The movie industry sees the illegal recording of movies as one of the biggest piracy threats and for years has gone to extremes to stop it.
It started well over a decade ago when visitors began sneaking handheld camcorders into theaters. These big clunkers were easy to spot, but as time passed the recording devices became smaller and easier to hide.
While recording a movie for strictly personal use is not illegal in UK cinemas (despite industry efforts to have the law changed), theaters continue to outlaw the use of recording devices. Most recently, Google Glass was banned, and phones and tablets need to be switched off as well.
In a code of conduct the movie industry and cinemas have agreed that employees will take immediate action when they spot someone with a recording device, but some cinema staff take these obligations way too far.
At a Cineworld cinema in Brighton Marina, UK, employees dialed the national 999 emergency number after they spotted a group of 12-year-old girls with iPhones and iPads at a showing of The Hunger Games.
The girls, accused of recording parts of the movie, were hauled outside where two police cars rushed towards the scene with flashing lights.
Category: Human stupidity
Furious Google Ended MPAA Anti-Piracy Cooperation
Each week Google removes millions of ‘infringing’ links from search engine results at rightsholders’ request, 9.1m during the last documented week alone. In the main Google removes these links within hours of receiving a complaint, a record few other large sites can match.
But no matter what Google does, no matter how it tweaks its search algorithms, it’s never been enough for the MPAA. For years the movie group has been piling on the pressure and whenever Google announces a new change, the MPAA (and often RIAA) tell the press that more can be done.
By most standards, this October Google really pulled out the stops. Responding to years of criticism and endless complaints that it’s one of the world’s largest facilitators of pirate content, Google came up with the goods.
But this, ofcourse, wasn’t enough for the MPAA.
In response to the snub, Google pressed the ‘ignore’ button. A top executive at Google’s policy department told the MPAA that his company would no longer “speak or do business” with the movie group.
In future Google would speak with the studios directly, since “at least three” had already informed the search engine that they “were very happy about the new features.”
Sony Kept Thousands of Passwords in a Folder Named “Password”
It’s been a rough week for Sony execs (million-dollar salaries notwithstanding). And things are only going to get worse. Which would almost be enough to make you feel bad for the poor schmucks in IT—that is, until you realize that they hid their most sensitive password data under the label “Passwords.” Go ahead and slam your head against something hard. We’ll wait.
UK’s Home Secretary Says Terrorists Will Be The Real Winners If Country’s Cell Coverage Dead Zones Are Fixed
So it’s the tired old “because terrorists” excuse again…
The UK’s culture secretary wants to eradicate the nation’s patchy cell phone coverage. UK cell phone users aren’t able to switch towers on the fly — something residents of other EU countries (as well as the US) enjoy — but are forced to connect only with their provider’s towers.
But Home Secretary Theresa May would rather UK citizens suffer through a plethora of dead zones (or “not spots” — the term of choice for these no-service areas) than put her country in harm’s way. According to an internal letter written by May, providing near-seamless coverage for UK phone users will open the door for increased terrorist activity.
Germany’s Top Publisher Admits Its Web Traffic Plummeted Without Google; Wants Politicians To ‘Take Action’
It seems like the Germans have finally woken up to the fact that Google actually does make them quite a fair bit of money, but instead of accepting that, they want lawmakers to do “something”.
Springer said a two-week-old experiment to restrict access by Google to its news headlines had caused web traffic to its publications to plunge, leading it to row back and let Google once again showcase Springer news stories in its search results.
Chief Executive Mathias Doepfner said on Wednesday that his company would have “shot ourselves out of the market” if it had continued with its demands for the U.S. firm to pay licensing fees.
(…)
[Doepfner said his company’s climbdown was] proof of Google’s overwhelming power in the search market. He said he hoped lawmakers, courts and competition regulators would take action to curb its powers.
Ebola is the New Black [or not]
Marc Randazza over at The Legal Satyricon writes in a blog post how people seem to go crazy over the ebola craze, and without reason.
Ok, not really, but I figured it [Ebola is the New Black] was a catchier title than “Ebola is the new paranoia for the stupid genetic refuse that proves that Idiocracy was not just a movie, but a prophecy.”
That would just not do as a headline. But, I suppose it is a clumsy, but effective lede.Remember “give up ANY rights, as long as it keeps us safe from Beardsley McTurbanhead, who is going to kill us all if he can?”
How could you forget? That fad isn’t over yet.
But, just in time for the new fall idiot fashion season, we have Ebola!
A nurse at the Howard Yocum School in Maple Shade Township, New Jersey sent a letter to staff members informing them that two new students from Rwanda, Africa would be arriving at the school on Monday.
“This is not an area identified as a country with an Ebola outbreak, however l am taking precautions as per the health guidelines of the Burlington County Health Department,” the nurse wrote. “I will be taking the students’ temperature three times a day for 21 days.”
Prison Commissioner Buried Investigators’ Findings Of Rikers Island Wardens’ ‘Complete Abdication’ Of Responsibilities
Last month, we [Techdirt] covered a scathing DOJ report on the treatment of the teenage population at Rikers Island. Beatings handed out by staff were only surpassed (barely) by uncontrolled inmate-on-inmate violence. Medical staff were pressured into covering up the source of inmates’ injuries, some of which were created with anything guards had on hand — including broomsticks, batons, radios and flashlights. Many incidents occurred out of sight of the institution’s cameras. Numerous others went unreported.
It gets worse.
The Threats Against Emma Watson Were All An Anti-4Chan Campaign
It turns out that this story wasn’t complicated enough. New reports have come out to suggest the viral media company behind the hoax threats is itself a hoax attributed to a couple of people known for their spamming tactics. Per Business Insider: “Rantic Marketing is a fake company run by a gang of prolific internet spammers used to quickly capitalize on internet trends for page views. The group go by a variety of different names. Collectively, they’re known as SocialVEVO, but as the Daily Dot reports, their names are alleged to include Jacob Povolotski, Yasha Swag, Swenzy and Joey B. The only known video footage of the group is a rap song about pickles that they used dubious spam techniques to make incredibly popular. The song used to have over 8 million views on YouTube.” Delightful.
Author Arrested for Writing About Murder in the 30th Century
Last week, Patrick McLaw was arrested after it came to light that he had written a book that begins just after a school shooting in which hundreds of people were killed. The community’s concern about this matter is not completely insane, because McLaw is a teacher at a local middle school. On the other hand, yes it is, because the shooting appears to be only a background event in a story that is set 900 years in the future. Also, it is a story.
Student’s Story About Shooting A Pet Dinosaur With A Gun Ends In Suspension, Arrest
Police were summoned to a high school after a boy wrote a story about using a gun to kill a dinosaur. The boy was searched, suspended from school, and subsequently handcuffed and arrested when he did not handle the interrogation calmly.