July 20, 2005
Scotland. Cinema ban for mobiles in war on film pirates
Reminiscent of Hollywood's crackdown a couple of summers ago at movie screenings, mobile phones are to be temporarily confiscated during performances at this year's Edinburgh Film Festival.
Guests at many festival screenings, including world and international premieres, will be asked to hand over their phones for the duration of the film, reports the Scotsman.
"The concerns have been raised because of next-generation mobile phone cameras, which can take film clips of almost three minutes, as well as still pictures.
While they could not be used to pirate an entire film, the devices would allow parts of the latest blockbusters to be shown on-line months before they were due out in cinemas on general release, as well as using movie images for unauthorised purposes."
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