[LINK] Cinema 'cops' deploy night vision devices

[Kim Holburn]

http://www.smh.com.au/news/technology/biztech/cinema-cops-deploy-night-vision-devices/2008/11/26/1227491597572.html
http://tinyurl.com/5qvt8o

> the copyright police are patrolling cinemas with night vision  
> devices - and it's not just commercial pirates they're after.

There are copyright police?  Is examining people with a telescope in a  
dark theatre an invasion of privacy?

> In response to an increase in pirated movie recordings coming out of  
> Australia,


Extraordinary!  They offer no proof of this statement at all, in fact  
later in the article they virtually admit it was a lie:

> While Gane acknowledged that most of the illegal movie recordings  
> came out of countries with lax copyright laws, such as the  
> Philippines, he said he expected more cinemas to adopt night vision  
> devices as Australia was increasingly showing movies before the US  
> and Britain.


Are they are going to start frisking cinema goers and treat them all  
as potential criminals like they do in the US and Canada?  Someone got  
fined a $1000 for a cell phone recording?  Mind you, anyone who makes  
a cell phone recording of a movie (make that a video recording) must  
be desperate.

> In November last year, Sydneysider Jose Duarte, 23, was fined $1000  
> for filming The Simpsons Movie on his mobile phone and uploading the  
> footage to the internet. AFACT said it was the first illegal copy of  
> the movie to be intercepted anywhere in the world.


I just wonder how they are going to find people recording with their  
night-vision glasses.  Are they going to arrest the person in the  
middle of the theatre?  Would they confiscate the person's "camera".   
Do they get to look through the person's private data in the camera?   
How disruptive is this whole process to the other people watching the  
movie?  What would happen if lots of people took in strange looking  
boxes with flashing lights?

Kim
--
Kim Holburn
IT Network & Security Consultant
Ph: +39 06 855 4294  M: +39 3494957443
mailto:kim at holburn.net  aim://kimholburn
skype://kholburn - PGP Public Key on request