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http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,...1228203,00.html

Quote:Harry Potter and the wizard idea to foil cinema pirates

Cinema ushers across Britain go into action today with a new piece of equipment which makes their ice-cream trays and hand torches look tame.
Military-style night-sights have been sent to every outlet in the country showing the new Harry Potter film, The Prisoner of Azkaban.

Staff have been instructed to spend all two hours and 22 minutes of the film scanning the dark - for pirates making illegal copies.

"I've never known a company to go to such lengths to protect a film," said Jamie Graham, manager of the Vue cinema at Cheshire Oaks, Wirral, where the red monocle devices are ready for action.

The precaution has been taken by the film's distributor, Warner Brothers, after an epidemic of poor-quality, grainy versions of the two previous Potter films.

Surreptitious recording from cinema seats, sometimes interrupted by the head of the person in front shifting and blocking the action, has become a serious menace, according to the industry.

Most cinemas now screen an appeal to audiences to shop any neighbour suspected of filming, along with warnings about mobile phones and adverts for popcorn.

Mr Graham said: "Video piracy is rife everywhere, and with the UK screening the film four days before the rest of the world, Warner was concerned the movie would end up on the internet."

Pirate DVD versions of the boy wizard's earlier adventures were traced to Britain through codes imprinted on the films as a security device.

The night sights, together with the coding and experiments with watermarks, have added significantly to distribution costs. But Warner sees the investment as negligible compared with the threat to the whole industry.

Staff at the Vue will be "very discreet" with their potentially frightening cyclopean attachments, Mr Graham said, but action against offenders would be swift.

Much like the battered young wizards on screen, who are constantly being whirled about by baddies, pirates will be "hauled out of their seats and reported straight away to the police".

So what are we gonna do now GB?

Take camera flashes into the theater for some fun. :D

I use to work at theatres and we had some guy come in one time...funny thing was he was in a military uniform with lots of medals too ...but I digress.....he stood in the middle of the theatre on a Sunday morning with a video camera taping the show...he didnt seem to mind all the extraneous talking going on around him and even talked to us when we tried to stop him...continuing to tape the whole time..the manager finally came in and took the camera removed the tape and then gave him back his camera, he said nothing about not getting the tape back...

Quote:Harry Potter and the wizard idea to foil cinema pirates

"Aaargh me matey...thar land-lubin' Potter's loot be mine!!"

Seriously...if some dude is sitting in the theatre with a parrot on his shoulder, that's probably your guy.

ppff. The price they charge to go see the movie is theft. They deserve to have at least a crappy home video version stolen from them.

This was just in britian tho. I know of at least one theatre where the ushers are standing outside not even looking at the audience. Is that how they get recently released movies for download in the internet?

Thats one way but they are always crappy versions.

But the better versions are copied from VHS tape or DVD screeners. They are usually high quality.