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Author Topic: Teen Caught with Camcorder at Spider-Man 2 Thomas Procyk Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1842 From: Royal Palm Beach, FL, USA Registered: Feb 2002 posted 06-30-2004 09:06 PM                     Link to Story at YAHOO NEWS (expires) Teen Caught with Camcorder at 'Spider-Man 2' Wednesday June 30 8:24 PM ET A 16-year-old boy was caught early Wednesday using a camcorder tape the first showing of "Spider-Man 2" at a Los Angeles theater, the Motion Picture Assn. of America (MPAA) said. The teen was spotted by a projectionist scanning the audience with night vision goggles. The boy, who was not identified because he is a minor, was arrested on suspicion of violating a California law that went into affect in January, barring the videotaping of movies in commercial theaters. The MPAA, which represents the interests of the major Hollywood studios, said the projectionists and other employees at the Pacific Winnetka in the suburb of Chatsworth may be eligible for awards of up to $500 under a new program that seeks to enlist theater employees and owners in the fight against digital piracy. The rewards program was instituted earlier this month by the MPAA and National Association of Theater Owners. Movies captured via camcorder are a source for the copies illegally traded on the Internet and sold worldwide as bootleg DVDs. The MPAA seized 52 million illegally duplicated optical discs worldwide in 2003, when optical-disc piracy reportedly costs the industry $3.5 billion in lost revenue. "In theaters nationwide there are now thousands of eyes looking for camcording pirates and this incident proves that pirates who use these devices in theaters will be caught," said James Spertus, director of MPAA's U.S. anti-piracy operations. "The swift actions of theater employees will help reduce the number of camcorded films that are made available to organized crime syndicates in Russia, Malaysia and around the world, which in turn convert the recordings into illegally solid optical discs." After allegedly using the camcorder at a midnight screening, the teen and two friends were escorted out of the theater and turned over to Los Angeles police, according to the MPAA. "Hundreds of people have put tens of thousands of hours into making a truly great picture and the notion of having it stolen and sent out for free around the world is just plain wrong," said Jeff Blake, vice chairman at Sony Pictures Entertainment, which released "Spider-Man 2." Reuters/Hollywood Reporter -------------- Wait, it cost the industry $3.5 Billion last year? Isn't that equal to that year's box office take, thereabouts? So the MPAA is claiming that they would make DOUBLE the money if people just suddenly stop pirating movies? PLEASE! No, treating the customers like criminals, bombarding the audience with advertizing, releasing crap movies and demanding a 90/10 take for the first two weeks of a four week minimum... THAT is just plain WRONG!! I wonder if the show was deeply disrupted while they snatched this kid's low-definition mess of a tape. =TMP=  |  IP: Logged Mike Blakesley Film God Posts: 12767 From: Forsyth, Montana Registered: Jun 99 posted 06-30-2004 09:29 PM                        The industry did around 9 or 10 billion last year, in the United States. I don't know the worldwide figures. This is the interesting thing for us spell-checkers: quote: arrested on suspicion of violating a California law that went into affect in January, "AFFECT?" Who is writing these articles? Not journalists, apparently.  |  IP: Logged Dean Kollet Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 591 From: Florida State University Registered: Jul 2003 posted 06-30-2004 09:34 PM                     haha, so the projectionist will share this $500 reward with the staff...which means the mgmt. will try and take most of it and give him a $25 bonus...  |  IP: Logged Brad Miller Administrator Posts: 17775 From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall) Registered: May 99 posted 06-30-2004 09:56 PM                     Even if all $500 went to the projectionist and $50 of that was given back to the minor, that's still a $450 take for the projectionist. What I want to know is why these bootleggers are so stupid as to bootleg at an indoor theater? Go to the drive-in!!! You have the privacy and security of your car, FM stereo direct audio patch-in to your camcorder, and with a 24P camera, you'll walk away with a miraculously beautiful copy. (Valenti is bound to enjoy many sleepness nights ahead for pointing out that one! hahaha)  |  IP: Logged Adam Martin I'm not even gonna point out the irony. Posts: 3686 From: Dallas, TX Registered: Nov 2000 posted 06-30-2004 09:57 PM                     Didn't the last story like this come out of the Pacific Winnetka? Sounds like they have a problems there.  |  IP: Logged Phil Hill I love my cootie bug Posts: 7595 From: Hollywood, CA USA Registered: Mar 2000 posted 06-30-2004 10:03 PM                  Gosh (M)Adam.... that drive-in was closed years ago... Also, it seems to me that there are many more $ to be made by taking the bribe $ from the bootleggers rather than the goodie-two-shoes spies for the "reward"... It all just points out the stupidity of Jacko his butt buddies. >>> Phil  |  IP: Logged Paul Mayer Oh get out of it Melvin, before it pulls you under! Posts: 3836 From: Albuquerque, NM Registered: Feb 2000 posted 06-30-2004 10:17 PM                        Are there any drive-ins left in the San Fernando Valley? I think the kid would probably have to venture down to the Harbor District or the San Gabriel Valley to find the closest drive-in nowadays. The Pacific Winnetka is in a fairly upscale walled-fortress kind of neighborhood (think Irvine without the Orange County vibe). Lots of rich peoples' brats around, plus CSUN is close by. Ah, the primary camcorder-pirate demographic... BTW the Pacific Winnetka was where I got to see my first JVC D-ILA screening, for Star Wars Ep. 1 in 1999. [ 07-02-2004, 05:48 PM: Message edited by: Paul Mayer ]  |  IP: Logged Adam Martin I'm not even gonna point out the irony. Posts: 3686 From: Dallas, TX Registered: Nov 2000 posted 07-01-2004 12:10 AM                     quote: Yahoo Story the projectionists and other employees at the Pacific Winnetka in the suburb of Chatsworth WTF are you smoking, Phil? The Winnetka 21 opened in 1997.  |  IP: Logged William T. Parr Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 823 From: Cedar Park, TX Registered: Nov 2000 posted 07-01-2004 12:18 AM                     quote: WTF are you smoking, Crack Adam.... He is smoking some of that ASS CRACK again.  |  IP: Logged Paul G. Thompson The Weenie Man Posts: 4718 From: Mount Vernon WA USA Registered: Nov 2000 posted 07-01-2004 12:48 AM                     These people, young or old better not get caught in our theaters by me with a camcorder. End of that story. I read the news clip. There is one thing I disagree with...it was said that 98% of the bootlegged movies are committed by movie patrons. That is a bunch of crap! Of all the years I have been running movies since the video camera technology developed, there was only one instance where a video recording device was brought into one of our theaters. It was an employee that did that to make movies of the theater itself. It was done without permission, and I caught him. The tape was confiscated and destroyed. This was in the mid-1980's. Shortly thereafter, that employee was terminated.  |  IP: Logged Brad Miller Administrator Posts: 17775 From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall) Registered: May 99 posted 07-01-2004 12:54 AM                     Where does it say 98%? I've never heard that number from anywhere and it certainly wasn't in that news article.  |  IP: Logged Paul G. Thompson The Weenie Man Posts: 4718 From: Mount Vernon WA USA Registered: Nov 2000 posted 07-01-2004 01:25 AM                     From the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, article by Alex Veiga, Associated Press Business Writer. http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/ http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Spider-Man-2-Arrest.html Excerpt: Camcorders account for 92 percent of all illegal copies of films that are sold online and on street corners worldwide, according to the MPAA. OK - it was 92%, not 98%. My error on my typo. Generally, since I have to prove just about anything I say anymore, I usually research before I post. Edited to add the New York Times Link citing the same percentage. [ 07-01-2004, 02:28 AM: Message edited by: Paul G. Thompson ]  |  IP: Logged Brad Miller Administrator Posts: 17775 From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall) Registered: May 99 posted 07-01-2004 03:32 AM                     Ok, so now that we have an official MPAA quote on percentages, does ANYONE buy into this load of crap that 92% of all bootleg videos are off of theater prints? ANYONE??? Bueller? Bueller? Bueller? Fry?  |  IP: Logged Leo Enticknap Film God Posts: 7474 From: Loma Linda, CA Registered: Jul 2000 posted 07-01-2004 09:46 AM                        quote: Mike Blakesley "AFFECT?" Who is writing these articles? Not journalists, apparently. ...and the sub-editor putting the page together was clearly asleep on the job, too. This is the most common sort of typo - one which forms a correctly spelt word but in an incorrect context, so computer spell-checkers won't pick it up. That's not quite as good as the one in an article I was reading the other week, though. It stated that RCA engineers carried out some early experiments in stereo sound recording with the 'Moron Tabernacle Choir'!  |  IP: Logged Bill Gabel Film God Posts: 3873 From: Technicolor / Postworks NY, USA Registered: Jan 2002 posted 07-01-2004 09:58 AM                     Paul M. The Pacific Winnetka 6 Drive-In was the last operating Drive-In in San Fernando Valley.  |  IP: Logged

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