Movie Theater Security Guards Assault Women, Claim They Were Pirating Movie
from the has-it-really-come-to-this? dept
It's well-known that the big studios and the MPAA like to indoctrinate movie theater employees into believing that there's a horrible menace of people trying to pirate movies in the theaters, and that in some cases, they even hand out money to employees who "catch" pirates in the act. In general, all this really does is make it less enjoyable to go to the movies -- and sometimes leads to elderly patrons being ejected from theaters because some kid is totally sure she's pirating the film she's watching.And the latest example is even more extreme, where private security forces apparently decided to assault a couple of Toronto women they falsely accused of pirating a showing of The Magnificent 7. One of the women, Jean Telfer, says she actually decided to leave the film early because she found it too violent. Apparently the idea that a pirate probably wouldn't be leaving in the middle of a film didn't occur to the geniuses Sony Pictures had specifically hired to "guard" the showing. So they tackled Telfer. Really.
Halfway through the film, Telfer decided to leave because she found the movie to be too violent.Bizarrely, despite all of that, the guy who tackled her never told her why and then just let her go. But when her friend, Elaine Wong, also went to leave, the experience was a bit different.
“When I left the theatre I heard someone yelling behind me, ‘Sir! Sir!’ I didn’t think much of it,” said Telfer.
“Out of nowhere I felt someone grab me from behind. My reaction [was] to get this person off of me. Unfortunately it did escalate and he did somehow get on top of me.”
Wong, unaware of what had happened to her friend, left the theatre shortly after to find Telfer.Wong noted that they left right before the action really started, and if they were trying to pirate a movie, you'd think they'd "wait until a lot of people start dying." Eventually both Telfer and Wong were told to remain with security until the police arrived -- though after a while when no police arrived, they were apparently let go. The two did decide to file a police report of their own, arguing that they had been illegally assaulted by security at the theater.
Wong said a guard approached her and little explanation was given except that the security guards had been watching them all night and that something on the guards’ heat sensor guns had gone off. She added that they attempted to search her bag.
In some tweets, Wong notes that they demanded to search her bag, and also demanded to know why they were leaving early -- as if that were some sort of "sign" of piracy in action (though she refers to the guy as being from Disney, the news reports say he was hired by Sony).
None of them are cops. None of them have search warrants. Barry from Disney demanded to know why we were leaving before the movie ended.
— Elaine Wong (@elthenerd) September 22, 2016
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Filed Under: copyright, movie theater, piracy, toronto
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Good. Arresting those guards for assault and false imprisonment would be a start.
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I guess it's proof positive that Hollywood lives in bizzaro land.
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Hollywood doesn't want anyone "improving" their movies by only recording the first half!
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That sounds far more plausible than a well-tried recipe for success like this remake of a remake's remake being more of a load of unwatchable crap than the moviegoers were expecting.
Well, at least it sounds far more plausible when your job depends on the movies being so fantastic that people would not just want to watch them but would want go to the hassle of missing out on the rest of the Internet while wasting their time on them.
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Obviously they knew that if anyone had the first 1/2 of the movie, they could just photoshop the whole thing into being, and nobody would be the wiser...
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BUT, seems like there *could* be any number of scenarios where you got to a movie late, camera was out of juice, SD card got munged, whatever, where you had to record just the first half or some portion of a movie to have a complete version...
just sayin'...
but even so, just more 'criminalization of living' (especially when a darker shade of pink...)
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People are idiots.
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It is an unfortunate thing that the moment many people are given an enforcement role, they leave their brains/minds at home sitting on the dunny.
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Three simple Examples:
0. In order to not be shot by a police officer for jaywalking, you decide to use the crosswalk to avoid the penalty.
1. In order to not be shot by a police officer for running a red light you decide to stop at the red light. That attempt to avoid contact with the police provides probable cause for contact with the police.
2. The MPAA / RIAA tears apart your home, seizes all your computers, and after an extensive two year search can find no copyright infringing files anywhere. The reason is because you must have hidden them in order to avoid prosecution and capital punishment for copyright infringement.
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There must have been something else with the guards than thinking pirates...
I can't think of any situation where they would detain someone only after leaving the theater and not during their supposed illegal action.
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Re: There must have been something else with the guards than thinking pirates...
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Re: There must have been something else with the guards than thinking pirates...
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The irony for this film is delicious
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An intricate plot?
Then their ingenious plan comes to fruition: they can rightly say no one is going to movies (because they are stealing the movies online!!!) and they can get SOPA passed without opposition!
I can see Hollywood executives curling their mustaches as I write this!
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Re: An intricate plot?
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Rent-a-cop2: What happened?
Rent-a-cop1: I said something about the Pope.
Rent-a-cop2: Stupid, you know she's catholic.
Rent-a-cop1: Yea, I know she is, I didn't know the Pope was.
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Similarly for police. The job specifically selects for: authority complex and bullying. If you find yourself graduating from high school and suddenly realize you have no useful skills or talent, and you don't want to go into marketing or management, you become a police officer. Failing that, you become a rent-a-cop. Or run for political office.
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By how the MPAA values it, it's over a $150,000,000 movie.
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They wouldn't make a remake x2/3/4/5/6/7/8/9 for anything less.
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Or, here in Georgia, some civic-minded hand-gunner, witnessing an obviously unprovoked sneak-attack on an old lady, might have acted on his/her misapprehension of the circumstances.
"Misapprehension"....hhhmmmm?
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Another Drive-By
Sorry, but if your film is THIS PRECIOUS to you, tell you what, you keep it - I'm clearly not missing out on anything worthwhile. This is getting ridiculous, from the 'Red Dawn' politically-correct spin, to the Django 'race spin' to the Magnificent 7 'profit spin', Hollywood has become their own worst-enemy.
Repeat after me, Hollywood, 'it's not the pirates that are killing my business, it's my greed and constant political messages that are killing me'. Like Django, I'll just wait until it hits Netflix in a month, due to bad reviews and revenues, and see it as part of my $9 monthly package.
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Re: Another Drive-By
This.
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Re: Another Drive-By
I don't believe that most movies are as political as some people try to make out (Django Unchained actually pissed off a lot of people due to its racial political incorrectness, for a start). I agree Red Dawn was a mess because of their pandering to the Chinese market, but it was hardly a film people were looking forward to (or watched) at the end of the day. There's some sources that will try to find political messages in everything, but they're usually clutching at straws.
But, if you think that overarching greed is some kind of new thing in Hollywood, I welcome our time traveller from the early 1900s and wonder how you because so quickly proficient at the internet.
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Come to think of it maybe it's a better experience since you aren't at risk of being assaulted.
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Personally, if there were people in the theater watching for anyone using a cell phone and immediately escorting them out if they were, I'd consider that the best thing that has happened to moviegoing since popcorn. But when these theater "guards" are trained (such as it is?) to have the mindset that "there are pirates in this theater and you have to find them" instead of---at best---"keep your eyes open for suspicious behavior" then this kind of nonsense is only going to get worse.
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News flash: I can stay at home and NOT have to be subjected to a Hollywood movie!
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"and that something on the guards’ heat sensor guns had gone off"
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whats nice about this??
Sue the theater for HOLDING them, without reason or want
Sue the 2 Men, as they were NOT representative of the police or constabulary..
Anyone want a GOOD pile of money to retire on??
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I see the obvious next step...
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Really, that's plenty
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Remember, until John Steele got his ass kicked by Otis Wright, Whatever was an ardent fan. (Not saying he's suddenly not a fan; he's just remained very, very quiet. Eerily silent...)
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The heirarchy of Life, 20116 edition
Security Guards act like Cops
Civilians act like slaves.
Any questions? Good. Shut up slave!
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No - cops dress like military...they act like mobsters.
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Guard2: Yeah
Guard1: I mean like UTTER total shit, it's so crap even the homeless wouldn't come in here to get out of the rain.
Guard2: Hmmm...that women just bought a ticket for this movie
Guard1: Lets assault her...no WAY she's here because she enjoys this crap!
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