In a related story, the music industry will be inserting a half-second of white noise for every 30 seconds of music played in all CDs produced after Jan. 1 / 04.
“We know some people will hear the noise, and I’m sure some paying customers will find a reason to take issue with it.” said Bob Fuknuts, head of the RIAA. “But we think the majority of people won’t notice, plus we’re pretty sure it’ll ruin pirated copies of music”.
Oh, and today, I mowed my lawn with a blowtorch… yeah, the grass may never grow back, but hey, I got rid of those weeds!
I also noticed them in Master and Commander. And it was very noticable. Not just for a second, but several seconds easily. Didn’t occure to me to complain, but I will in the future when I notice them. I’m pretty unobservant about stuff like that, so if it’s blatant enough for me to have seen it, then I’m going to say something. I won’t go into a movie looking for them, but if I see them from now on I’ll complain to the theater manager.
They were all over Elf as well. Granted, I didn’t start noticing them until about halfway into the movie, but I just kept seeing the damn things after that. They came up about once every couple of minutes and would stay on the screen for less than a second, but they still annoyed me. It did take away from the whole movie experience a bit.
yeah, I nodiced them in kill bill too. to be really honest… I watched it in the thearder then downloaded it and watched it again, the dots were really jarring on the big screen, I could barely see them on the compressed video. ironic!
It seems to me there should be some way of putting the dots in the part of the frame that isn’t visible to the moviegoer. I remember when I went to see “Meet the Parents” the projector was misaligned so we didn’t see any of the opening credits and boom mikes were buzzing around Ben Stiller’s head like wasps.
Perhaps that’s already the case and your projector was aiming too low?
Oh, that’s nice. I get a bit snippy, so you’re willing to let the movie studios ruin millions of other people’s film presentations to get back at me.
We live in a world (cue trailer voice) where government and corporations stomp and poop all over the average person and we let them get away with it. Time and time again. It’s too much trouble to do otherwise. Why am I not surprised that some people don’t care about this? Most people don’t care about movies, let alone how they’re presented.
So, let’s just say I’m not calling for people like you guys to care. Don’t. Be my guest. I’m calling for people who DO care about movies, to care and complain.
Anyway, I can’t believe people didn’t notice these in Kill Bill. They started popping up what seemed like every minute during the black and white sequence. Gee, let’s put red dots on a gray screen. Nobody’ll notice that!
Yes. Kill Bill is where I first saw these things. It’s only been a few months, but I think if something is set up now so people can voice their opinion on it we can stop it before it becomes harder.
Although I think Futile Gesture was being funny, I think that’s the way to go really. I mean, if you have to put these dots in, can’t you pick a time when the movie watchers attention will be focused on one part of the screen, then place the dots on the other side?..maybe in the lower corner or something? I can’t believe that putting these things smack dab in the middle is the only solution.
Saruman will not be in it!
I was actually relieved when I heard about that*, now I learn that there is yet another plot afoot to ruin my experience of the movie.** I will be severely pissed if the red dots show up during the First Big Battle.
*details upon request.
** you know, besides the seat-kickers, talkers, and phones :rolleyes:
I don’t get the movie executive logic here. Suppose they use the theater-specific patttern of dots to track a pirated movie to a certain theater. So what?
So they learn that a pirated DVD or a Web download came from say, the Rialto multiplex on 123 Fake Street in Springfield, U.S.A. Where does that get them?
Does it help them ID the person who recorded the film? No. All it tells them is that the Rialto was the scene of a copyright crime at one of the many showings of the film.
And what can the movie studio types do with that info? Will they fine the Rialto owners? Will they no longer distribute their movies to that theater?
Where does this get them?
Or maybe it’s just that “studio executive logic” is an oxymoron …
I can tell you with 100% assurance as a former theater manager that if you complain to the manager, that’s as far as it’ll go. And on top of that we’ll all laugh at you for the next several hours and probably do impressions of you in “comic book guy” voice. Same goes for the pre-show advertising and the price of popcorn. Find out whose “bright idea” it was and go directly to them, because the manager sure the hell doesn’t get paid enough to care.
I suppose if they have repeat occurances there they’re going to send someone to stake it out and catch someone in the act.
Just a guess, but wouldn’t theater specific anti-piracy techniques be intended more to catch theater management or projectionists who make copies with a little more sophistication than a hand-held video camera in the audience? I don’t know, but am guessing there are ways to copy a film that would be better; even if it is a tripod mounted high-quality camera during a time when the theater is closed?
Hmm, I do agree that the practice sounds annoying, but I don’t sympathize too much with those making a big stink over it. It’s not as much that I don’t find the MPAA’s idea bad as that I find zillions of other corporation’s methods far far worse, and it continually shocks me what causes people choose to get behind. I would respectfully suggest that most of the people up in arms over this check their clothing labels and note from which countries they originate. Or even the brand-- if it’s Nike, Old Navy, GAP, Banana Republic, or dozens other, you need go no further.
