What an enemy does to us is sometimes not so destructive as what we do to ourselves out of fear of that enemy. Look at the USA Patriot Act, for example, or the movie industry's efforts to combat piracy.
For the record, I abhor the practice of pirating movies. It's nothing short of theft, taking bread out of the mouths of the creative people who write, direct, act in, build sets and costumes for, shoot, edit and score movies. Besides, the copies are usually crappy and shown on small screens -- TVs or computer terminals -- ill-equipped to handle images designed for a giant movie screen.
So why is it that moviegoers, those of us who love the cinematic experience so much that they shell out $7.50 to see a movie in a theater, are the ones suffering?
The first line of defense is at the theater door. At most screenings I attend these days, security guards are a familiar sight, checking bags and waving metal-detector wands in search of recording devices. It's one thing when the searches are done at promotional screenings, where members of the general public attend; it's an annoyance to be sure, but there is always the chance somebody will try to sneak in a camcorder. But the practice has extended to critics-only screenings, which is just plain ridiculous -- no reputable critic is going to risk losing access to screenings, let alone getting fired by his/her employer for violating journalistic ethics, by bringing in a camera.
Yes, there is an industry in bootleg DVDs, often dubbed from tapes made by some guy who snuck a camcorder into the theater, like that "Seinfeld" episode. The DVDs usually are not top-quality because the camcorder captures not only the movie but the audience's applause and comments from the loudmouth three rows up.
To help thwart this practice, or at least help figure out where it is happening, studios have brought back something redundantly called a "coded anti-piracy code," or CAP Code. This system, developed by Kodak in the early '80s, puts small red dots on certain frames during the movie. The dot pattern is unique to each print, so one could trace a copy back to the theater where the print was screened.
According to Chicago projectionist Steve Kraus, quoted in Roger Ebert's "Movie Answer Man" column in the Oct. 5 Chicago Sun-Times, a modified CAP Code has been introduced, with dots large enough that the average viewer will notice them. The bigger dots, apparently, can be read even on the tiny images of streaming-video players, so downloaded copies can be traced.
You may have seen the bigger CAP Code dots -- Kraus calls them "Crap Code" -- during "Kill Bill, Vol. 1" (though red dots in that movie could be mistaken for just more blood). I also have seen them on the "Alien" re-release and the upcoming "Elf."
The intent may be to discourage piracy, but the effect is to spoil the pristine image moviegoers paid to see. It's a bit like fighting shoplifters by telling people you spit in the produce section -- it winds up deterring the customers as well as the crooks.
The fear of piracy was at the heart, or at least the excuse, given for the Motion Picture Association of America's dust-up over "academy screeners." Apparently some bozo with a vote in some pre-Oscar awards organization sold his/her copy of "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers" on eBay, and the MPAA countered by banning screeners altogether. Distributors of smaller movies cried foul, saying the ban destroyed their chances at beating the big boys in the Oscar race.
A week ago, the MPAA and the movie studios (which are, actually, one and the same) compromised a bit -- VHS screeners, but no DVDs, will be sent only to the 5,600 voting members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. This satisfied some, but angered the other groups whose awards often serve as pre-Oscar harbingers.
One problem with the battle against piracy is that the MPAA seems to be going after the wrong target. The main measures -- like the bag search and the CAP Code -- go after the consumers. Meanwhile, the industry is slow to police its own.
According to a study by AT&T Labs released last week, 77 percent of the popular movies being traded illegally on the Internet were originally uploaded by people inside the movie industry. That includes people who get screeners, said The Hollywood Reporter, but also covers post-production houses, editing rooms, marketing departments, projectionists and everybody else who sees a movie before it hits theaters.
It's good that the MPAA is hunting down pirates, but the group should do more patroling in its home port.
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Got a question about the movies? Send it to movie critic Sean P. Means: The Salt Lake Tribune, 143 S. Main, second floor, Salt Lake City, UT 84111, or e-mail at movies@sltrib.com.
