Same Movie Industry that Trashes Patriot Act Goes to Surveillance Extremes to Protect Bottom Line

The very same entertainment industry that produces film after film after television show after television show ripping the very same Patriot Act that has helped to successfully foil heaven only knows how many terrorist attacks, is now using about as Orwellian a technology as there is to not only detect when their precious product is being pirated but also for market research.

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Torrent Freak reports on what’s going on and where things are headed over in England, but it’s all about protecting Hollywood’s product, isn’t it?:

For most people going to a cinema is a good night out. Only a few realize that they are often subjecting themselves to extreme and privacy invading security measures that most airports could only dream of. Filmgoers are already being carefully watched for suspicious behavior by Big Brother’s cameras, but soon this technology will be upgraded with sophisticated emotion recognition software.

Hindering piracy is priority number one for movie theaters nowadays. In dealing with a tiny minority, theater owners are slowly alienating their customers by employing measures such as metal detectors, night-vision goggles, bag and body searches and audio watermarks. Everyone is treated as a potential pirate. …

One of the available anti-camcorder solutions is offered by Aralia Systems, an Orwellian company that specializes in monitoring services and technologies. Besides traditional CCTV cameras, Aralia Systems offers elaborate piracy tracking devices. One of their products is an anti-camcorder system that projects infrared light beams onto a cinema audience. These beams are reflected back off camcorders and will trigger several alarm bells. …

TorrentFreak spoke with project leader Dr. Abdul Farooq from Machine Vision Lab, who told us that their main goal is to extend the functionalities of the current anti-piracy systems. Basically, it comes down to extracting as much information from movie goers as possible, by adding analytics software that can read people’s physical reactions as well as their emotions.

“We want to devise instruments that will be capable of collecting data that can be used by cinemas to monitor audience reactions to films and adverts and also to gather data about attention and audience movement,” Dr. Farooq said.

So the next time some cynical cop in some procedural decides to take a cynical shot at the Patriot Act or some woman-in-jeopardy film puts that woman in further jeopardy through the abuse of the same or you hear some movie star mouth off about civil liberties, be sure to make a mental note that the movie you’re watching might be watching you, and is most certainly the product of an industry more interested in protecting “Eat Pray Love” than innocent lives — is more interested in selling popcorn than your family’s security — puts a higher value on their own bottom line than the stopping of terrorism.