From: "Rich Gauszka" 

Go Canada go

http://www.syfyportal.com/news423614.html

If you live in Canada, you will not be able to see previews of the upcoming
"Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" and "Ocean's
Thirteen." With potential summer blockbusters poised to premier,
Warner Bros. plans to cancel all preview screenings of its movies in
Canada, in an attempt to clamp down on "rampant" film piracy.

The studio announced on Monday that it will halt all "promotional and
word-of-mouth screenings" of new releases, according to Hollywood
Reporter, citing the failure of the Canadian government to make camcording
-- videotaping a film directly off the cinema screen -- illegal.

"We regret having to cancel our screenings in Canada," said Dan
Fellman, president of domestic distribution at Warner Brothers. "But
our studio must take steps to protect not only our branded assets, but our
commitment to film-makers and to our distributors."

Representatives from major film studios met with a parliamentary committee,
claiming that unauthorized recording of Hollywood films in Canadian movie
theatres was rampant.

Previews have traditionally been used as a means of advertising an upcoming
film, so that word-of-mouth from people who have seen it before general
release would draw in more movie-goers on opening weekend; however, the
failure of Canada to stop people from bringing camcorders into theatres
with them may well be cutting into ticket sales, as bootlegged movies have
been showing up on the internet and for sale as DVDs, sometimes before a
movie's official opening day.

"Canada is the number one priority in terms of anti-camcording
legislation," said Darcy Antonellis, who works on worldwide
anti-piracy operations at Warner Bros Entertainment. "Within the first
week of a film's release, you can almost be certain that somewhere out
there a Canadian copy will show up."

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