Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Ohio film pirates can go to jail

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Posted by Jeffry L. Johnson (Member # 453) on 01-03-2004, 01:43 PM:

Ohio film pirates can go to jail

01/03/04
Andrew Welsh- Huggins
Associated Press

Columbus - At a recent showing of "Big Fish," several moviegoers at a local theater held up camera-equipped cell phones and took snapshots of the screen. Doing the same with a video camera will soon be a crime.

Along with a few other states, Ohio has at Hollywood's urging passed a law that lets police arrest people for videotaping movies in theaters. The new statutes augment a film-industry anti- piracy arsenal that includes bag searches for people entering movie houses - part of a multifaceted response to technological strides that make digital video distribution a snap.

Some analysts say that with such tactics Hollywood is shooting a political blunderbuss that could backfire. The movie industry, they say, should be more concerned about the illegal copying of films by its own.

A recent AT&T Labs study found that three in four movies leaked on the Internet came from industry insiders - a trend that motivated the Motion Picture Academy of America to temporarily stop sending "screener" tapes and DVDs to Oscar voters.

That kind of digital piracy "is much more of a threat than someone sneaking in with a video camera," said David Joyce, media analyst with Guzman & Co. "You're going to have really poor quality - it's not going to duplicate as quickly as an actual digital file."

Ohio's bill, signed in December by Gov. Bob Taft, takes effect in March. It gives theaters the right to detain people suspected of videotaping movies, just as a department store can hold a suspected shoplifter.

A similar law took effect Thursday in California.

Michigan lawmakers introduced such legislation in December, and Wisconsin and Pennsylvania passed equivalent bills in 1999.

The Motion Picture Association of America says it plans to lobby at least a dozen more states this year for legislation. The industry estimates pirated movies cost it $3.5 billion annually.

"It's the same way an honest consumer is hurt by shoplifting," said John Fithian, president of North American Theater Owners.

California already has felony- level laws that could be used to prosecute suspected movie pirates. Its new law creates a less serious charge that would be easier for district attorneys to use, said James Provenza, legislative counsel for the Los Angeles district attorney's office. Although the new California charge is a misdemeanor, it still carries serious consequences - up to one year in jail and a $2,500 fine.

Under Ohio law, by contrast, a first offense would be punishable by up to six months in jail and a $1,000 fine. Michigan's bill would set penalties up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

The state laws make it easier to prosecute individuals caught in theaters because the charges focus simply on the operation of a camera - avoiding prickly details of federal copyright law.

"Enforcement is always a last resort, but we hope this will be a deterrent," said Vans Stevenson, senior vice president for the Motion Picture Association of America.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation, a San Francisco-based advocacy group, is concerned that state laws often are written too broadly and ignore traditional "fair use" copying of small portions of a movie for personal or educational use.

"I'm in a theater watching a movie that really [stinks], I take a five-second picture clip and send it to friends and say, 'This movie [stinks],' " said Jason Schultz, foundation staff attorney. "Have I now violated the law and committed a felony?"

It's not unusual for a guard to watch projectionists as they assemble the film and then sit in the booth during the movie, said Seth Distelzweig, an Arena Grand assistant manager.

For a recent preview of "Texas Chainsaw Massacre," two security officers accompanied the movie from Los Angeles. At a preview for "Honey," guards walked through the darkened theater wearing night-vision goggles to check for cameras.

Moviegoer Margaret Nivins is so accustomed to the searches that she now leaves her purse in the car.

"It's just easier for me to work without it, and then it's easier for them too," said Nivins, 42, waiting in line to see a "Big Fish" preview at the theater.

Yet the October study by AT&T Labs questioned the impact of camera-toting movie pirates. Researchers created a list of the 312 most popular movies released between January 2002 and June 2003.

After locating 285 of those movies on the Internet, researchers used software to look for evidence of their origin, such as visible boom mikes in scenes, a sign that the copies were unedited versions. They also looked for watermarks on film or text on the movie itself, such as phrases "For screening purposes only."

Their conclusion: 77 percent of the films came from insider sources, either motion picture companies or theater employees taping from the projection booth.

"Our initial thoughts were how easy it is to get these copies from the movies," said Patrick McDaniel, one of the AT&T researchers. "The data set we did didn't actually show that to be true."

Stevenson of the MPAA says the researchers used flawed data. The movie industry says its internal analysis last year showed that 92 percent of recently released movies found on the Internet came from camcorders.

[two photographs]
The people below are being searched for video recording equipment before viewing "Cold Mountain" at the Arena Grand Theatre in Columbus. In the projection booth, at right, the movie's reels are kept locked. Security in booths around the country has been tightened to make sure projectionists do not make pirate versions of films.

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 01-03-2004, 01:54 PM:

quote:
Stevenson of the MPAA says the researchers used flawed data. The movie industry says its internal analysis last year showed that 92 percent of recently released movies found on the Internet came from camcorders.

Ahem, excuse me here, but BULLSHIT! Most of these copies are originating from the studios not the theaters, but of course the MPAA can't dare afford to admit this. This Stevenson nutbag is going to be the new Valenti tyrant, isn't he?

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 01-03-2004, 02:42 PM:

quote:
Some Andrew Huggins guy wrote:
At a recent showing of "Big Fish," several moviegoers at a local theater held up camera-equipped cell phones and took snapshots of the screen. Doing the same with a video camera will soon be a crime.

You mean it currently isn't against the law to pirate a movie in Ohio?

Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 01-03-2004, 03:37 PM:

Joe--federal copyright laws already exist to protect copyrighted works, with exceptions for "fair use" and public domain material, as well as copying which has been authorized by the copyright holder. The Ohio law stupidly extends this to include _any_ video recording of _any_ film in _any_ theatre, regardless of whether or not the film is in the public domain, the recording falls under "fair use," or permission has been obtained from the copyright holder.

Piracy is bad, but this type of legislation is worse.

Posted by Pravin Ratnam (Member # 1417) on 01-03-2004, 03:55 PM:

I saw a 10 min clip of Kill Bill and it was the finished print with a running clock at the bottom and "Property of Miramax" title header overlaid on the image. No way, that was taped from the theater. So much for the crap code.

Posted by Ron Lacheur (Member # 1126) on 01-03-2004, 05:59 PM:

Searching people at the door? C'mon, I thought that was for press screenings? Yet another thorn in the exhibitor's side.

What does the copyright law state about a still photo of a movie on the screen? Is that really considered " piracy "?

Posted by Tim Reed (Member # 137) on 01-03-2004, 07:43 PM:

Camcorders are child's play; they make inferior images. The best way to make clean copies of movies is with my Rank Cintel Flying Spot Scanner.
[thumbsup]

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 01-03-2004, 09:09 PM:

I'm sure this has been addressed here before, but jails are already overcrowded, with like 40 or 50 people per cell. Would it be worth it to put a freakin' movie pirate in an already overcrowded jail eating up taxpayer money? I know that pirating a movie is akin to raping and/or murdering someone, but c'mon!

And I know I've brought this up before: Does the movie industry really think that for each person that sees a pirated movie that they are losing a ticket sale? I think that people watch pirated movies out of ease, convenience, and cheapness. If there was no movie pirating, all of those people wouldn't suddenly go to a theater. Can someone please PROVE that the industry is losing over 3 billion bucks per year because of piracy? Nope. Nobody can. I also find it humorous how Valenti boasts how much profit the industry made as a whole last year. Nobody can address this either. That's because an agument cannot be made for Valenti's side. Such hipocrisy.

Posted by Darryl Spicer (Member # 711) on 01-03-2004, 10:22 PM:

I am starting to think that this thread may belong in the ground level area since it is not adressing a projection related problem to be solved. Just my thoughts. [Smile]

Oh yes Yak is much better for this topic. [thumbsup]

Posted by Michael Schaffer (Member # 1204) on 01-04-2004, 03:42 AM:

quote:
Does the movie industry really think that for each person that sees a pirated movie that they are losing a ticket sale?

While it is certainly true, that the movie industry loses some money, I also think that it is absolutely nowhere near as much as they claim.
I think the piracy thing is just a very convenient way for the studios to make excuses for a lot of bad product they turn out. They can say that a movie failed at the box office because it was pirated, not because it was a bad movie.

Posted by Carl Martin (Member # 1146) on 01-04-2004, 04:42 AM:

i have allowed someone to videotape in a theater. it was a film that i made. i hope some of you will write to me in the big house.

carl

Posted by Tim Reed (Member # 137) on 01-04-2004, 09:38 AM:

I've seen camcorder video of intermission trailers I've made, shot off of drive-in screens. One also turned up in a documentary about west coast drive-ins.

We're still in litigation.
[Razz]