**HOT NEWS** USA film heads Offer Bounty to catch pirates - Make $500 for stooling

[NewCardDude]

Industry will give up to $500 to workers who catch illegal filmers.

By Greg Hernandez
Staff writer

The movie industry, eager to thwart a $3.5 billion annual loss to video pirates, promised Monday a bounty of up to $500 to any employee who catches someone in their theaters recording a movie.
The Motion Picture Association of America and the National Association of Theater Owners are jointly sponsoring the anti-piracy program to help combat the growing epidemic of people using their camcorders to copy films directly from theater screens.

"Within hours after a film is illegally camcorded from a theater screen, a digital copy of the pirated film is already percolating around the Internet," said John G. Malcolm, senior vice president and director of the MPAA's worldwide anti-piracy program. "In a matter of days, organized crime syndicates in Russia, Malaysia and elsewhere have turned those films into optical discs that are being sold illegally on street corners around the world."

Theater employees who catch someone in the act, notify police and thwart the recording can receive up to $500.

"Theater employees are increasingly vigilant about individuals who surreptitiously set up camcorders in their theaters," said NATO President John Fithian. "This program will give every theater worker added incentive to take action against pirates and help protect our industry from this scourge."

Loews Cineplex Entertainment was already offering its employees $100 if they catch someone recording a movie inside one of their theaters. Those employees now do more aisle checks and, for example, keep an eye on people who might be wearing overcoats far too big for the season. Loews also no longer even allows employees to sit through an initial run-through of a film to make sure the negative isn't damaged. Only a supervisor or a single technician may do so.

Last week, the MPAA took its fight against movie piracy to college campuses to educate students and parents about illegal movie downloading and its negative effects on the film industry. Anti-piracy ads have begun appearing in daily newspapers and magazines nationwide as well as in more than 100 college newspapers and in the coming months, anti-piracy messages will begin appearing in movie theaters.

MPAA President and CEO Jack Valenti said he hopes the campaign will stem the illegal downloading but said the MPAA is keeping open the option of taking legal action against violators. Part of the urgency lies in the rapidly-rising speeds of file-trafficking networks.

[NewCardDude]

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Film studios and movie theatres are offering rewards of up to $500 to employees who nab people using camcorders to record films.

The reward program announced Monday is the latest in a series of efforts to stem film piracy, which the Motion Picture Association of America estimates costs the industry billions of dollars each year.

The MPAA seized 52 million DVDs and other illegal copies of movies in 2003, many of which began as recordings made in theatres during the first few days of a movie's opening.

Hollywood studios have already cracked down on tapings made during pre-release showings, called screenings. Studios often search bags, use metal detectors and station people with night vision goggles in theatres to catch camcorders.

Studios have also been lobbying for state laws that make recording a movie in a theatre a crime. In California, theatre-goers can make a citizen's arrest of someone recording a movie.

Under the new program, co-sponsored by the National Association of Theater Owners, U.S., theatre employees can qualify for the reward by catching camcorders, notifying the police and stopping the illegal recording.

The Canadian Press, 2004

[hackinsat]

They will have to go much farther than looking for people that use a camcorder to record a movie from a theatre screen.
Most of it is done by projectionists themself. Locked in the booth by themself it is very easy to set up a small camera and record the movie.
I remember years ago working at a post house, where one of the guys was good friends with a theatre owner / projectionist.
Every time a new release would come out they would, usually before the film even opened bring in all the 35mm reels and throw it on the Rank cintel scanner, and rip a copy direct to 1" tape, then take the film back, and splice the film together onto the projector platters.

(this was before digital video)
Used to do this after hours (naturally) and this was kept under a tight lid. Being a junior tech at the time, I was brown noseing with managment, trying to score brownie points, I noticed a discrepency with the run logs and the time on the hour meter.
Initially the managment thought that transfer work wasn't being billed for. (this post house did a lot of dailies for the film and TV industry) This was before AVID became the standard for editing. The film was transfered to tape so the editors could cut the tape first to their rough cut, and then go back and actually cut the negatives.

Anyway the production companies were billed by the minute for transfers, and would send in their days work for transfer every evening.

Managment dropped the axe on all of the afternoon crew because nobody (naturally) would admit to rolling film through the chain. So they fired everyone remotely involved including maintenence technicians (myself).

Things have NOT changed today. There are still elements of piracy involved, but now the film no longer has to be smuggled out to get a quality print. Just a cam-corder set up in the booth.
Why do you think the sound is so good on some of them? Because the camera is plugged directly into the output of the projector or CD player.
(many movies these days distribute the audio for features on CD)

[harrybuckman]

so what are they going to do???

They don't have guns.

They will most likely get their teeth removed.

[H2S]

I'm Sorry but $500 US is not enough for us to Even " Think " of getting the Gear Together!! Comon Now Get Serious! Hollyweird !!!. For $ 50,000 US I might " Start Think of getting my Thoughts Together ", But that would Only Light The Candle in this World!!!. Heck " You Claim Your Losing almost a Billion in US Funds a Year or More !! How about Paying Those to " Not Film Your Stuff ?? " for 2 million ?.. Daaaaaa,Daaaaaa Let Us Think About It ' OK, Ah Daaaaa
Cheers & God Bless