NEW ROLE FOR THEATERS: COPS.

Byline: Greg Hernandez Staff Writer

LAS VEGAS - Taking tickets and serving popcorn are one thing. But busting criminals at the multiplex?

Movie theater employees are being urged to become trained in how to identify and prevent the illegal recording of films in their theaters as the motion picture industry intensifies its efforts to stem a practice that is fueling piracy worldwide.

At this week's ShoWest Convention, a new online training program called FightFilmTheft.org is being launched by the major exhibition and distribution trade groups in the U.S. and Canada.

Industry leaders said more than 90 percent of newly released films that are stolen originate from camcorders that were snuck into a theater. The recordings are then sold to labs that produce illegal DVDs to be sold on the street or they are uploaded onto the Internet for illegal downloading.

"Camcorder piracy is a serious, worldwide problem that hurts not only people who make the movies and work in theaters, but also consumers, who end up with bad-quality, counterfeit DVDs," said John Fithian, president and CEO of the National Association of Theater Owners.

NATO has teamed with the Motion Picture Association of America, the Canadian Motion Picture Distributors Association and the Motion Picture Theatre Association of Canada on the program that teaches employees what signs to look for in theaters in terms of who might be recording a movie, what they are likely to wear and where they typically sit in a theater.

After an employee completes an online tutorial and quiz, they will be eligible for a $300 quarterly drawing just for being trained.

In the U.S., theater employees are already eligible for a $500 reward for identifying and preventing movie theft in theaters through a joint program called Take Action! That program, launched by the MPAA and NATO in 2004, has resulted in 30 employees receiving awards and 69 camcording incidents being stopped.

At ShoWest this week, theater owners welcomed the added incentive for their employees to be extra vigilant.

"I think it's important that the theaters be the front-line defense for this," said John Monsport, owner of AmericanPlace Movies in Flemington, N.J. "I believe my future as a theater owner depends on programs like this."

The efforts to eliminate illegal recording with camcorders is getting some major help from the legal system. In the U.S., there are laws in 38 states plus the District of Columbia against the use of recording devices inside a theater, which enables state and local authorities to arrest and prosecute pirates.

On a federal level, the Family Entertainment and Copyright Act went to effect that makes camcording in a theater a federal felony with new penalties for pirating works that have not yet been released commercially.

greg.hernandez(at)dailynews.com

[phone]