[Reader-list] Surveillance in cinemas to prevent piracy of Harry Potter release

[Rana Dasgupta]

*Harry Potter and the wizard idea to foil cinema pirates*

*http://film.guardian.co.uk/harrypotter/news/0,10608,1228308,00.html

Martin Wainwright
Monday May 31, 2004
The Guardian <http://www.guardian.co.uk>*

Cinema ushers across Britain go into action today with a new piece of 
equipment which makes their ice-cream trays and hand torches look tame.

Military-style night-sights have been sent to every outlet in the 
country showing the new Harry Potter film, The Prisoner of Azkaban.

Staff have been instructed to spend all two hours and 22 minutes of the 
film scanning the dark - for pirates making illegal copies.

"I've never known a company to go to such lengths to protect a film," 
said Jamie Graham, manager of the Vue cinema at Cheshire Oaks, Wirral, 
where the red monocle devices are ready for action.

The precaution has been taken by the film's distributor, Warner 
Brothers, after an epidemic of poor-quality, grainy versions of the two 
previous Potter films.

Surreptitious recording from cinema seats, sometimes interrupted by the 
head of the person in front shifting and blocking the action, has become 
a serious menace, according to the industry.

Most cinemas now screen an appeal to audiences to shop any neighbour 
suspected of filming, along with warnings about mobile phones and 
adverts for popcorn.

Mr Graham said: "Video piracy is rife everywhere, and with the UK 
screening the film four days before the rest of the world, Warner was 
concerned the movie would end up on the internet."

Pirate DVD versions of the boy wizard's earlier adventures were traced 
to Britain through codes imprinted on the films as a security device.

The night sights, together with the coding and experiments with 
watermarks, have added significantly to distribution costs. But Warner 
sees the investment as negligible compared with the threat to the whole 
industry.

Staff at the Vue will be "very discreet" with their potentially 
frightening cyclopean attachments, Mr Graham said, but action against 
offenders would be swift.

Much like the battered young wizards on screen, who are constantly being 
whirled about by baddies, pirates will be "hauled out of their seats and 
reported straight away to the police".