http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070509/...da_film_piracy
TORONTO - Canadian film lovers hoping to catch an early peek at "Ocean's Thirteen" and the upcoming Harry Potter sequel will be out of luck after Warner Bros. canceled all of its advance screenings and accused Canada of being at the forefront of the piracy market.
Darcy Antonellis, Warner Bros.' senior vice president of worldwide anti-piracy operations, defended the move Tuesday, saying weak Canadian copyright rules have made the country a haven for organized crime syndicates to make and sell illegal DVDs.
It is currently not a criminal offense in Canada to make recordings of movies in theaters for personal use. In order to prosecute a pirate, there must be proof that the copy of the film is being made for commercial purposes.
"Canada does have the highest camcording rate (by individuals in theaters) of any other territory," Antonellis said Tuesday by phone from Los Angeles.
"This is eliminating one of the avenues of leaks that we have already identified."
Warner Bros. said roughly 70 per cent of its releases have been pirated in Canada over the last 18 months.
The studio's ban on advance screenings, affecting roughly a dozen Canadian cities, will begin immediately. Movies affected include the upcoming Brad Pitt and George Clooney film "Ocean's Thirteen" and the hotly anticipated "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix."
The move is less severe than one proposed last year by 20th Century Fox, which threatened to push back the release date of its films in Canada over the same issue.
Ottawa-based copyright expert Michael Geist questioned Warner Bros.'s piracy accusations, noting that independent reports have suggested counterfeiting is far less severe than the film studios make them out to be.
Film writer Brian Johnson doubted the general public would even notice Warner Bros.' protest.
"I think it's a thin slice of the population who actually goes to those preview screenings," he said.