Warner Bros Pictures Canada has taken a dramatic step in battling piracy by canceling all promotional and word-of-mouth screenings in Canada. The new policy takes effect immediately which means Canadian citizens won't have the opportunity to view Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and Ocean's Thirteen prior to their theatrical releases.
According to a press release issued by the studio, the cancellation of all future screenings of Warner Bros Pictures and Warner Independent Pictures is a response to the Canadian government's inaction in battling piracy. While the United States has enacted laws and prosecutes anyone caught 'camcording' (shooting the film using a camcorder), Canada has failed to adopt a law making the activity illegal. Warner Bros reports Canada is now the main source of pirated videos with 70% of their titles camcorded in the last 18 months.
Darcy Antonellis, Senior Vice President, Worldwide Anti-Piracy Operations, Warner Bros. Entertainment, and Executive Vice President, Distribution and Technology Operations, Warner Bros. Technical Operations stated, "Canada is the number one priority in terms of anti-camcording legislation. Within the first week of a film’s release, you can almost be certain that somewhere out there a Canadian copy will show up. Within the last 12 to 18 months we’ve seen a significant increase in terms of first-source proliferation that shows up on the Internet and subsequently shows up as hard goods elsewhere.”
Dan Fellman, President, Warner Bros. Pictures Domestic, a division of Warner Bros. Distributing Inc was quoted as saying, "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 theaters all over the world. We’ve been working collaboratively with the exhibitors to encourage the government to put additional measures in place to deter and stop camcording.”
Source: Warner Bros Pictures
