Warner Bros. ends advance screenings in Canada, blames piracy
By Donald Melanson 
posted May 8th 2007 4:52PM
posted May 8th 2007 4:52PM
It looks like Canada's reputation as a hotbed of piracy is starting to result in some real repercussions, with Warner Bros. announcing today that it's putting an end to all advance movie screenings in the country. According to the studio, that rather drastic measure is being done in response to what it claims to be a lack of legislation in Canada to stop the camcordering of movies in theaters, which it says has resulted in the country becoming the "main source for most of the world's film piracy." While the ban doesn't extend to press screenings, they will apparently now be relegated to private screening rooms instead of theaters. For everyone else, the ban goes into effect immediately, affecting movies from both Warner Independent Pictures and Warner Bros. Pictures, including the upcoming Ocean's Thirteen and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, which'll surely not be pirated now.
another load of BS.
Blame Canada Eh!
Look in your own backyard first.
I think the studios would do far better to simultaneously release movies at the theater and on disk. Let people choose how they watch, not everybody want to go to a theater, and conversely, many people will not want to spend on a DVD they might only watch once. Given the option, I'd rather pay a few quid for a high quality DVD release than watch a shaky, washed out cam recording, if it were available.
First in response to Richard - I read that article in Ottawa Sun and almost pissed myself laughing in a McDonalds. Spying with coins that came from im Hortons...next we will rub anthrax on all our Canadian Tire money.
Secondly about the pirating - This is the age-old classic of all the people in power being so behind the times they'll fight a battle that is 10 years old and think they're winning. How many people this day in age will actually pay money for a cam rip let alone keep one that they download by mistake? That is an industry that has been on the way out for a long time. I cite these two examples from my own experience:
1. Early in high school a friend of mine had a relative who worked in a theatre and made most of his income by bootlegging movies. This was a VERY well organized operation that was based in the United States with a satellite group working out of Toronto. And get this, even ten years ago they had abandoned camcorders. Every single rip they made came from an advance copy, usually on tape, and with the little discalimer "this copy is for advance screening only and may not...blah blah" at the bottom of the screen. Now consider how many advance copies are distributed in Canada vs. the United States. It may be true that more CAM copies originate in Canada, but this is a moot point considering that no one wants a cam copy.
2. I have a friend currently who despite my nagging him feels it necessary to get a pirated dvd of every movie that comes out, seriously, all of them. He goes through many different people in different circles. Some are pros who work with similarly large operations like the one described above, and an equal number are just chronic torrent downloaders who use descretion when finding quality rips. This friend of mine has had hundreds, probably thousands of movies in his posession in the last five years, and he has never once been given a cam copy. He, like all piraters, detests cam copies.
While I don't condone this kind of behaviour in the least, I find it utterly facile to attempt to prevent a crime that has been on the way out for a very long time and represents only the tiniest fraction of an entire illegal industry.
What's next, bring back prohibition?