The way I see it, the MPAA has introduced a scheme which infuriates the obsessively anal-retentive to the point where they won’t watch, or will walk out of movies. And it doesn’t seem to bug those of us who go to watch and feel movies as a whole instead of obsessing over details. And this is happening right before the next Lord of the Rings movie comes out.
Sounds like a win-win situation to me.
Dude, we’re saying that if a couple red dots “ruin” the film for you, then YOU’RE the problem, not the film.
I dont like them, They make Me think of Not movieness, which is not good.
So I dont like themr
They don’t ruin anything; they’re just f–cking annoying. It isn’t the same thing as a cigarette burn on the print and then there are frames missing when the roll-over occurs, even though that’s pretty bad too. These are red dots that are straight out of a Predator movie. They take out of what you’re watching and make you remember, oh, right, there’s a battle against PIRACY going on here. It’s ridiculous. The same thing’s happening in the music industry with CD’s that screw up computers because they’re ANTI PIRACY. But people complained, those CD’s won’t sell well, and maybe the same thing can happen in cinemas. It’d be more analagous if people didn’t pay for movie tickets to boycott this, but they won’t, since it’s not that big of a deal. However, if people who do care about this can do something about it to let people know that it’s a hassle, maybe things will change.
I’m not the only one who catches the recent irony in this thread, am I?
.
Yes. But those people are sophisticated enough to cut out the offending frames, or blur the dots.
This half-baked scheme serves no real purpose other than pissing off the paying customers - people who download movies aren’t going to mind a couple little dots, sophisticated pirates can easily get around it, and it has no effect on amateur pirates with camcorders.
It’s like having a removable sticker on it that says “STOLEN FROM THE ROXY”.
When it should instead have the equivalent of indelible ink explosions. Though I can’t see how that’d help either.
Since the dots don’t happen in the same place in all the copies, finding out any spots in the film that have been altered or blurred would be just as effective.
And I still stand by my assessment that you folks are far too sensitive.
Spoofe it may become a much larger problem later than it is now.
Perhaps. Do they appear in the same frames on every print?
But say you work at a megaplex, and you have access to two copies of a new movie. If you compared the different prints, you could alter the positions of dots that are there in both, so no one could tell exactly which print it came from. (Depending on how the prints are dot-coded and distributed, that might mean no one would know it came from your theater at all.)
If you have a buddy who works in another theater, even better.
And if you have time, patience, and minimal Photoshop skill, you could combine the unblemished parts of two copies, eliminating the dots without a trace. If there’s enough money in pirating movies–and there must be, if the studios are this concerned–then a lot of people will find the necessary time and patience.
I haven’t caught it. 
.
Project them independently - powerful infrared laser diodes are dirt cheap - it would be trivial to develop a system that projected the words ‘illegal copy’ (and any other info you like, such as a serial number denoting the location, date and time of the showing) in infrared on the screen - the message could remain there for the entire duration.
Is it easily possible to filter out* infrared while still keeping the visible spectrum?
(*i.e. is there some already-available lens filter?)
In any case, it must be possible to spot these guys videotaping the performance and catch them red-handed; they must use a tripod or a clip or something - the darkness is their only real ally - would there be a serious privacy issue if night-vision surveillance cameras were installed inside the cinema?
Dammit, those red dots are ruining this thread for me!!
<End sarcasm>
But I noticed these dots in Gothika. I was (at the time) engrossed in the plot, and suddenly I see a group of red dots in the fog.
“What the hell was that? The only thing red so far in this movie has been blood”
“Oh, wait I remember that SD thread about anti-piracy dots in movies. Wow, I just saw some anti-piracy dots.”
“I wonder how many I’ve missed. I wonder when the next ones will show up?”
“Wait, what the hell is going on up there? Oh right, the MOVIE is still playing.”
Suffice it to say that the stupid dots managed to completely yank me out of the “experience”. And while you may compare this to a cell phone going off or another patron talking, remember that the theater has all sorts of warnings about these things before the film begins. In essence, “Hey moviegoers, don’t ruin the experience for everyone else in the theater by being a rude jerk! Allow US to do it for you by placing annoying dots on the screen!”
:rolleyes:
Funny how one minute, we want to punch the people who put laser-pointer dots on screens, the next minute, we’re talking about doing the same thing just to spite thieves. 
If I worked in Hollywood, my plan for defeating copyright violators would be to make the WORST films possible, with bad actors, stupid scripts, incompetent directors… oh. Shit. Back to the drawing board.
To get back on topic, I find it very inconsiderate that movies are being messed with this way. It won’t deter the lawbreakers, and more to the point, it’s to the detriment of the 99% of the audience who hasn’t done anything wrong. Ten dollars for a movie with no spots isn’t that much to ask.
My point exactly. I pay the outrageous prices, but the marked-up beyond belief food, and come out to the theatre to support local economy. I can’t see how expecting my movie to not have distracting random flashing patterns littered throughout is considered being “too sensitive”.
I expect service to have a reasonable balance with the price I pay. How is that being overly sensitive?
DAMN! I mean “I buy the marked up food”…
Mangetout, as mentioned up-thread, these videotapers are not the primary concern. It’s inside jobs: projectionists, editors, theatre managers, who steal the most, and highest-quality, copies that become pirated movies. Videotaping happens but it is more likely to produce a cruddy copy of the film such as you might find on sale in Times Square or the bootleg markets of the Far East.
However, I also know for a fact that night-vision is already used in many theaters to catch videotapers (primarily at critic’s screeenings, premieres, and other pre-release showings.)