "Successful".
In a world where most of the people are poor and live on debt or check by check basis, their chances to gain from Capitalism are less that 1%.

Now an example of Corporate Monopoly:
Lets take Verbatim.
Verbatim is a good product. But what is happening is that the other competitors in stead to try to make a better product; Noooo... they try to take Verbatim products from the public view, so the people will buy "only" the garbage of the other cheap brands that the bribed stores offers.
The General Public & Consumer are the only one that losses on this Corporate Capitalism System and only the Rich people win.

Now think for a moment: What will happen when The Rich & Corporations get all or almost all the money for themselves; and the rest of the people 99.7% will live on debt (The new generation of slaves), or without or hardly any money!?
This moment is not so far to became a reality for all to see. The scenario say it all: Capitalism is Unsustainable.

I not in favor or Socialism. But for a system that offer a better every day living for all, no only for the few.

Just saying.

+5000

19.11.2013 15:49 #11

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