Are Canadians giving up their privacy rights?


Here’s a story by James R. on how far the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) has gone to stop people from taking camcorders – or any video recording device – into the theaters. This not only happens in the US… this event took place in Toronto. What bothers me personally is not the bad theatre experience, but how easily we’re giving up our privacy rights.

This was posted on politechbot (it was not emailed to me)

By James R:

My girlfriend and I are writers here in Toronto and I thought I’d share this, as if you needed evidence that privacy abuses are out of hand, here’s our completely insane experience with the MPAA from last night.

I wonder what kind of dystopian cyberpunk future we live in when you are physically searched before entering a movie theatre.

Last night (November 3rd), my girlfriend brought me along to see a screening of Derailed at the Paramount theatre in Toronto, which she had to review for a magazine she works for. The lineup for the screening was unusually long, as I think they also fill seats at press screenngs with radio call-in winners, who in hindsight, might have accepted such poor treatment in exchange for the ostensible privilege of paying for $30 worth of parking and fast food at a free $13 movie.

Anyway, the line was moving slowly because they were asking customers to raise their arms so that they could be electronically frisked with a metal detector, and women’s purses were being searched by uniformed security guards. Try to remember that this is Toronto, Canada we’re talking about here, not New York, Tel Aviv or London.

People who submitted to the search (everyone from what I could tell) had their cellphones taken from them and checked at a table set up in front of the theatre and they were given a ticket to reclaim it when they left.

I was having none of this, and checked the back of my ticket stub to ensure that there was no mention of being required to submit to a search listed as a condition of sale. As my girlfriend and I made it to the front of the line, the guard looked at me and asked me to raise my arms for the search. I politely declined saying “No, thank you”, and proceeded to the ticket taker. I could hear him calling “Sir! Sir!” behind me, but even though I slowed my pace in case he was really going to do something about it, as I had expected, I wasn’t stopped.

The ticket taker took my ticket and I waited for my girlfriend just inside the gate, as her purse was being subjected to a thorough going through by one of the guards.

Since she was there for work, and her deadline was that night, she was not ready to risk not seeing the movie. Her 150 words won’t have room for what happened next.

Her phone was taken from her and put in a sealed plastic bag with a claim ticket, and she joined me where I was waiting, past the gate, and we walked into the theatre together.

To add further insult to the debacle at the gate, near the exits at stage right and left were two uniformed security guards at each door, all four with video cameras scanning the crowd and making themselves very conspicuous.

This was not just a bit of pre-show MPAA theatre, they stood there for the entirity of the movie, red LED’s glowing, scanning the crowd to remind us that we were under close surviellence and our actions were being recorded.

If you have sat in a chair in a dark room watching disturbing scenes unfold in front of you, while four uniformed people with video cameras stand in front of your, silently recording your reactions, you might be reminded of scenarios from a Clockwork Orange, Brazil, 1984, Videodrome, and strangely, that 90’s relic: SFW.

Security guards regularly use handheld video cameras to harrass and intimidate people, particularly during political rallies and protests, as the guards know that the cameras carry with them a clear implication of future retribution against those being recorded. The cameras are quite literally, a threat.

(The threat is that if you do not behave as the camera holder asks, the recording of your actions will be used to persecute or discrace you.)

Upon leaving the theatre, my girlfriend and I had to stop at the security desk to claim her phone, which involved them searching through a pile of bagged cellphones for the correct one. We took another moment to turn the phone on and wait for signal in the threatre to validate that we in fact had the correct phone.

My girlfriend had said that if she hadn’t already agreed to her deadline, she would have made a point of walking out of the screening and giving the PR person a talking to. I did not confront the camera wielding guards in the theatre because she was my host she had a job to do.

Only people who think they have done something wrong, or deserve to be searched, submit to that kind of authority, which is why guards get away with it, and the rest of us continue to be subjected to it and it becomes “normal”.

Anyway, apparently this is Alliance Atlantis’ idea of how to treat an audience, then I for one can certainly live without seeing any of their films, and we will be skipping movies at the Paramount theatre. I also know that at least one reviewer will also be seeing
her movies elsewhere too.

I would also say that this is further evidence that movie studios are losing revenue because of the increasingly poor movie-going experience and general low-quality of the movies they are making, as after this, I can certainly undertstand why someone would prefer to watch a movie on their 14 inch screen than suffer the indignity of a multiplex.

[via digg]


13 responses to “Are Canadians giving up their privacy rights?”

  1. Oread says:

    I go to many screenings/ premieres in Monteal & most of the time this sort of thing doesn’t happen. It happened once at the AMC… I did allow them to glance into my purse (but not touch anything) as the one I carry is quite large & could double as a briefcase. However, I believe they were only taking camera phones from patrons, which I said I did not have & continued walking as well. It needs to be said as well that at this point, the patrons don’t have the original movie pass: it gets handed to an employee & small photocopied tickets are exchanged. It’s difficult to determine at this point what you may or may not have committed to upon entering the theatre.

  2. Scott says:

    This is no way to treat customers. I totally agree with the guy’s stance on being searched, but
    this is from Nov of 2005. Does this still go on today?

    I take exception to the marking of my receipt, so I can’t use it to go back into the store and just walk out with all the same items at the Costco or TigerDirect and also those detectors at the exits of stores to make sure I didn’t shoplift anything.
    Since when have we become under suspicion of committing a crime by just entering a store?
    And these practices do go on today.

  3. Julie says:

    If I have to go through any sort of search like that to see a movie, I don’t believe I’d ever see it.

  4. NNL says:

    What we have been doing over the past twenty years is watching our personal rights reduced with the stated goal being a fairer and safer society.

    Until people start standing up for their rights, the reductions continue to occur.

    Our so-called safer society is not coming about as a result of all the new laws, mostly because all of the actions were already illegal under previous laws.

    All we see are increased demands from security guards, private police and alas, our government.

    NNL

  5. Justin... says:

    Sorry, this isn’t really a rights issue.
    The guy was going into a PRIVATELY OWNED CINEMA!
    They can do what they want and he can CHOOSE NOT TO GO IN!!!
    While this was happening some homeless guy was probably outside the theatre getting harassed by the cops. Now that kinda thing is BULLSHIT but people crying about their ‘rights’, when in fact their talking about ‘privileges’ is just pathetic.

    Grow up and save some of your bile for the treatment of those truly marginalized in our society.

    James R., you’re a crybaby.

    btw I hate the MPAA and I hate their attempts to infringe on my privacy by asking ISPs for the names of people using bittorrents. THAT is a completely different issue as it involves what I do with my own computer and I don’t feel that intellectually property is an important enough problem that my rights should be infringed in THAT case (stopping kiddie porn on the other hand, infringe away). Though if I want to go see a FREE ADVANCED SCREENING I should realize that I’ll need to be sensitive to the regulations set by those hosting it. I should be willing to stand up for my principles and NOT GO IN if I have a problem with it. “My girlfriend needed to write a review”, “we drove all the way there” – please you were INCONVENIENCED by this but you clearly decided that your precious rights weren’t more important than your gf’s review or the price of parking.

    You’re a real FREEDOM FIGHTER, James R.

  6. Fishy007 says:

    “The guy was going into a PRIVATELY OWNED CINEMA!”

    Hate to break it to you, but the same thing happened back in December at Famous Players Paramount in Toronto.

    There’s no way I’d leave my cell phone or any other valuable item with someone at a desk while I went to see a movie. And a search of my person is completely out of the question.

  7. Justin... says:

    Boo-Hoo!
    Hate to break it to you, Fishy007, but you had the same choice. Don’t go in!
    Again, I don’t think the searches are all that effective – I don’t think it’s going to stop the pirating – but it’s also NOT AN INFRINGEMENT on your rights.

  8. Scott says:

    Justin,

    FYI

    8. Everyone has the right to be secure against unreasonable search or seizure.

    http://laws.justice.gc.ca/en/Charter/index.html#garantie

    Yes it is.

  9. Justin... says:

    Given the proliferation of pirated films, a pretty solid case could be made for these searches being a REASONABLE measure. Particularly since they are only happening at the special preview and NOT during the regular screenings.

    Sounds REASONABLE to me. Find it unreasonable? Don’t go in – but try taking it to the court and you’ll be laughed out.

    These are the complaints of persons that have confused unreasonable searches of their person with simple inconvenience.

    It’s sad really, and it speaks volumes about their sense of entitlement and avoids addressing the real injustices in our society (clue: they aren’t happening at free film screenings, princess).

  10. Scott says:

    http://scc.lexum.umontreal.ca/en/1998/1998rcs1-51/1998rcs1-51.html

    It may sound reasonable to you, but as far as the law is concerned, it is not.

    “In cases involving s. 8 rights, the appropriate starting point is the judgment of this Court in Hunter v. Southam Inc., [1984] 2 S.C.R. 145. In that decision, Dickson J. (as he then was) set out the basic framework of analysis for s. 8. He held that it only protected an individual’s reasonable expectation of privacy, and that reasonableness is to be evaluated by balancing that privacy interest against the state’s interest in law enforcement. In R. v. Collins, [1987] 1 S.C.R. 265, with those principles in mind, I set out three pre-requisites to a reasonable search under s. 8. In order to be reasonable, a search must be authorized by law, the law itself must be reasonable, and the search must be carried out in a reasonable manner.”

    “In order to be reasonable, searches and seizures must be authorized by law. The reason for this requirement is clear: under both the Charter and the common law, agents of the state can only enter onto or confiscate someone’s property when the law specifically permits them to do so.”

  11. Steve says:

    Last month I went to see “The Queen” at the CinePlex Queensway cinema in Etobicoke. As I went through into the ticket check area the young man there said I could not take the small bag I was carrying. It is only about 8 x 10 and a few inches thick. He showed me the nearby sign that said no bags allowed but lots of people were walking in with huge satchels, some with bags of chips easily seen. I opened the bag to show him there was nothing in there and he let me in. I spoke to the security manager afterward and told him that I was not impressed. He said that they are doing spot checks to curb taping of movies and outside food.

    My wife believes that being a middle aged man with a bald head and glasses meant that I was a victim of nerd profiling,

  12. Justin... says:

    Read the story again.
    He refused to be searched and they let him pass. Anyone who was searched had to allow it.
    Anyway, that point, and more importantly my original point, stands.

    I’m wondering what else he’s done besides write out the woeful tale for all to read? Has he petitioned the studio? Has he called the theatre?
    Most likely he hasn’t and all his whining is just that – whining.

    “Try to remember that this is Toronto, Canada we’re talking about here, not New York, Tel Aviv or London.”

    No. That’s clear. They have their problems while we Canadians must suffer through these movie theatre “indignities”.

    Like that time I got a large popcorn and the butter only covered the top kernels!
    NO JUSTICE, NO PEACE!

  13. Scott says:

    The theatre has every right to refuse to sell me a ticket for not submitting to a search or to refund my money when I refuse. The point is how can you be in the service industry and treat your customers like criminals? Then when sales decline from people staying at home and watching the DVD, whine about how “piracy is killing our business.”
    If they want to stop people from videotaping the movie, release the DVD and the movie at the same time. Then offer a discounted version of the movie (no extras) for sale (say 10-15 bucks) as you exit the theatre. You know that they’re going to release a 2-disc special edition in 6 months anyway.
    The people that want the DVD will still buy the 2-disc special edition and the theatre folk will be pleased with their “no hassle” experience.


















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