Warner Bros cancels promo previews
An interesting piece of news arrived in my mailbox this morning from one of our readers. Hollywood studio Warner Bros. Pictures is cancelling promotional previews of its movies in Canada. The reason? Unauthorized pirating of new releases north of the border. The studio will immediately stop all “promotional and word-of-mouth screenings” of new releases, starting with Ocean’s Thirteen and including the much-anticipated Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. “We regret having to cancel our screenings in Canada, but our studio must take steps to protect not only our branded assets but our commitment to our filmmakers and to our distributors,” Dan Fellman, the studio’s president of domestic distribution, said in a release.
Warner Bros. and the other major Hollywood studios have been calling on the Canadian government to take a harder line on those caught illicitly filming new releases for pirating worldwide. Antonellis suggested that Canada could benefit from legislation similar to that enacted in the U.S. in 2005 that made it a felony for an audience member to illicitly film a movie inside a theatre. She also specified that the cancelled screenings do not affect the usual advance press or critics’ screenings held in advance of a new movie’s release. In February, the U.S. International Intellectual Property Alliance put Canada on a watchlist of countries it believes responsible for illegal filming and copying of movies. The group alleged that the recording, movie and software industries lose $225 million a year due to illegal trafficking in Canada. One would think these Asian and Russian sources are a way bigger problem for filming studios, but it looks that even countries like Canada participate a lot on supplying us with the fresh stuff.
Source: CBC
Comments(23)
this is nothing but MPAA lies and an attempt to force canada to implement american legislation into their own system. i remember them saying before that 40% of all cams in the US were filmed in new york. it’s complete bull.
It’s like the south park song ‘Blame Canada, Blame Canada!’.
Yeah, I believe that they were blaming Canada for about 50% and New York for 40%, so by their own numbers the rest of the world, including the US, only contributes 10%. They’re smart.
i really hope that canada’s politicians dont bow into this kind of bullying from film studios, mpaa and the US goverment in general.
damn
when do we ever get screeners of wb movies on here anyway? i cant think of any off the top of my head just screenings and tc/ts and cams aint really that popular i dont think it would make a difference to box office revenues.
Shiny, You MUST not live in Canada…Or else,your just unaware of what a douche Stephen Harper really is…Incase you haven’t noticed,Canada pretty much ALLWAYS follows/bows to America,and anyone who thinks they dont,is FOOOLIN’ them selves…NONE of these governments are here for US,there here for there INSANE yearly wage increases,and thats about it…So i would be so quick to try and place canada on some fairytale status…And YES…”I AM Canadian”…LOL
What a joke.
Most everyone in Canada knows piracy is precipitated by the Chinese and Russian mobs who download cams shot in OTHER countries over Usenet and sell it in their malls and stores. Camming in Canada? Get fucking real!
Ummm… and as a Canadian I care because???
This is stupid. Who cares if they screen their crap movies any ways?
This is actually funny because it’s such a pathetic attempt to try to manipulate the Canadian government into creating a law like the American law that violates people’s rights.
Hopefully our government can see past these deceptions.
“Hopefully our government can see past these deceptions”.
The Liberals maybe. But the current conservative government is lead by an ass licking American puppet. Hopefully the other parties are strong enough to vote against any similar rights trampling law that they may want to sneak past us.
“that violates people’s rights.”
So stealing is a right? lmao
LOL! I’m from canada, I’ve never been to or seen anywhere where there has been a pre-screening. But I download movies all the time. Good job WB. You fail.
i dont even bother reading all this article
I was gonna post this tech news, but I forgot. I heard it on the cbc.
I guess the worst crime in the world is camming… What’s next ? The death sentence ?
This sucks, I’ve been to a few screenings and they’ve been fun. It’s a way for people to find out what movies are good and which suck from regular people instead of e-critics.
Anthony Linton is an idiot. Who said stealing was a right?
No, I’m fairly sure the DMCA violates other rights, such as the Fair Use Rights. That’s what I’m talking about. Go back to your draconian hole.
bihylney you’re a retard. We can tell you’re from the deep south.
http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/1656/159/
http://www.thestar.com/Business/article/178181
last year — btw – they said NYC was responsible for 40% of camcording… but suddenly they changed those numbers …
why ?
I suspect because in Canada downloading is still legal – and also (so far) the Canada Justice Minister Rejected a call for Camcording Law
How hard can it be just hire a couple of security guards to be in the movie theater during the movie. Would be much easier than to change the law.
I was at an advance screener of Sunshine and they had security guards on us all the time so no one would dare to film it.
And the stuff about Canada being responsible for 50%… that is total bull. Russia is by far the worst.
If the Russians would stop synchronizing their rips then the MPAA would quickly change their campaign against Canada
bihylney obviously has zero idea of just how many “american” movies are actualy made in Canada. Just because it is an american producer or studio, doesn’t mean the movie was actually made in the poor ol’ US of A.
@ bihylney
Kindly explain to us stupid Canadians why the mpaa as recent as last year held Canada up as a poster child for copyright reform?
Canada has the same basic copyright protections the US has. The difference here is, you can only get nailed if you are making a profit from it. And with that, when caught, you do NOT do more time in jail than if you raped and murdered a child.
70% of “american” movies are filmed and produced IN CANADA. Fuck man get your head out of your ass and learn about the world in which you live.
Don’t post dribble about laws that you have no clue about.
I unno for sure if it is 70% or not but i do know is that several films have been made as well as TV shows filmed up here in Canada. the TV show Smallville is actually filmed in and arond the Abbotsford area in BC, also the movies Resident Evil 1 & 2 were filmed in Toronto, the part where she runs down the building that is actually Toronto’s City Hall, and there is several more movies that all have either been entirely filmed up here or even partially so for anyone that thinks Canada doesn’t have a roll in the film industry, quit being a freakin retard and get your head out of your ass, Canada does several things to benefit many others in life, but instead all we get from most in return is sarcastic comments that poke fun at us, maybe if you would actually either get know a few Canadians or hell get off your fat lazy asses and even visit this country maybe you would learn a thing or two in life.
Maybe if it didn’t cost a couple going out for a night at the movies almost $60(CDN) when you include cost of tickets, food and parking, maybe I wouldn’t download movies. Lower the prices of movies and hell DVD’s while your at it and I’ll stop downloading movies and buying bootlegs. $35 bux for a DVD these days…F**K THAT