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Theater Ordered To Pay $10,000 For Searching Customers
from the privacy-matters dept
We've seen so many stories about movie theaters that have no problem treating customers like criminals that it's surprising to see one finally get in trouble for it. JJ sent over a story about a movie theater in Quebec that has been fined $10,000 for an unnecessary search of customers. Not surprisingly, the search was to try to catch people bringing video equipment into the theater (wait, I thought the movie industry said Canadian theaters were soft on people videotaping movies?!?), but the court ruled that the search violated one family's privacy when it also turned up a daughter's birth control pills (which her mother wasn't too pleased to discover) along with some snacks they were bringing into the theater. The theater owner acknowledges that they can still search bags, but have to do so with much stricter rules. Or, you know, they could treat paying attendees like they're customers rather than criminals, and perhaps people would feel a lot better about going out to the movies.
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Re:
"When theatres treat customers like criminals, they pay. In more ways than one."
They pay ca$h, they pay in bad press, they pay in customer decline. In short, they lose.
(PS. Are you a coward? Get a name!)
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In addendum
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If anyone wants to know, it is Cinemas Guzzo in Montreal that searches moviegoers.
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Piracy matters
BTW, I get searched when I go to a baseball or football game. They are looking for specific things and, if they don't find them, everybody's happy.
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Re: Piracy matters
if a theater told me they would have to search me before they allowed me to go in, then I would tell them "No, give me my money back"
then I would go to a different theater from then on, and
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Re: Piracy matters
I'm guessing you work for the industry in some capacity?
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Re: Piracy matters
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Cant
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Its about time
The only people I know that still go to the movies aren't very techno-friendy folks. I don't go to over-priced baseball, football games to make some FAT-Cat richer.
I would rather stay home and watch the games on my 70 inch HDTV. No a@$$ spilling beer on me and no idiot that saves up all year to go to home games. What a waste.
I PLAY sports, I don't watch them.
The terrorist are winning with this type of behavior. Wake up and take your freedoms back.
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"Theater Ordered To Pay $10,000 For Searching Customers"
Fill the soft drinks 1/2 way with vodka and throw in a tab of e.
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Re: Piracy matters
So why are we so unwilling to give up our rights, we're not using them anyway.
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Not going to happen
To address any concerns of non-refundability, just use a credit card and initiate a chargeback.
Furthermore, show me the law where ANY CORPORATION has a right to search citizen. Certainly they have a right to REFUSE service if you REFUSE the search, but they can't make you do $hit!
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Maybe they could show good movies.
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Refuse and they can't do a damn thing without the risk of being sued. My wife hates when I make a scene...
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do cam videos really hurt?
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Re:
Bottom line, movie theatres need to start really doing something to earn my business and make it worth while. Maybe I'm not in the demographic any more, but sitting at home with my big screen and so on is much more enjoyable and frankly I can wait a bit for the movie to come out... after all it is just a movie.
Also at least at our sporting events, it is just a cursory check of your bag for weapons. Men in general just walk by and women open up there purse for a 3 second check. If it was anymore or they limited food or some other BS I just wouldn't go. Frankly don't go that often now with most events being shown in HD. Even with quality seats, still better on TV and I don't have to worry about my elbow room and hearing f*** bombs all over the place when I take my kids.
Freedom
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minor
Come here little girlie and let me search you for hidden electronic devices....
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And they wonder..
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By the way, I agree with the underlying point that treating your customers this way is poor business. There is some interesting research to be done on under what circumstances customers see searches as a net positive vs. negative. For instance when I go to a major sporting event I'm happy to know that out of the 80,000 other spectators, the one yahoo trying to bring a firearm in has likely been through a metal detector. But I would not stand for a bag search at a movie theater looking for contraband snacks or cameras. Is the difference the *intent* of the search, the *nature* of the search, or the type of event/venue?
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Re: Get a job
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Re: Re: Get a job
It's the name that is automatically put in when someone doesn't fill anything in the "Name" field.
Try it sometime.
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Re: Cant
Tickets are non-refundable.
LOL, yea right. I've gotten refunds on movie tickets before, and trust me, I'll get more in the future if the need/situation calls for it.
but still...if this "search the criminal moviegoer" idea catches on, look for this sort of subterfuge to become common.
If that's the case and this becomes common, I'll give you one guess what will happen to movie theaters that condone and perform this practice. It won't take long for them to figure it out once they have literally 0 people showing up.
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Re: Re: Re: Get a job
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Re:
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Re:
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Re: Its about time
....So you're a Cubs fan too, aren't you?
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---------------
You mean there actually ARE Cubs fans?
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Re: Re: Re: Get a job
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Re:
http://www.weebls-stuff.com/toons/magical+trevor/
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Re:
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People are Idiots
Simon.
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Rob speaks the truth...
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Since when is it illegal for me to carry a camera into a theater?
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I can't take my camera?
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Re: Re:
It all boils down to the theaters being lazy...
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Re: Its about time
If you reject their search outright and leave they'll think they've foiled an evil pirate plot.
Let them search you to determine you're a normal, paying customer, and THEN tell them you're going to need your money back for being called a criminal.
That should spell it out for them.
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Re:
They did both.
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Re: People are Idiots
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Re: Since when is it illegal for me to carry a camera into a theater?
Never forget that the theater is private property, they could deny you access because they don't like your shoes.
Sure, it would be bad business sense to do so, but that hasn't stopped them yet.
So, it's not like they'll call the cops (or the Mounties?) on you, but they can give you your money back and tell you to have a *great* day if you insist on bringing your camera into the theater.
I'm not saying it's a smart move, but they are within their rights.
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Re:
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shoot all movies in 3d
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Re: Piracy matters
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Re: People are Idiots
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It could be like the warning on the side of a pack of cigs.
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3D
I don't know what all the fuss is about on camera recorded movies. I've downloaded a couple just to see how bad they are, and they are awful. It would be better to wait for a DVD release and rent than sit through the ones I sampled.
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They do it to employees as well
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Re: They do it to employees as well
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Re: They do it to employees as well
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Re: Re: Snacks
> noise? You could even have pinholes with
> bright infrared sources all through the screen.
Because that won't catch those illicit snackers, which the theater management cares a lot more about than videotapers.
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Re: Re: Piracy matters
Not one someone's private property you're not. That "innocent until proven guilty" standard only applies to the government when it tries to put you in jail for something.
Private property owners can search you to their heart's content. Even this Canadian court in this case acknowledged the right of the theater to conduct searches. It just said that people need to be informed up front at the point of ticket sale that searches will be conducted.
If you don't like it, your choice is to leave and take your business elsewhere. But you don't have some privacy right to be free of search on someone else's property.
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Re: Re:
> your cart when you leave the same as looking
> at your personal bag or searching you when
> you enter a business. Neither of these stores
> search your personal items, they search your
> shopping bags
The moment I tender payment at the register, the items are no longer the store's property. They're my property and those shopping bags *are* my personal bags at that point.
Best Buy does the same thing with the exit searches. Last Christmas I had to stand in an interminably long line to check out at Best Buy only to find that once I'd cleared the register, they wanted me to stand in *another* line to have my bags inspected as I walked out the door. I'd already been standing in line for 50 minutes at that point and decided I'd had enough and headed for the doors, only to have some teenager tell me, "Sir, you're going to have to wait in line for a bag inspection." I told him that I was going to do no such thing and if he had a problem with it, he could call his manager or the cops or whomever he thought he needed to. Since it's certainly not illegal to leave a store with items you've properly paid for, it would have been amusing indeed to see them try and involve the police in some way. Apparently the management knows they have no real legal leg to stand on and have trained their employees accordingly because once I refused the search, the clerk instantly backed down without a fight.
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Re: Re: Private Property
> inconvenience or indignity. Just like you
> wouldn't even on your own property.
Actually, in the USA, I can inconvenience you when you're on my property to my heart's content. If you don't like it, you're only option is to leave. But when you're on my property, you abide by my rules, inconvenient or not. And you don't have a valid legal cause of action in the courts to prevent it.
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Re: Re: People are Idiots
> not the airlines. Government can do what
> private outfits can't.
I don't know about Canada, but in the US, it's exactly the opposite. There are much tighter restrictions on what the government can do than there are on private citizens and businesses.
The 4th Amendment (unreasonable search and seizure) only applies to the government. It's never been held to apply to private citizens.
Airport searches are legal because they are consensual. You can either consent to have your luggage and person searched or you can walk out of the airport and get to your destination some other way. No warrant is necessary and the 4th Amendment is not implicated.
Movie theater and other store searches (at least in the US) operate on the same principle. They are consensual searches. If the customer doesn't like it, they can walk away (and presumably get a refund on anything they may have purchased).
If you walked up to the security checkpoint at an airport, took one look at the magnetometers, then turned around and walked away and some cop thought that was suspicious and detained you, *then* there would be a 4th Amendment violation because consent to search is meaningless if there is a penalty (detention) for refusing consent.
Likewise, a theater cannot detain someone merely for refusing consent to search their bags. The only thing they can do is bar the person from remaining on the property. Anything more and they're subject to civil suit for false imprisonment and battery as well as possible criminal prosecution for assault/battery if they put hands on someone and unlawful detention if they did not.
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the true state of the cinema industry
I went with friends to see Wolverine because we're all big fans of the comic. And this was to our podunk run-down little mall cinema with only three screens. It was the last showing of the night and we were shooting the breeze with the kid running the projector talking about comics so he spooled up the alternate ending for us. They don't bother searching customers for recording gear. Order your soda and popcorn and for a couple bucks extra the guy can get you a rip/burn of the movie.
But I think I'll skip Terminator because it's been panned by people who like the same sort of movies I do.
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Legal rights of movie theater companies...??
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Re: People are Idiots
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