Hollywood studio vexed by Canadian bootleggers

[Fred Derf Veteran]

Hollywood studio vexed by Canadian bootleggers

Wed Jan 24, 2007 1:39 AM EST135

By Etan Vlessing

TORONTO (Hollywood Reporter) - 20th Century Fox is threatening to delay the theatrical release of its movies in Canada in a bid to stamp out illegal camcording of its product in Montreal cinemas and elsewhere.

"Canada has become a hotbed for film piracy. It's a serious problem," Bruce Snyder, president of domestic distribution at Fox, said Tuesday.

As a remedy, Snyder said Fox is considering withholding its movies from cinemas in which a camcorder has been used to produce pirated DVDs.

Failing that, Fox will delay the release of its movies in Canadian cinemas to stop the theft of its product by increasingly emboldened movie pirates.

"If taking cinemas out of the system doesn't work, we'll move Canada back a couple weeks and no longer do day-and-date releases for our movies," he added.

Ellis Jacob, CEO of Toronto-based Cineplex Entertainment, the country's largest cinema chain, sympathizes with Snyder. He recognizes that Montreal in particular has become a major center for "cammers," or illegal operators of camcorders in cinemas, after the practice was made a criminal offense in the United States.

But Jacob said that Canadian cinemagoers will be hardest hit if Fox and other major studios staggered theatrical releases in North America.

"At the end of the day, we have the advantage of seeing movies on a day-and-date basis. What we will be doing is taking that benefit away from our consumers and making us a third-world country," he warned.

Canadian exhibitors are caught in a bind because Canadian laws do not allow for the arrest or prosecution of moviegoers with camcorders. What's more, the major studios have watermark technology that can determine which theater was used to digitally capture movies for pirated DVDs.

Montreal is seen as a preferred city to capture movies in cinemas as Hollywood films are screened in both English and French. The day-and-date release pattern means pirates are able to get a jump on satisfying demand for bootleg DVDs in Europe.

Snyder made his frustrations clear to Jacob in a November 30 letter in which he urged Cineplex Entertainment and other Canadian exhibitors to end illegal camcording in their cinemas, or else.

"Look, this is their primary business. Any interruption in the flow of product to their theaters has to be alarming. But we're asking our partners to protect our content. They're the first line of defense to thwart the pirates," Snyder said.

Douglas Frith, head of the Canadian Motion Pictures Distributors Assn., which represents the interests of major Hollywood studios in Canada, said that Fox's wrath underlined growing anger among studio executives over lax Canadian laws governing movie piracy and copyright protections.

"We share the frustration. We're working in a legislative and enforcement vacuum, and certainly a prosecution vacuum at every level in this country," Frith said of fruitless efforts to make camcording in cinemas a criminal offense in Canada.

In addition to working for stronger laws, the CMPDA has trained cinema employees to spot illegal camcorders. Cineplex Entertainment's Jacob added that cinemagoers are cautioned against camcording with cinema posters and screen ads.

But despite those efforts, local police are not responding to calls from cinema operators when pirate camera operators are spotted and detained.

"We're doing the surveillance. We have them (camcorder operators) in our crosshairs. But we require a police force to enforce the law, which is why we are pressing so hard to get camcording made a criminal offense," Frith said.

The illegal camcorder operators also are professional, using peephole cameras to capture movie content and occasionally employing satellite receivers to upload premiering movies within minutes of leaving the theater to organized crime labs that can have pirated DVDs on sale within hours.

Fox's Snyder insists it's for others to pressure the Canadian government to criminalize the use of camcorders in cinemas.

He insists Fox will do what it can do to control a growing problem for its product released in Canada.

"We have sent people up there to try to train the exhibitors on what to look for. But the local law enforcement has no authority. When a theater finds someone with a camcorder, they just come back the next day," Snyder said.

http://ca.today.reuters.com/news/NewsArtic...r=1&summit=

[zeroday]

""Canada has become a hotbed for film piracy.""

They say that about every country. When new Star Wars (iirc) was released, it was the UK that was a "hotbed."

[AdverseDeviant]

only hurting themselves

[Joel]

So, if they don't open the film on the same day, where does he think Canadians will go to see it now? The very same bootleg sites he's worried about. :no:

[Deactivated Account]

Why not doing it just Montreal since thats where most of the bootlegs are from why the rest of Canada?

Fox dont know if you remember but Montreal is in Quebec and Quebec wants to split from Canada. so the better thing to do is just do it for delay ALL movies in ALL of Quebec and leave the rest of Canada alone..

[Quillz]

It doesn't matter what techniques or threats are made. We live in the 21st century, a digital age. Piracy will always exist. Where there's a will there's a way.

[+M2Ys4U Subscriber¹]

So, if they don't open the film on the same day, where does he think Canadians will go to see it now? The very same bootleg sites he's worried about. :no:

So painfully obviously true.

[Fred Derf Veteran]

I fail to believe that many people would choose to downloaded a low-quality "cam" version of a film compared to spending the 10 bucks to see it in a proper theatre. Unless, of course, the release of the film has been delayed.

[Fred Derf Veteran]

U.S. movie piracy claims mostly fiction

Feb 05, 2007 04:30 AM

Michael Geist

In recent weeks, Canadians have been subjected to a steady stream of reports asserting that Canada has become the world's leading source of movie piracy. Pointing to the prevalence of illegal camcording ? a practice that involves videotaping a movie directly off the screen in a theatre and transferring the copy on to DVDs for commercial sale ? the major Hollywood studios are threatening to delay the Canadian distribution of their top movies.

While the reports have succeeded in attracting considerable attention, a closer examination of the industry's own data reveals that the claims are based primarily on fiction rather than fact.

In the best Hollywood tradition, Canadians have been treated to a show from the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) and its Canadian counterpart (the Canadian Motion Pictures Distributors Association) that is much ado about nothing, featuring unsubstantiated and inconsistent claims about camcording, exaggerations about its economic harm and misleading critiques of Canadian law.

First, the camcorder claims have themselves involved wildly different figures. Over the past two weeks, reports have pegged the Canadian percentage of global camcording at either 40 or 50 per cent. Yet the International Intellectual Property Alliance, a U.S. lobby group that includes the MPAA, advised the U.S. government in late September that Canadians were the source for 23 per cent of camcorded copies of DVDs.

Not surprisingly, none of these figures has been subject to independent audit or review. In fact, AT&T Labs, which conducted the last major public study on movie piracy in 2003, concluded that 77 per cent of pirated movies actually originate from industry insiders and advance screener copies provided to movie reviewers.

Moreover, the industry's numbers indicate that camcorded versions of DVDs strike only a fraction of the movies that are released each year. As of August 2006, the MPAA documented 179 camcorded movies as the source for infringing DVDs since 2004.

During that time, its members released about 1,400 movies, suggesting that approximately one in every 10 movies is camcorded and sold as infringing DVDs. According to this data, Canadian sources are therefore responsible for camcorded DVD versions of about 3 per cent of all MPAA member movies.

Second, the claims of economic harm associated with camcorded movies have been grossly exaggerated. The industry has suggested that of recently released movies on DVD, 90 per cent can be sourced to camcording.

This data is misleading not only because a small fraction of recently released movies is actually available on DVD, but also because the window of availability of the camcorded versions is very short. Counterfeiters invariably seek to improve the quality of their DVDs by dropping the camcorder versions as soon as the studios begin production of authentic DVDs (which provide the source for perfect copies).

Camcorded DVDs, which typically feature awful sound and picture quality, ultimately compete with theatrical releases for only a few weeks and likely have very limited impact as they do not represent a viable substitute for the overwhelming majority of moviegoers.

In fact, as the movie industry has grown ? global revenues have nearly tripled over the past 25 years ? the importance of theatre revenues has shrunk. In 1980, theatre box office revenues represented 55 per cent of movie revenue. Today, DVDs and television licensing capture the lion share of revenue, with the box office only responsible for approximately 15 per cent of movie revenue.

In other words, the economic impact of camcorded DVDs ? which involve only one in 10 releases and impact a small part of the revenue cycle ? is little more than a rounding error in a $45 billion (U.S.) industry.

Third, claims that Canadian copyright law is ill-equipped to deal with camcorder piracy are similarly misleading. Canadian law already renders it illegal to make for sale or rental an infringing copy of a copyrighted work such as movie. The Copyright Act includes severe penalties for violating this provision with the potential for million dollar fines and up to five years in jail.

Indeed, the MPAA's own website specifically points to Canada as an example of how many countries have laws that prohibit illegal camcording. The movie lobby states, "in Canada camcording is an infringement under the Copyright Act, regardless of whether it is for the public or personal use of the person making the copy."

Moreover, the CMPDA's website trumpets dozens of arrests for DVD and movie piracy in Canada. Over the past year, the RCMP and local police forces laid charges for DVD piracy on numerous occasions, while a Canadian court upheld a U.S. decision to fine a Canadian operator nearly $500,000 (Canadian) for copyright infringement related to movie piracy.

As for claims that tough U.S. laws are pushing camcording into Canada, the president of the U.S. National Association of Theatre Owners told his members in November that illegal camcording in the U.S. has expanded over the past two years from New York and Los Angeles to at least 15 states.

Despite all the evidence to the contrary, the U.S. and Canadian lobby groups continue to portray Canada as a piracy haven while pressing for unnecessary legal reforms. Unless politicians separate fact from fiction, this show appears headed for a frightening finale.

http://www.thestar.com/Business/article/178181

[Allan]

Can't wait to see the day when you have to go through x-rays to see a movie.

That'll be the day I stop takin' everything-for-a-dollar items into the theater instead of gettin' their over priced food.

[+vlsi0n Subscriber¹]

I fail to believe that many people would choose to downloaded a low-quality "cam" version of a film compared to spending the 10 bucks to see it in a proper theatre. Unless, of course, the release of the film has been delayed.

*snaps fingers loudly* hellllo, free. free. .... free. I think if people have a way of seeing something for free then they'll take it, and the :cam: releases aren't always so low quality- I guess some groups are actually very good and have decent equipment.