(Image via Ars Technica)
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"Piracy is not a victimless crime."
In the wake of the uproar against anti-piracy legislation proposed in Congress and crackdowns by the U.S. government to protect copyright holders, you'll now have to sit through two new ads before you make to your featured presentation.
(Related: 'Chilling'?: Feds can seize any foreign .com run by a company on U.S. soil)
That is, you won't be able to skip over the new FBI, Homeland Security Investigations and National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center ads on the latest DVDs or Blu-Ray discs.
Ars Technica has more on the 10-second ads that will run back-to-back:
An ICE spokesman tells me that the two screens will "come up after the previews, once you hit the main movie/play button on the DVD. At which point the movie rating comes up, followed by the IPR Center screen shot for 10 secs and then the FBI/HSI anti-piracy warning for 10 secs as well. Neither can be skipped/fast forwarded through."The idea isn't to deter current pirates, apparently (the new scheme requires all legal purchasers to sit through 20 seconds of warnings each time they pop in a film, but will be totally absent from pirated downloads and bootlegs). It's to educate everyone else. As ICE Director John Morton announced in a statement yesterday, "Law enforcement must continue to expand how it combats criminal activity; public awareness and education are a critical part of that effort."
Ars Technica reports six major movie studios will begin using the ads as soon as next week.
"Our nation's film and TV business is critical to our economy," ICE Director John Morton said in a statement. "Its creativity and imagination have made American entertainment one of our greatest exports over the decades, but criminals are increasingly engaging in new forms of digital theft. Law enforcement must continue to expand how it combats criminal activity; public awareness and education are a critical part of that effort."
On the bright side, this gives you one last opportunity to take a bathroom break or finish up popping popcorn before your desired flick begins.
[H/T Gizmodo]
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