Woman Arrested For Filming Snippets Of 'New Moon' May Sue Theater

from the but-probably-won't-win dept

The latest in the saga of the young woman, Samantha Tumpach, who was arrested and jailed for two nights because her attempt to film some of her sister's birthday party at the movies happened to catch a few snippets of the film New Moon, is that Tumpach is now considering suing the theater, even though the charges against her have been dropped. Unfortunately, thanks to the draconian anti-camera laws pushed by the MPAA to punish people for these sorts of things, she might not get very far with such a lawsuit. As Copycense points out, the Illinois law in question basically lets the theater do exactly what it did, even if the circumstances are ridiculous. So, any lawsuit is unlikely to last, though it should lead us to questioning why legislators around the globe have passed similar laws at the behest of the movie industry. There are already perfectly good copyright laws to be used against anyone actually filming a movie for "piracy" purposes. These anti-camcorder laws go above and beyond that, and lead to ridiculous scenarios like this one.

Filed Under: copyright, felony, movies, new moon, piracy, samantha tumpach

Piracy Destroying Hollywood Right To Yet Another Record Year At The Box Office... In A Recession

from the cry-me-a-river dept

We've been scratching our heads at the various claims from the movie industry that piracy is destroying the industry -- especially as the trends over the past few years have been significantly more movies being made and significantly more money being made at the box office. And, once again, reports are coming out that 2009 will be another record year at the box office. And it's even more impressive, considering that the country has been in a pretty bleak recession the whole year. You would think that such things, including greater than 10% unemployment would get people to hold back on increasingly expensive nights out at the movies, but people are still going and still paying. So, again, we have to ask where is this evidence that piracy is destroying Hollywood? Or is the same "evidence" like the study we recently saw that came with the headline that Redbox was going to take away revenue, while the actual study said the opposite?

Filed Under: box office, hollywood, movies

If Hollywood Is Upset About $1/Day Movie Rentals, How Do They Feel About 6 Cents Per Hour Rentals?

from the it'll-destroy-Hollywood-even-more! dept

So Hollywood is all concerned that Redbox DVD rentals at $1 per day are going to do serious damage to the Hollywood economy -- except, of course, that the actual numbers say exactly the opposite. Still, if they're all freaked out (and some are in court) over $1/day rentals, you'd have to imagine they're not particularly pleased about rentals that could be even cheaper. Rose M. Welch points us to the news of a new DVD rental kiosk operation, called Big Box DVD, which is moving forward with a business model of charging a whopping 6 cents per hour for a new release (4 cents per hour for an older release). For folks willing to just rent the video, take it home, watch it and return it, that can be quite cheap. Of course, if you keep it for a full 24 hours, it'll be a bit over a dollar. How long until we hear about how much damage this is doing to Hollywood?

Filed Under: business models, dvd rentals, dvds, hollywood, kiosks, movies
Companies: big box dvd, redbox

Wait, I Thought Piracy Had Killed Any Chance Of Zombieland 2?

from the perhaps-not.. dept

Last month, we wrote about Zombieland director Rhett Reese, complaining on Twitter that the fact that his movie was a top unauthorized download would make it that much more unlikely that there would ever be a sequel. Others picked up that claim and ran with it, as if this was proof that piracy was harming the movie business. The whole thing seemed curious to us, since the movie has been quite successful at the box office, and has made a ton of money. Given that, who cares how much it's pirated. If it can make a bunch of money, of course it's ripe for a sequel.

And, guess what? Despite all the doom and gloom about how Sony would never make a sequel, Variety is reporting (you guessed it!) that Sony is about to ink a sequel for Zombieland, which will be done in 3D. Shocking. Even though the movie was pirated so much, the studio still wants to make a sequel? Could it be that there really are some people who recognize that how much a movie is pirated doesn't really matter if the movie can still make a ton of cash?

Filed Under: bittorrent, downloading, movies, popularity, rhett reese, sequels, zombieland
Companies: sony pictures

Piracy Harming African Culture... Because Some Professor Says So

from the evidence-please? dept

Shocklee points us to an odd, totally unsubstantiated article by a University of Southern Illinois professor insisting that "piracy" is creating tremendous harm to West African content industries. This goes against numerous studies, including those by the WTO on how developing nations often should have less stringent intellectual property laws while they're developing. The article is based on some simple conjectures: that even with low budgets, films made in Nigeria are having trouble making money and it's all the fault of piracy -- first from lost sales, but also because people are pirating high budget American films as well. Basically, the argument is that if people can get those high budget films at the same "pirated" cost as local films, of course they'll go for the high budget films, and thus destroy the local film industry.

Of course, that assumes that in the absence of "piracy" prices to see foreign films or to buy their DVDs scale relative to their budget. That's simply not true. Movie tickets and DVD prices do not scale based on the budget of the movie. The professor doesn't seem to mention the fact that most films (especially the low budget kind) struggle to make money in the first place. He just assumes that it's because of piracy. He neglects to mention that there are plenty of business models beyond selling DVDs. He does mention that people seem to prefer local content, but then ignores that in his very next sentence, saying that local content "can't compete." Even though he just said that the market demands local content.

Filed Under: africa, culture, movies, music, piracy

Science Fiction Movie Accused Of Patent Infringement

from the we've-reached-a-new-level-of-insanity dept

Famed author Arthur C. Clarke once explained that he never patented the the concept of geostationary communications satellites, which many say he invented, because a lawyer told him the concept was "too far-fetched to be taken seriously." But what about things going in the other direction. If, in a book or a movie, you describe or display a technology that has already been patented, is it infringement? Most people would dismiss such a concept as flat-out ridiculous. But a company called Global Findability apparently disagrees. It has sued Summit Entertainment, the producers of the sci-fi film, Knowing, an apparently otherwise dreadful flick that includes -- as a central plot point -- an "encoded message [that] predicts with pinpoint accuracy the dates, death tolls and coordinates of every major disaster of the past 50 years."

Yes, Global Findability is claiming that its patent on "Integrated information processing system for geospatial media" (Patent 7107286) was infringed by this fictional device. Eriq Gardner, at THREsq, sums it up nicely:

We're familiar with patent troll lawsuits. We're also aware that Hollywood is prone to allegations of idea theft. But what we seem to have here is a strange new genre-bending legal claim where one can infringe technology in fiction similar to the way one can defame a person in fiction.

Filed Under: knowing, movies, patents, science fiction
Companies: global findability, summit entertainment

One Misguided Tweet Is 'Indisputable' Evidence That Piracy Harms Movies?

from the how-so? dept

We recently wrote about how filmmaker Rhett Reese was somewhat misguided in lashing out at fans over their claims on Twitter that they had downloaded his movie Zombieland. Of course, both of the fans that he lashed out at noted they had seen the film in the theaters (one of them multiple times) and the download was a repeat viewing -- and they still planned to buy the DVD, since they loved the film so much. Still, the Twitter message from Reese that got the most attention was the claim that all this downloading would greatly impact the likelihood of a sequel. A few days later, Reese decided to further elaborate his stance on "piracy" and it is a bit more nuanced -- he admits that his messages were fueled more by emotion than by rational thought, though he is still upset about people downloading his films and is worried about where it "inevitably leads."

From this, Captain Kibble alerts us to an accurately described "rant" at ScreenRants.com about how this is "indisputable" evidence that piracy harms movies. The basis of that claim? Reese's heat of the moment claim that this could impact the making of a sequel. According to the ScreenRants folks, this suggests it's a fact that movie piracy is harming movies. Of course, there's no actual evidence that there is any decreased interest in making a Zombieland sequel. In fact, since the highest grossing movies almost always correlate to the most shared movies online, it seems that being a top pirated movie also likely has extremely high correlation with movies that get sequels.

Could file sharing be harming movies? Yes, it's possible. But there is scant evidence that it's a huge or serious threat that can't be dealt with through better and smarter business models. As we've seen with smart filmmakers who embrace file sharing as a way to gain more fans and "converts," it can actually help them make more money by building up more people who want to support the filmmaker.

That said, the latter half of the ScreenRants rant actually does make a few good suggestions, noting that part of the issue is Hollywood's slothlike pace in offering movie fans what they want in terms of online services and video on demand. One of these days, the movie industry will figure this stuff out, and the answer isn't freaking out and complaining about "piracy," but finally putting in place the business models that we've seen are working already.

Filed Under: hollywood, movies, piracy, rhett reese, zombieland

IMAX Sues Cinemark For Building Competing System... While Being An IMAX Customer

from the can't-take-the-competition? dept

IMAX theaters have become an increasingly important part of the movie business's continuing success over the past few years, as theaters have realized that (1) you can't "pirate" the IMAX experience and (2) people are often willing to pay more for it. But, it appears that at least one theater began to wonder why it had to pay IMAX so much for such an offering, and decided to set out on its own to build a competitor. The only problem is that this theater, Cinemark, has been a customer of IMAX, so now IMAX is suing Cinemark for trade secret violations and breach of contract (sent in by Eric Goldman).

The details of the case certainly look like a business deal gone bad, and also involve Cinemark preemptively going to Texas (of course) to file a patent action against IMAX, asking the court to make clear that it does not infringe on IMAX's patents. There may very well be breach of contract issues involved here, so IMAX may have a decent case on that front. But what's more interesting is the question of whether or not there are trade secret violations here. We don't talk about trade secret protections as much around here, because they really don't come up that often. But IMAX is claiming that it shared proprietary trade secret info with Cinemark as part of their relationship, and that info was used by Cinemark to build its competing service.

Perhaps much more interesting, however, is the fact that, at least according to the IMAX lawsuit, the Cinemark XD quality has been reviewed poorly compared to IMAX (I looked around and actually found the reviews to be mixed, with many saying that the two are comparable in terms of experience). Cinemark is a much bigger company than IMAX, and had direct access to all of their technology -- and, even so, at least some are saying that the end result doesn't measure up. I'm reminded again of how silly it is to claim that big companies can always "steal" good ideas from smaller ones. It's simply not that easy. Beyond just the basic quality issues, IMAX really has built up a great brand name, and many people do think specifically about going to see "IMAX films." Cinemark can chip into that, but it's going to take a lot of marketing effort. And, really, what's wrong with a bit of competition? IMAX has had the market to itself for years, and some competition between two different methods of "immersive" movie-going experiences seems like it should only create a better situation for consumers.

Filed Under: big screen, competition, immersive experience, movies, trade secrets
Companies: cinemark, imax

Heads Of Major Movies Studios Claiming They Just Want To Help Poor Indie Films Harmed By Piracy

from the must-be-the-new-talking-point dept

I'm beginning to sense a trend. Just last month, we talked about a top exec at Paramount claiming that his "real worry" about movie piracy online was how it was going to harm indie films, since, as a big company, Paramount could take it. Then, just a week or so later, Sony Pictures' boss, Michael Lynton, also started talking about how fewer movies were being made due to piracy. Unfortunately, he was wrong. In the past five years the number of films being released has more than doubled and the major studios are making more money than ever at the box office. And yet... they keep trying. Dark Helmet points us to the news that the CEO of Fox Films, Jim Gianopulos, is the latest to claim that movie "piracy" is harming independent films the most (while saying it's harming everyone in the movie business, despite no evidence to support that claim). He made this statement while suggesting that the US needs to follow France in kicking people off the internet for file sharing accusations (not convictions).

It looks like the heads of the studios have all received their talking points from the same source (MPAA?) on this one. They're going to talk up the supposed harm to indie films, even as the indie film market appears to be figuring stuff out on its own (in part due to smart indie film producers embracing file sharing as a better means of distribution and promotion). My guess is that the strategy is a response to the realization that those massive box office returns don't look good when the major studios argue for more draconian copyright laws, so just as the RIAA makes up stories about "protecting the up-and-coming artist," the major studios and the MPAA are now using a bogus PR strategy of "protecting the indie filmmaker," when all they really want are more laws to offer additional protectionist policies for the next blockbuster.

Filed Under: copyright, indie films, jim gianopulos, michael lynton, movies, piracy
Companies: fox films

Sony Pictures Having Its Best Box Office Year Ever... Still Blaming Piracy For Killing The Business

from the something-doesn't-seem-right-here dept

Sony Pictures' CEO is Michael Lynton, the guy who recently claimed that "nothing good" has come from the internet, and that piracy is killing the movie business. He made that statement less than a month ago. And yet, as Dave Title points out, Sony Pictures just announced that its international box office results have already set a new record for the year, hitting $1.63 billion. The company is bragging about this new record -- as it should. But it does seem a bit disingenuous to brag about revenue records just weeks after claiming that piracy was destroying your business and asking for government help to protect the business model. Someone might notice that these two things do not seem to agree.

Filed Under: box office, movies, piracy
Companies: sony, sony pictures