14 DAY TRIAL // So, the MPAA decided to push the matter on the Google Glass situation and got the device banned across movie theaters in the United States because they’re scared they’ll be used for movie piracy.
While the MPAA keeps praising technology, it is now obvious just how backwards they are in thinking.
If you only analyze the situation for one second, you’ll figure out why this is a completely bogus move and why it will have absolutely zero impact on piracy whether the device is banned or permitted in movie theaters.
Who downloads CAMs anymore?
First off, just taking a simple glance at the list of the most pirated movies of each week, you’ll notice that CAM versions, those that are recorded in the theater, with camcorders hidden under jackets, are very rarely downloaded by people.
That’s because the quality is extremely low, both in video and in sound and there’s often the chance that you’ll hear someone’s jokes instead of the dialogue, you’ll hear someone munching on popcorn or see one big dude stand up two rows down, taking over half the screen.
Even when these low-quality copies do make it among the preferences of pirates around the world, they quickly lose ground, perhaps as soon as the download is finished and the video is opened.
In today’s world, where large numbers of people have fast computers, big displays and even bigger TVs, watching low quality video just doesn’t cut it anymore.
Bumpy ride
Secondly, let’s look at Google Glass for a second. It comes with a relatively decent camera that can record videos of up to 720p. The battery life will keep the device on for three to five hours with moderate usage, although recording video or taking pictures will cut down the time to under an hour. Some have said that the actual time is closer to 45 minutes.
That means that’s about half the length of a chick flick and maybe a third of an action movie. Sure, having a portable battery that will work with the device will extend the life of Google Glass, but it doesn’t solve the bigger issues.
If you wear the device on your head, where everyone can see it and fear that you’re somehow recording them, then no one will want to see your video. Sure, watching videos of people skateboarding, doing parkour or whatever else with Google Glass on, will give people a bird’s eye view into their life.
Watching a movie recorded with Google Glass would be downright terrible. Every tilt of the head, muscle pinch, shrug, bout of laughter, nose scratch, eaten popcorn kernel and so on will have an impact on the recording. The image stabilization in Google Glass is good, but it won’t solve all the issues and it’s certainly not good enough for the task of pirating a movie.
Too expensive to pirate
Thirdly, Google Glass costs $1,500. That’s a whole lot of money for someone who will try to sneak into a theater room and record a movie only to upload it for free on the Internet. No one who owns such a device would bother pirating movies in a theater
Banning Google Glass in theaters is a mindless decision that has no grounds in the real world. The MPAA seems to be doing everything it can to put itself sideways in the path of technology.
There are other ways to fight piracy
Just like it does in its fight against online piracy, when it attacks torrent sites, shelling out millions and throwing money left and right trying to get lawmakers to do their bidding and hoping judges will see things the way they do. This is the same money that could be spent trying to figure out what the gist of the problem is, why people pirate content and what can be done to combat this issue preemptively rather than through punishments.
So much could be done that the MPAA and the RIAA simply don’t care about. Delivering movies and music all over the world without delay is one step. In this day and age, when the Internet reaches all corners of the world, having to dodge spoilers about a TV series or movie is extremely difficult. It’s also difficult to just sit around and wait for an album to get released in your country when the rest of the world has it for weeks.
Another step would be providing worldwide streaming of movies and music in easy-to-use, price-accessible manners. There’s no reason for a digital album to cost just the same as a CD or for a digital copy of a movie to cost the same as the store DVD since there’s no packaging prices, no printing costs and so on.
But then again, it’s easier to just scream at the world to stop pirating content than it is to actually do something good about it.
Banning Google Glass in theaters has nothing to do with fighting against piracy, but rather with the fight against technology. This is the MPAA flexing its muscles and responding to those who fear Google Glass in general without even weighing in the facts.