Cinemas are set to turn to Big Brother-style spy tactics in a bid to foil the movie pirates costing the film industry millions of pounds a year. Airport-style metal detectors and night-vision goggles are two of the ideas currently on trial in America. And with pirating already a major problem on this side of the Atlantic, experts predict similar methods could soon be introduced in the UK. Pirate films are estimated to have cost the entertainment industry a whopping £950m in Britain last year, with an estimated £50m lost in the North alone. Technological breakthroughs such as the introduction of broadband internet connections are making illegal copies of new releases easier than ever to get hold of. Films can now take as little as two hours to download instead of the two days it used to take a normal 56K modem to deal with them. In America, movie bosses are so worried about piracy they plan to search audiences as they arrive at cinemas, as well as carrying out stringent secret checks. The move comes as Warner Brothers prepares to open its sequel to The Matrix in the UK this week. The studio is keen to safeguard as much as possible of its income from the £150m blockbuster by foiling prospective pirates. Hits such as Spider-Man, the fifth Star Wars film and the Harry Potter movies missed out on millions of pounds in potential takings due to piracy. Even relative flops such as Treasure Planet have been targeted by bootleggers. The makers of The Matrix Reloaded, like the rest of Hollywood, are hoping to do better, however. Jim Gianopulos, chairman of Fox Filmed Entertainment, said: "Piracy is the most critical issue facing the business. "We have some ideas in place to combat the problem but we are not about to give all of our secrets away at this stage." Pirates can strike at any time in the film-making process following the completion of shooting and editing. Some copies are made during the production stages, but the easiest way is to smuggle a video camera into a cinema. The biggest worry to film bosses is posed by advance screenings and press previews. A viewer using a camcorder at an advance screening, usually held weeks before the movie's launch date, could rush home, upload it onto the internet and make it available worldwide within a matter of hours. That is a problem that strikes fear into the heart of all film makers. Just last year footage from Star Wars, Episode Two: Attack of the Clones was available on the internet before it even opened at cinemas. And the makers of the eagerly-awaited SpiderMan movie were shocked to learn that pirated DVD versions were on sale in Afghanistan well before it could be seen on the silver screen in the US. Among the measures currently being tested are walk-through metal detectors to catch out cinema-goers equipped with camcorders. And many auditoriums are being monitored by staff using night-vision glasses to check that no one is filming in the dark. Some studios have taken to having prints of new movies delivered by hand and bearing bogus labels to hoodwink would-be thieves. Some are also arming the messengers entrusted with the movies in case they are robbed. Such measures have yet to be introduced in the UK, but the Federation Against Copyright Theft, known as FACT for short, is exploring all options and has not ruled them out. Last week it launched a 20-second trailer warning audiences not to copy films, and a spokeswoman for the federation confirmed there are more radical plans in the pipeline. "Obviously we are not using these American measures just yet but piracy is something we take very, very seriously indeed," she said. "This has always been a problem for film companies, and with the introduction of broadband it may soon be just as easy to copy films via the internet as it is to download music. "We will be looking to see how these trials in America work out before we think about introducing similar measures here." Movie bosses reckon about three out of every 10 films sold are copies and say that, although many people don't regard piracy as a serious crime, it could have a devastating effect on their industry. "People tend not to consider that people's jobs and livelihoods are at stake here, but this is a bigger problem than they realise," said the FACT spokeswoman. "If everyone started buying pirate copies it could seriously threaten jobs, and the Inland Revenue and ultimately the UK's film industry will suffer. "That is why we're so keen to bring it under control before it gets even further out of hand." CURSE OF THE MATRIX - Page 27 | 
