Fox threatens Canadian film fans
20th Century Fox are threatening to delay all theatrical releases of its films in Canada in an attempt to stop the illegal filming of them in Canadian cinemas.
According to Bruce Snyder, president of domestic distribution, it's Canada that is the problem.
"Canada has become a hotbed for film piracy. It's a serious problem,"
See, he just said it through The Hollywood Reporter. he's considering withholding films from cinemas where a camcorder has been used to produce a pirated film. How do they tell that exactly? Failing that just moving Canada down the release list they say will stop the activity.
"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,"
What like Europe? There's no piracy here and we're delayed for no good reason. Ellis Jacob is the CEO of the largest cinema chain in Canada, Cineplex:
"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,"
A third world country? Like Europe. Thanks for that. Remember Europeans, if you're travelling over in Canada then Cineplex is the chain to go to. You'll be welcomed warmly. Perhaps you'll given concessions because you're from a third world country after all.
The real problem is the law. It's not against the law to do this and when people recording films are caught the Police don't want to know. Well I know what might work, stop the film. Every time someone is spotted doing this stop the film and don't start it again until they leave. Make peer pressure the issue. If everyone realises that they won't see their film because that pirate won't leave the cinema they'll soon start shouting at them.
The answer is to get the law changed, not to hurt the fans of cinema in Canada. If that didn't happen though, what would you do to try and curb the piracy?