GOOGLE GLASS IS KILLING MOVIES
Jan. 24th, 2014 12:04 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
defrogThis seems inevitable [via Engadget]: A guy was ejected from an AMC movie theatre and questioned by the police for wearing Google Glass.
They eventually let him go after plugging the Glass into a computer, checking it for pirate material and finding none.
Obviously, there’s a story here about Google Glass and wearable computers and how such devices contribute to the digital world that already gathers data on all of us. And there’s also a story here about what this means for a movie industry that’s already freaking out about cameraphones.
But what really got my attention more was this statement from AMC about the incident:
Homeland Security?
Also, since when is the MPAA “on site”? I’m guessing the MPAA has stationed agents in every movie theatre in America to scout for pirates?
The MPAA has since claimed that it's official stance on Google Glass is “it’s not a threat”. Which doesn’t explain why the guy was yanked out of the theatre and interrogated for three and a half hours in the first place. (You can read the man’s side of the story here – evidently the whole thing could have been cleared up in five minutes but the feds kept getting him to try and confess to being part of a piracy ring and giving up his superiors.)
But then it’s hard to take anything the MPAA says seriously, given its track record of spectacularly inflated statistics “proving” that the interwub is destroying Hollywood and America – and keeps doing no matter how many times its studies are debunked.
Anyway, you know we’ve reached a weird, weird place when the MPAA (and the RIAA, for that matter) has convinced the DHS and the FBI that they need to drop what they’re doing every time they suspect someone is stealing their movie or record. Surely the feds are tired of it by now – especially in cases where the “evidence” also turns out to be largely fabricated to the point where the case falls apart under scrutiny and turn out to be a big fat waste of time and money. (See: the case of the music blogger who posted leaked Guns’n’Roses tracks, and the case of hiphop blog Dajaz1.com suspected of copyright infringement – in both cases, the FBI took action based solely on the word of the RIAA, which then stalled and stalled and utterly failed to produce the evidence of piracy they said they had.)
But apparently not.
FUN FACT: Hollywood’s box office take in 2013 was an estimated $10.9 billion – up slightly from $10.8 billion the previous year.
You wouldn’t hit a guy with Google Glass would ya,
This is dF
[…] the unnamed individual stopped by the AMC Easton 30 in Columbus to watch Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit, wearing Google Glass attached to his prescription lenses, something he says he'd done before without any trouble.
Where the story takes a twist however, is when officers moved in an hour into the movie, yanked the Glass from his face, and brought the man and his wife to separate interrogation rooms for over three hours.
Where the story takes a twist however, is when officers moved in an hour into the movie, yanked the Glass from his face, and brought the man and his wife to separate interrogation rooms for over three hours.
They eventually let him go after plugging the Glass into a computer, checking it for pirate material and finding none.
Obviously, there’s a story here about Google Glass and wearable computers and how such devices contribute to the digital world that already gathers data on all of us. And there’s also a story here about what this means for a movie industry that’s already freaking out about cameraphones.
But what really got my attention more was this statement from AMC about the incident:
At AMC Easton 30 last weekend, a guest was questioned for possible movie theft after he was identified wearing a recording device during a film. The presence of this recording device prompted an investigation by the MPAA, which was on site. The MPAA then contacted Homeland Security, which oversees movie theft.
Homeland Security?
Also, since when is the MPAA “on site”? I’m guessing the MPAA has stationed agents in every movie theatre in America to scout for pirates?
The MPAA has since claimed that it's official stance on Google Glass is “it’s not a threat”. Which doesn’t explain why the guy was yanked out of the theatre and interrogated for three and a half hours in the first place. (You can read the man’s side of the story here – evidently the whole thing could have been cleared up in five minutes but the feds kept getting him to try and confess to being part of a piracy ring and giving up his superiors.)
But then it’s hard to take anything the MPAA says seriously, given its track record of spectacularly inflated statistics “proving” that the interwub is destroying Hollywood and America – and keeps doing no matter how many times its studies are debunked.
Anyway, you know we’ve reached a weird, weird place when the MPAA (and the RIAA, for that matter) has convinced the DHS and the FBI that they need to drop what they’re doing every time they suspect someone is stealing their movie or record. Surely the feds are tired of it by now – especially in cases where the “evidence” also turns out to be largely fabricated to the point where the case falls apart under scrutiny and turn out to be a big fat waste of time and money. (See: the case of the music blogger who posted leaked Guns’n’Roses tracks, and the case of hiphop blog Dajaz1.com suspected of copyright infringement – in both cases, the FBI took action based solely on the word of the RIAA, which then stalled and stalled and utterly failed to produce the evidence of piracy they said they had.)
But apparently not.
FUN FACT: Hollywood’s box office take in 2013 was an estimated $10.9 billion – up slightly from $10.8 billion the previous year.
You wouldn’t hit a guy with Google Glass would ya,
This is dF
