Pointless Piracy Bans Go From Hollywood To Holyrood
from the heeeed-pants-now dept
California's idea to make it illegal to have any sort of video camera (including cameraphones) inside a movie theater will take some beating in the stupid stakes. But the game's gone international, with the news that attendees of the Edinburgh Film Festival will be forced to surrender their phones before entering screenings to "combat" piracy. In case you didn't know, "piracy affects us all," according to a festival producer, though she doesn't really offer any details on that, nor on quite how a cameraphone makes an effective tool with which to pirate movies. Outside the pointless ban, the festival has also organized a "a special event where a panel of experts will discuss some of the issues surrounding the growing problem of film piracy" that it's aiming at kids -- who will, without a doubt, be camping out for a seat at that like nerds for Star Wars. The ban is representative of the movie industry's priority to put these inane measures that are misguided attempts to protect its outdated business model. No wonder people don't want to go to the movies anymore.
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yup
Hollywood won't get it. How to bring people back into theatres?
Idea #1: Cell phone rings? $50 fine for the first offense, $100 for the next. Make it an actual *crime* to have a phone ringing/phone convo in a theatre.
Idea #2: No children under 13 after 9pm. Period. That would eliminate having to put up with someone elses fussy baby during an 11pm Saturday night showing. (yes, I've had that happen. When the people were asked to take the baby out, they responded with "Mind your own f--king business." and refused to leave. theatre staff were equally useless.)
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