Guerrilla Drive-Ins

An anonymous reader submits "A NY Times story yesterday talked about a new fad sweeping the underground: guerrilla drive-ins. Essentially, someone sets up a DVD player, LCD projector, and wireless transmitter next to any blank wall (preferably on someone else's property - to make it more fun), and people come to watch movies. As you would expect, the movie studios aren't too thrilled." The idea that this is a notable fad reminds of when the residents of Doonesbury's Walden jokingly informed intrepid reporter Roland Burton Hedley, Jr. ("Rollie") about imaginary trends in the college drug scene. On the other hand, anything that knocks down the price of projectors is fine with me!

this is really common at college

[spacerodent]

this was really common with me and my friends while i was at Texas A&m university. One of my friends who went to a Naval Academy said they even did it there. (they even put porn on the side of a building and only got in mild trouble for it) I guess if it's so well known it means my friends and I aren't as nerdy as we thought. Yay?

Even the NY Times Article Violates INDUCE Act

[Anonymous Coward]

According to "The Importance Of..." which has been tracking the INDUCE Act relentlessly, the NY Times article violates the INDUCE Act itself: Hatch's Hit List #16 - The New York Times [corante.com]

Re:Isn't this illegal?

[stefanlasiewski]

I'm sure when the police find a bunch of people tresspassing on someone elses property, teens drinking, people smoking pot and watching DVDs, they'll be real upset at the copyright violations.

I think the whole thrill for the participants is that most of the activity is illegal...

Re:Isn't this illegal?

[TheGavster]

Lets carry this further. Suppose that I have a giant television facing a window, and an ear-shattering sound system that can be heard a mile away. If a group of people were to congregate on my lawn, they could see the image and hear the sound, but are they actually spectators? What about someone stuck in traffic outside the house? The line between a public and private performance seems rather fuzzy, and fuzziness is rarely the catalyst for sane legislation ... (what next, televisions with IR cameras and computer vision software that demand a DVD be inserted by each person in the room before playing?)

I'm buying Fahrenheit 9/11 the day it comes out...

[MsGeek]

...then I'm going to throw F9/11 watching parties up until the election. I waived my boycott of the MPAA to go see the movie, and I will waive my boycott of them to buy a DVD of it.

Unfortunately I don't have access to a SVGA projector. If I did, I have a DVD player (a player, not a computer with a DVD drive, simplicity rules) that is currently set up to output video out its SVGA port.

Hopefully someone with an SVGA projector and a copy of F9/11 might get inspired to set up guerilla drive in showings between the September release date and November 2nd. Which, as you can read from my .SIG, is Official Regime Change Day in the US. That is, if it's not postponed...ugh...

Re:Isn't this illegal?

[jhoger]

Copying and use are different things. You need to understand the difference.

Your typical slashdotter is FOR copyable, changeable software, and for licenses which allow that. Your typical slashdotter ABIDES by licenses that prevent copying and changing but allow normal use, usually by avoiding the software altogether since there are usually Free alternatives.

Apply this line of thinking to movies: this is a license that prevents copying but also attempts to prevent normal use, that is, displaying that damn movie any way you like. Not copying or in any other way making multiple instances... but just the normal action of displaying it is somehow to be controlled.

This is what is offensive about such overly restrictive licenses. When I buy something I expect to get some fair use rights too. But restrictive licensing, encrpytion, drm, etc have the effect of preventing you getting even normal use out of the things you buy.

Greenpeace did this here in the Netherlands

[Jacco de Leeuw]

Greenpeace projected the movie "The Day After Tomorrow [imdb.com]" on the wall of a power plant [greenpeace.nl] running on coal here in Amsterdam.

The Dutch equivalent of the MPAA didn't like it, but I don't think the makers of the film would have objected much. Looks like great publicity for the movie.

Re:Isn't this illegal?

[markxz]

If I have a private party, set up a huge freakin' projection system, and watch the DVD with my friends in the yard, it's still legal.

DVDs are usually licenced for Home use, a private party would not count as home use (even if it takes place in your home).

I have heard of a figure of 12 to 15 people being the limit of home use, although if the DVD is being shown in a public place or for commercial gain (including extra bar sales) then this would definately not be counted as home use.

Re:Isn't this illegal?

[msobkow]

Err, no. That is only his opinion.

It is illegal to drink beer on public streets in most jurisdictions. But it is perfectly legal to drink it at home, in your yard, etc.

If you happen to be in an apartment complex with a communal yard, the law recognizes the communal yard as your own.

At no point has anyone here mentioned a truly "public" venue. Obviously to watch a DVD you're going to be in a relatively quiet, dark area -- not a main street or a mall.

Bergman's key point seems to be "...where anybody who wants to can come and watch..."

Anybody who wants to is welcome to press their nose against my living room window to watch along with me. I'll probably freak out and have them arrested as potential burglers casing the joint, but I can't stop them.

I'm not actually kidding on that point -- legal responsibility is for the things you can control or reasonably prevent. The actions of complete strangers is not your responsibility.

Re:road trips

[BitchAss]

I live in the country near Oshawa, Ontario.

Anyone wanna do this? I have some friends coming over t'night - we were wondering what to do. I have a projector, a Myth box, a couple of divx hundred movies, a surround sound system and too much time on our hands.

So, who's up for this? Seriously. Send me an email: [e-mail] and I'll give you directions.

We were thinking of watching Signs since we saw the Village last night. We're also surrounded by corn fields.

Re:Isn't this illegal?

[Anonymous Coward]

Might it not be possible to set up a corporation dedicated to piracy. I'm sure many thousands of people would be willing to participate, and there would be no individual responsibility.

Re:Isn't this illegal?

[gmhowell]

The actions of complete strangers is not your responsibility.

You can be. Funny you mention burglars earlier. It is illegal (dating back to English Common Law) to set traps in your home. Sounds like a crock of shit to me. Someone breaks into your house, and you just happen to have a tiger pit on the inside of the window he climbs in. He can successfully sue. Well, successfully as long as I'm not on the jury.

Hollywood was founded on Infringement

[CodeBuster]

In the early days of the film industry the movie studios selected Hollywood for a couple of reasons: the climate was mild, there was a wide variety of terrain and locales, and the poor roads and isolated conditions ment that they could dodge Thomas Edisdon and his movie projector patents. Early studios like "Flying 'A' Studios" weren't called flying for nothing. They would pick up their operations and move around to stay one step ahead of the patent police. Isn't it ironic that an industry which decries the infringement of intellectual property was founded on that very infringement?

Re:Isn't this illegal?

[Anonymous Coward]

They DO get to dictate these definitions to you. That is why the concept of IP is dispicable to me. They can place whatever restrictions they want on you, and can even impinge on fair use if they can get you to sign an actual contract.

The root of this problem is the idea that information can be owned and protected as property, not that the MPAA writes up their licenses in a way you don't appreciate.

Re:Isn't this illegal?

[Tsiangkun]

a rented DVD

Corporate mispeak, or is the problem the guy rented the dvd, instead if owning it ?

Powering a projector + dvd player?

[mewphobia]

Just curious, how would one go about powering a projector and dvd player outside? A car battery? how long would a projector work on a new car battery? You also need to power the sound system for 2hrs.

Can you get really quiet generators nowdays?

In a way..

[EvilStein]

You have to think about it. We always hear young people saying "There's nothing to do in our town. We're bored." because in a lot of places (here, especially) everything closes up at 9 or 10pm. Geez, I don't even get home from WORK until 6:30 or 7pm!
There's Borders, and a couple other coffee shops, or the movie theatres, or bars.

This would be a welcome addition to many neighborhoods. What's better? Kids sitting in a field watching movies, or parking in an alley shooting up?

At least it gives bored people something to do in a unique social settings.

Fuck you, MPAA. It's not like they're going to make money off of "The Bad News Bears visit Japan" anymore. Come on.
I'd love to see the financials for that movie. Bet they haven't made any money off of it in years.. copyright be damned.

Extreme Guerrilla Drive-In

[Anonymous Coward]

Location:
Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA)
Motion Picture Association (MPA)
15503 Ventura Blvd.
Encino, California 91436

And I would recommend playing a movie grabbed from p2p before the its official release. That would require balls the size of watermelons to pull that off.

Re:Oh please

[RadioTV]

I used to DJ (school dances and weddings not techno). I had to pay royalties for "performances" that were open to the general public (like school dances). The cost was biased on admission price and the capacity of the venue. I didn't have to pay for invitation only events like weddings. In exchange for this I could buy compilation CDs biased on the release date for radio airplay. That way I didn't have to by the 9-14 crap songs to get the one song that was playing on the radio. A lot of DJs don't pay the fees but the penalties can be substantial if you get caught.