Cinemas Must Warn Visitors Of ‘Anti-Pirate’ Goggles
Written by Ernesto on October 03, 2009Dozens of movie theaters worldwide have equipped their employees with night vision goggles to spy on customers, hoping to spot illegal recording devices. Following complaints alleging invasion of privacy, in Germany the local authorities ruled that theaters have to warn their customers if they use such equipment, rendering their piracy trap useless.
To prevent movie goers from sneaking in recording equipment, movie theaters nowadays have implemented all sorts of security measures. Employees are equipped with night-vision goggles so they can closely monitor the public and several theaters have metal detectors installed.
Despite all these expensive and invasive efforts to catch camcording pirates, nearly every new blockbuster still leaks onto the Internet, though often in poor quality. One unsecured theater is enough to pirate a film. Nevertheless, the film industry treats millions of paying movie goers as potential criminals and acts surprised when the public complains about it.
In Germany the local authorities decided to do something about this. The state administration office of Sachsen-Anhalt ruled that movie visitors must be informed about the use of night vision goggles before they buy their tickets. This advance notice allows them to decide if they want to be spied on or not.
The ruling came in response to a recent move by film distribution company Warner Bros. that had instructed theater personnel to use night vision devices to prevent the film “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” from being camcorded.
The use of night vision goggles and other security gadgets has led to a handful of arrests worldwide, but has ruined the pleasure of “a night at the movies” for untold others. The measures taken by the film industry to prevent illegal recordings from showing up online are similar to the use of DRM, they annoy honest customers while pirates circumvent them.
Previously: UK 3-Strikes MP Ignorant on File-Sharing
Next: EMI Tries To Hide Kids Education Anti-Piracy Objective
115 Responses
Crazy…
Over the Top !!
Genuinely Looked Down Upon by Moviegoers…
so they are hoping to catch the .0001 percent of moviegoers that film the movies. mmmkay, good luck.
Just wait and see people start stopping going to theater because of this type of thing LoL
Then they will see how much it hurts.
Would not download telesync anyway, not worth it. DVDrip is the only way.
I only download HD Movies, newer a cam or telesync
As if I’d like to see camcorder video…
… real pirates have standards!!
It rather depends who’s funding this, “Dozens of movie theaters worldwide” is not many, so is it a couple of over zealous cinema owners or part of a Hollywood funded project?
Ya know, this sounds an awful lot like DRM in software and music…
I left a country for less. I have no problems not going to the theater :)
i do support sharing content even copyrighted content, but i don’t like it when movies are earlier for download then for sale!
If Hollywood keeps churning out recycled crap remakes then no-one will go to cinemas anyway.
Good on ya Germany, your PP is doing well and some sensible laws as well!
Cheers!
Lol, nice picture :)
G.I Joe guys in Cinemas….what’s next ? Swat ? hahaha!
GEEEE AYYYYE JJJJJOOOE!
Ow yeah let the voyeurs spy on you and your GF on the backrow , fucking perverts… and it is 100% legal to record a movie with your camera in the UK :
http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/Business/Cinemas-Are-Powerless-To-Stop-Film-Pirates-Boss-Of-Vue-Tells-Sky-News/Article/200905115275694?lid=ARTICLE_15275694_CinemasArePowerlessToStopFilmPirates,BossOfVueTellsSkyNews&lpos=searchresults
Why?
I mean who needs crappy Screeners, especially when all movies are going for awesome action and special effects.
MPAA and their kin in the cinema industry are no better than voyeurs’ getting their kicks from watching what people get up to in the backseat of the movies.
What’s next? They gonna spy on customers at Hollywood video, Blockbuster video, and other video rental places? ‘Cause that’s what it will come down to if people stop going to theaters all together.
This is just another example of them treated their customers, even law abiding who pay for absolutely everything, like criminals just for being a customer. And yet the entertainment industry blames online piracy rather than their own underhanded invasion of privacy “you’re a criminal just for paying for it” attitude.
And when we buy a music c.d., or movie d.v.d., we do NOT own what we buy, we are actually just renting a license to view/listen to it. And technically we don’t have a license to copy it, even for personal backup.
I swear……If I ever win the lottery, I am going to find the office of the MPAA, take some laxatives, then take a huge dump on their lawn. Then do the same to RIAA.
This is why I don’t go to the movies anymore… I feel like I’m going to court when I walk through metal detectors, not about to enjoy a nice film.
Also I have a prince albert & they always ask me what I have in there & it’s just too much.
So why go through all that when I can watch movies online in the comfort of my own home for free…
So merely from a technological curiosity standpoint, besides the goggles and metal detectors (have yet to see one of those at a cinema), what other “technological trickery” do cinemas employ in attempting to prevent cam’ing?
I’ve seen what looked like a UV lightsource in one upper corner of the screen, but nothing besides that.
a big dog that will smell your adrenaline and will bite your balls of when you are cammin’
How am i supposed to get a bj if they can see in the dark?
JIFFY POP!
I remember going to the cinema with some friends to watch Transformers 2 not all that long ago.
The employees of the cinema stood around at the sides of the seats watching everyone in the room and walked around now and then up and down the seats.
As you can imagine, it was very, very annoying.
You’ve paid money, you just want to enjoy a movie but you feel eyes watching you throughout the movie.
I got more and more angry as time went by, feeling as though these people treating me and everyone like criminals, when we’d all paid to go in and see a movie.
Was very hard to concentrate on the movie.
I feel for people who have had to sit through this crap too, people who are the cinema’s and movie industry’s customers being treated in this way.
I for one will never, ever, go to a cinema again and waste my money being treated in that way.
My eyes are finally open.
Hey, #23, hold a coat up over the bitch…haha!
I see the “torrent” relationship but is this the only kind if thing we’ll be reading on here?
Anit-piracy laws and court cases and now this. Is there anything torrent related that isn’t breaking the law? Can we here about that for a change?
I don’t see the point in cams, the majority are seriously poor quality and in the case of a dark movie like Harry Potter Saw and The Dark knight they are nearly unwatchable even after the p2p groups get their hands on them for re-encodes. Dvdscr or better are really the only ones worth watching.
Fuck Hollywood!
You wouldn’t download a movie theater!
Warning people about the use of night vision goggles wont change anything one way or the other.
you can soon expect to see the disclaimer “Use of night vision goggles may be in use in this cinema”. Just like the recorded telephone calls, where if you asked for the recording, “oops…not got it”.
I haven’t visited the cinema for many years now – every time I did, I was distracted by the flashing dots at the bottom of the screen (identifies the cinema) and the erratic sound and picture quality. Not an experience I am prepared to pay for.
GOOD! Maybe FINALLY I won’t have to be disappointed ever again accidentally downloading a movie only to find that it’s a crappy unwatchable TeleSync. Three cheers for the MPAA. Hip Hip, HOORAY! X3
Besides, I can wait a month or three for the BluRay rips. Damn they look awesome on my 50″ LCD television connected from PC via HDMI and coxial to my 7.1 surround sound system.
In all the comfort and luxury of my leather sofa in the privacy of my home. Now THAT’S what I’M talkin’ about!
good no one will go anymore and you wont get ANY money at all! stupid maffia.
yes, this will put people off going to the movies, but guess what will actually get blamed – O NO PIRACY
keep an ear out, this is all too much like 1984 when they change history in order to make sure their predictions were never wrong
Come on guys, movies are the one thing I never pirate. Why? I have a bit of respect for content creators, and movies are one thing that are truly expensive to make.
That doesn’t mean that I won’t leave if I am told that night vision equipment is in use, it’s creepy to watch a mystery while knowing that it might not just be the movie that is giving me the feeling that someone is spying on me.
If I did pirate movies, I wouldn’t be able to stand the awful quality of cammed films.
the guys with the Goggles are looking up skirts.
I’m waiting for some cinema employee to post x-rated night-vision video showing what can happen in the back row seats when a drunk and hornie couple thinks no one can see them. :)
I can’t stand going to the cinemas anymore. Uncomfortable seats, people talking, rustling of packets of chips & lollies, trailers that go on forever and overpriced tickets!
Just another thing to alienate and piss off the customers…
My full HD projector, blu-ray rips and damn comfy recliner lounge shit on the cinemas. Plus I can drink beer!
I read somewhere that most cammed movies are recorded directly from the Av booth (no heads in the way), so this does nothing to stop the pirates
@Cyko_01
That might have been true several years ago. The era of films being recorded from the theater’s projection room by employees abruptly ended when video frames started being encoded — and therefore the source of the leaked screener could easily be tracked down.
This is actually funny….I ran a movie theatre in the 90’s and one of my fellow managers found one of the union projectionist recroding a movie…it went to trial and he was convicted, but asking 16 year olds to police the movie industry is crazy….
But I guess…for years since VCR’s were released we kept saying we are no longer an entertainmant place but a social destination….we target to make sure that people know that it is great to come to the theatres to watch a move with their friends and loved ones…
Movies are social…downloading them from cams probabaly sucks…and no I have never seen the cam version.
@38 Anonymous,
Yes they can capture the frame and information of the print, but who did the recording….movies are now no longer 1 person’s job because projectionist are not longer required…everything is computerized or automated and so any user can start a movie…for someone to plug in a video and audio feed would take minutes and with the automation most theatre managers wouldn’t even know in the 18+ cinemas they currently have.
Unless it happened more then once and can pinpoint a screening.
BTW, I don’t pirate movies, I go to see them in the cinemas…or the airline.
Just providing balance knowledge.
i always download the movies. money shouldn’t exist anyway.
tremuloushq.com
Those perverted Germans with those goggles *should* be allowed to look up girls skirts and couples kissing, while furiously masturbating while whispering “HEIL HITLER” over and over until they blow their dribbling load.
Why? Coz Germans are freaks, when they get ‘backed up’ all hell breaks loose and they start firing up their ovens. Wankers.
German men are sooooo hot
You really are a useless troll…
wouldn’t the thought of possibly being spied on during a movie deter you from spending money to see, and strengthen your choice to pirate it in the first place?
the movie industry is trying so hard to prevent piracy, that it’s actually creating more pirates.
way to go
Me I snike in the projection room just after the operator leave and camcord the movie directly from the monitor. Also I capture the sound via a stereo cable connection. The Quality is way better!
@36josh
“I can’t stand going to the cinemas anymore. Uncomfortable seats, people talking, rustling of packets of chips & lollies, trailers that go on forever and overpriced tickets!”
You forgot to mention the advertising. I remember the first advertisement I saw was a Toyota truck commercial. Man was I pissed to see such crap. Before it was just movie previews of upcoming movies.
Next tactic, metal detector, x ray machine, cavity search, you name it we got it.
People, lets fight back! If therers a gogler in the cinema you wanna go, dont go, so they will lose their money!
@50
any time they lose money they automagically blame it on piracy no matter what.
I forget when the last time was I watched a movie at a theatre. Probably in 2005.
Old Timer wrote:
“…asking 16 year olds to police the movie industry is crazy…”
You hit on something that I was thinking about again today; namely, that people police people. When we talk about laws and policing and all that, we rarely seem to give much question to ‘authority’: Frankly, the only authority I answer to is God, or the laws of physics and my own conscience. Not kids-with-guns (i.e., some cops). Fortunately, my conscience generally keeps me on their side of the law… except, for example, when I rollerblade the other way along a one-way street. ;)
Oct 03, 2009 at 23:37 by Toody wrote:
“Also I have a prince albert & they always ask me what I have in there & it’s just too much.”
You guys crack me up sometimes.
Ushers have have always been far too obnoxious and distracting. They’re just more so these days. It’s actually one of a dozen reasons my family doesn’t go to the theater anymore. The so called “theater experience” just wasn’t there anymore and the last time we all went together was in 2005 for a showing of Batman Begins.
The desire to boycott the industry for their mistreatment of customers only played a small role in that decision really. A high-def home theater setup with a decent big screen TV is the new “theater experience” these days.
No more advertisements, nuisance ushers, trying to get the car started in winter, having to get up for people who decide to visit the bathroom or concession stand in the middle of the movie, people who can’t shut up for two seconds, cell phones, people kicking the back of my chair, disgustingly sticky floors, misbehaving children and above all no more super expensive movie tickets and concession stand items!
At home I can pause the movie whenever I want as well as rewind to hear something I may have missed or misunderstood. Plus I always get the best, most comfortable seat in the house (a plush recliner) and can watch the movie an infinite number of times if I so choose.
Funny how a lot of these pirated in-cinema copies have no-one getting up, no audience noise and dead-centre from the very back. In fact it would appear that the theatre is empty.
So they are either being done right at the end or before general release.
Can anyon answer how this could happen????
German men make my boipussy soaking wet.
Bright flashlights are your friend when the goggles are out in force. Pick em off with the flashlight beam. Lens flare and sore eyes for a while. Then back to making out with the girl lol
Demonoid is gone for good.
Is that Sam Fisher with those cinema goggles?
So the industry actually wants to cut its last viable source of money?
Well… go on with it. :-)
And I’m going back to D/L-ing another Blu-ray REMUX.
IT’S POLITICAL CORRECTNESS GONE MAD
or maybe it’s a rare victory for common sense
@36josh
“I can’t stand going to the cinemas anymore. Uncomfortable seats, people talking, rustling of packets of chips & lollies, trailers that go on forever and overpriced tickets!”
Absolutely Spot On. Going to the cinema is such a souless spoilt experience these days. Annoying kids talking and texting with there phones lit up every 5 seconds, where are the staff telling them to stop annoying everyone else? Fecking spying on alledged camcorder copiers !!! Stop the talking laughing texting morons, sweet rustling tw@ts who spoil it for paying customers. Even our annual Christmas trip to the cinema to see the Festive blockbuster LOTR etc etc has been consigned to the dustbin ’cause of these idiots. Concentrate on them Showcase, UCI, Vue etc not an odd camcorder owner..who would want to watch a cam movie copy anyway?
@61
Errr, how so?
Film industry: We are losing money hand over fist to piracy.
Brain-dead exec: We’ll force the cinemas to buy really expensive night-vision goggles to catch the pirates.
Cinema: Sorry, we’re closing because of the costs the studios are forcing on us.
@Zigzag
“Is there anything torrent related that isn’t breaking the law? Can we here about that for a change?”
Not much is there torrent related that isn’t breaking the law. The law in most countries today firmly sticks to how the world worked 100 years ago – no Internet, no computers, no efficient copying technology. Basically, today’s technology is proclaimed illegal. It is considered legal only if you consider your computer not being what it is, not being able to copy and transmit information – so it is legal to have only one copy of the software you’ve bought, although you are able to make as many copies as you like.
So I do not think today it is possible to speak about torrents and not speak about the war the society has with the governments and large yesterday’s corporations. Unfortunately.
Yawn. Even if they DO see you, all they can do is throw you out of the theater… They can’t even take your camera, that’d be stealing.
They can kiss ELEKTRI4KA’s ass!
So comrade Stalin’s wet dream to control everything in a person’s life is fulfiled by his long-time enemies of the West. This is becoming weirder by the day. I wonder how long we will wait for a proper answer from the pirates. What I hear every day is just talk and anger, but no action. People get arrested, sued, searched by private entities and still we stand here and talk between ourselves. And what i see is only retreat and no getting even.
I haven’t been to movie theaters for 2 years now
why would anyone want to go there to be treat like a criminal not to mention you pay for it. that just stupid .
bank doesn’t even treat you like that.
Its not eaxctly rendering the goggles useless is it? If by virtue of telling the patrons that they are being watched it stops people from pirating the films then hasn’t that really achieved the objective…
@ 18
A ’screener’ is a dvd copy of the film forwarded to reviwers. NOT a cam recording…stfu n00b
Does anyone actually download cam releases? I mean if its a movie you really want to see that bad why would you want to ruin the experience by watching such a poor quality recording
simple answer:- wear a badge with high power IR emitter and rotating mirror. Ruins night vision without mucking up anything else.
:)
OK… I’m not likely to go in a theater anytime soon. =)
Yeah, my GF loves the excitement of giving me a “Handie” and a “BJ” while watching another peice of sh!t MPAA Production. All I can say is the Perv behind the goggles may get a big surpeise. LOL Idiots
Seems to me that every theatre would just post those signs then!
RT
http://www.complete-privacy.net.tc
so if you want to spend a nice evening with a nice girl…it’s not a solution anymore to go in theaters and cinemas!!!
nice, cctv will rule our life soon…
so F… nice
They should invent some of those cool Goggles that could see through clothes. I would buy one.
How is it they render it useless? The whole point is that no one’s camming. You think cinemas are happy to spy on people? It’s bothersome and can lead to false accusations.
Geez
Do you really think that companies like the mpaa, ifpi etc are really interested in stopping piracy? No, they are not. It makes them bundles of money. These companies are not in it for the big guy, the small guy, or any guy in between. They ar in it for themselves. As long as there is piracy, these companies will exist. They feed off of piracy…. It’s the only way they can survive.
its a stupid idea. the night vision goggles thing is way over the top.
@56
I still have some (old) loose flash which is not attached to a photo camera and can go off manually (now they are in-camera or just way too expensive)
But if you don’t want to be detected “flashing” them then you should flash in infrared which would blind them temporary the same without anyone in the theater seeing it.
(try to look with your photo/film camera close-up at your TV remote while pressing a button to see a bright dot light up, ofcourse last time i tried was a few years ago so there may be filters on cameras now but probably NOT on those goggles)
Hey I have a question!
Am I allowed to wear goggles so I can see them?
heheh
Splinter Cell – The Movie, in 4D :þ
I’m pro piracy but where’s all this privacy bullsh*t coming from, a cinema is a public place, you have no privacy, they’ve probably got your ass on cctv cameras from multiple angles before you even get to your seat, those goggles are just a tiny meaningless blip. It just highlights the retardation of most of these posters getting their panties in a twist over this, when you’re in a public place, you are being watched, thats the bottom line, so take your hands off you’re cock, because they can see you.
To fight back it is very simple:
We have to organize a way massive boycott!
In France the boycott dropped sale by 21% after Adopi I was passed within 3 months and this is scaring Megere the president of Sony music France!
Can you imaging if we could achieve 70%?
@84
“I’m pro piracy but….”
I am pro piracy but I am for it.
Some people expect privacy in the theater and the dark room was giving them that. It was one of the reason some were going to the movie theater.
Not any more.
Just like a couple of peeps said above in the comments, these goggles can be defeated easily.
They are extremely sensitive to infrared light. One can easily make a strong I.R. flash light.
Just replace the LED’s in any modern LED based flash lights with I.R. LED’s (like the ones from remote controls).
Pirates – 1
MAFIAA – 0
Hahaha this just means that the pirates are gaining ground.
MPAA won’t be satisfied until EVERYONE hates them :)
They should invent a lawnmower that will be able to clean the floors of the theaters.
Bamm! Peanut Butter and jam!
@89 Oct 04, 2009 at 23:44 by BuggerMeButtocks
For less then $10 bucks you can do your own LoL
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jFKc0FHs-GY
Or search for kaya optics that are selling those cameras to law enforcement :)
They clearly felt the need to push more of the people (who are actually paying to see movies) towards downloaded movies.
Yay for them!
Makes sense.
If someone is gonna be watching my makeout sessions with night-vision goggles, I wanna know about it.
@95, EXACTLY!
Teenagers will always go to the movies for the makeout sessions
And is there ANY data at all that even closely resembles an increase in downloads = decrease in ticket sales??
Somehow it appears that movie theaters have long stopped being place where the primary activity is watching movies!
That’s probably why I stopped going to the movies about 5 years ago even though I could always go for free.
don’t they realize that they’re actually losing more money by doing this?
@84
“I’m pro piracy but….”
I am pro piracy but I am for it.
Some people expect privacy in the theater and the dark room was giving them that. It was one of the reason some were going to the movie theater.
Not any more.
They should invent a lawnmower that will be able to clean the floors of the theaters.
Bamm! Peanut Butter and jam!
Ze Goggles…. dey do nothing!
” 98 Oct 05, 2009 at 07:35 by havoc802
don’t they realize that they’re actually losing more money by doing this?”
I’d have to agree with havoc…. part of good customer service, is making the customer feel welcomed when “shopping”. Movie theaters are the shopping “store”, movies are the “product”.
I don’t know about anyone else here, but being treated as “guilty until proven innocent” by putting us under scrutiny and watching us is not making me feel “welcomed” at all. As a matter of fact, it discourages me from even wanting to go to such establishments.
The movie industry will soon have special SWAT teams standing ready to breach bang and clear during the next Disney premiere.
This would presumably please the Swedish anti-piracy predecessor Henrik Pontén as he loves pretending being a cop.
GOOGLE MY ASS!
Haha, that’s crazy but cool
“Innocent until proven guilty”
Lawl! B.S.
Nob0dy: “I don’t know about anyone else here, but being treated as “guilty until proven innocent” by putting us under scrutiny and watching us is not making me feel “welcomed” at all.”
Do you know ANY stores that don’t put us under scrutiny and video surveillance? Why should movie theaters be any different than the rest of them normal stores?
Having said that: just don’t go to the movies. Not because of the spying, but because of the “blood money” you pay at the entrance that will be used to pay lawyers AND lawmakers etc, to make life miserable on everybody. Just say NO to the MAFIAA.
Honestly, when you go to the cinema you USUALLY want some privacy when the lights are out (thumbs up for the bj guy lmao). And seriously, a video recorded that way can be everything but watchable.
I’ve seen The Lord of the Rings (the first one) from a cam to see if the movie wouldn’t completely ruin the plot as an adaptation and in the end I watched the 1st movie twice, the second twice and the third once on the cinema and bought all 3 of them.
Seriously, watching some recorded with a cam won’t replace the experience of the huge screen and the mood a cinema can create. O wait, the mood is being ruined… Oh well.
… as long as they don’t hire snipers…
lol, funny fact a employer with such item need to look for every costumer one by one.But if a pirate get a gadget like this with himself only thing he need to do is keep and eye on the enterences while his camrecorder is working.By the way its very easy to spot a nighvision with another.Lenses of any optical device shines like sun when being looked by another device
Metal Detectors ?
What the Hell?
The obvious is that the same metals found in cam-corders are also found in pens – paperclips – shoes – buttons – coins – cellphones – pace-makers – jewelry – keys and so on.
So I may be stopped and frisked because I have 76¢ – a pen – a cellphone and some car keys in my pocket.
What will be real fun is when I refuse to submit to a search and they attempt to reject me and I have my lawyer serve the movie theater with legal papers.
Man, I want a pair
I cant post this enough, spread it around. go leave your signature:
http://www.copyrightalliance.org/letter/ dont leave your real name but get your few words in atleast. Let your voice be heard to the Obama too.
Guys, you´re missing the point: the article isn´t about the fact that the cinemas order their staff to have an eye on you (which they´ve been doing for quite some time now), but that finally a court has found the courage to rule that if they´re going to that they´ve got to tell the visitors before they hand over the money. Which, while not that much, is a step in the right direction. Of course it won´t change anything, but atleast now people are warned that if they don´t feel like being snooped at then they should skip the movie.
in paistan the people of cinema themselves record the movie ….!!
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