Night Vision Goggles vs Pirates 689
Cormorant writes "It was reported in The Guardian that Warner Brothers has sent night vision goggles to cinemas across Britain for ushers to don and scan for camcorder pirates during the entire length of the movie [the new Harry Potter], along with watermarks and codes displayed on screen during the film. Mr Graham said "Video piracy is rife everywhere, and with the UK screening the film four days before the rest of the world, Warner was concerned the movie would end up on the internet. Warner sees the investment as negligible compared with the threat to the whole industry."
Splinter Cell 3 : Black Ops Box Office (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Splinter Cell 3 : Black Ops Box Office (Score:5, Funny)
(and what's with speaking in a normal voice to the person next to you during a film. Do they not teach whispering in schools these days?)
Re:Splinter Cell 3 : Black Ops Box Office (Score:5, Insightful)
Don't be rude, don't be a psycho. Just be firm.
If enough of us do it, politeness and manners can once again be the norm at the theater.
Re:Splinter Cell 3 : Black Ops Box Office (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Splinter Cell 3 : Black Ops Box Office (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Splinter Cell 3 : Black Ops Box Office (Score:5, Interesting)
The first time it was not entirely horrible. It wasn't good of course but I could deal with it. The second time it was starting to get horrible but again I held it together and managed to make it through the movie. The third night I would have passed on it if the girl I was desperate to get into bed hadn't wanted to go see it but that's where I made my mistake.
We sat in a theater next to a couple who brought with them a thoroughly miserable baby who (on reflection I really can't blame the little bugger) wanted to be anywhere but sitting in a dark theater watching Prince. That baby cried through most of the picture. People sitting around them asked them politely if they would take the baby into the lobby. People glared at them while the baby screamed like someone was pulling it's toes off. People moved to other available seats. They didn't budge.
I was hanging on by a very, very thin thread at this point and stood up, turned around and told them that if they didn't find a way to shut that baby up I was going to pick it up by it's feet and beat them to death with it.
They got up and left as people around us clapped. Now, at close to 40 years of age I realize how lucky I was not to have gone to jail. On the other hand these people were terribly rude to make everyone else sit through a movie listening to their child.
You're right though. In recent years I've just asked people to be quiet and gone and brought an usher down when necessary. It's the better choice.
Re:Splinter Cell 3 : Black Ops Box Office (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Splinter Cell 3 : Black Ops Box Office (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Splinter Cell 3 : Black Ops Box Office (Score:5, Informative)
For us Yanks, that's potato chip bags and candy wrappers.
Nightvision Google? (Score:4, Funny)
There is probably already a bittorrent (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:There is probably already a bittorrent (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:There is probably already a bittorrent (Score:5, Insightful)
Especially if they're copying the movie themselves during late-night private screenings.
I don't know about the UK, but in the US movie ushers are teen-age kids. They're far more enamoured with getting steet-cred for getting a clean copy of a popular film then they would be with making their boss look good by catching pirates.
If the studios want security guards, they'd be better served by hiring security guards.
TW
Re:There is probably already a bittorrent (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:There is probably already a bittorrent (Score:5, Funny)
Re:There is probably already a bittorrent (Score:5, Funny)
Me too. But I'd just spend the time oggling the hot chicks while they couldn't see me, screw looking for pirates...
Re:There is probably already a bittorrent (Score:3, Insightful)
You know, if someone is willing to spend hours of their time and their disk space to store it, put up with variable to bad quality of the movie, and watch it on their small computer screen, I don't think that ju
Re:There is probably already a bittorrent (Score:4, Insightful)
And have you ever been in a crowded movie theater? Who the heck wants to watch a camcorder copy of that presentation anyway? The last thing I need is to save $5 (I normally go to matinees) by "pirating" a copy of a movie, just to get all the coughing, jostling, kids talking, babies screaming, etc etc anyway.
Re:There is probably already a bittorrent (Score:5, Insightful)
Warner Brothers is delusional if it actually believes that it's losing money because of theatre copies.
Re:There is probably already a bittorrent (Score:5, Insightful)
The theaters loose some though but probably not enough to warrant the cost of night vision goggles.
So this move is in protection of the huge potential profits of the Movie producers and company. They are surely a group who's profits I want to go out of my way to protect. Now if they did like Marshall's and as time went on, lowered the price to see a movie (that had already covered its costs and a resonable profit), maybe. But they keep raising the prices and keep making millions and millions (on the winners).
But then those winners probably cover the cost of them producing the dog's. Which means that we are subsidizing their bad choices, essentially lowering their risk and probably allowing more dog's to be made, cause we are picking up the tab for them.
I am sure they will raise the prices to go to a movie to pay for the night vision goggle too.
Re:There is probably already a bittorrent (Score:3, Interesting)
Screener copy != Studio itself.
learn the difference.
In the age of dvd burners, the studios should just have a machine that hand-burns each of the screener copies with the name of the recipient in about four thousand random places in the movie -- some very subtly and some very obviously.
RE: Screener copy != Studio itself. (Score:5, Informative)
Every point in the production cycle where the movie transitions from print to electronic version is a possible leak.
Screener traces [findarticles.com]are already in place. And there was a notable incident this year where an Acadamy of Motion Pictures member was caught bootlegging his screeners [cnn.com] by the trace technology.
Re:There is probably already a bittorrent (Score:5, Insightful)
Learn to read. The parent says nothing about screener copies. Since they started embedding screener IDs, "screener copies" are a non-issue (and really, never have been much of an issue).
There are, however, many many many points in the chain within a huge studio where the picture can be quietly spirited away in perfectly clean DVD form.
Think Inside Job, my friend. And againe, taking a page from your diplomatic book, LEARN TO READ!
Re:There is probably already a bittorrent (Score:5, Informative)
i encourage you to go to south korea, moscow, thailand, kuala lumpur, jakarta, rome, or any other place in the world (basically, anywhere outside of the USA) where it's trivial to get pirated dvds and see what percentage of them say 'screener copy' at the bottom at some point in the film.
Re:There is probably already a bittorrent (Score:5, Funny)
Dude, it always turns to color when she leaves Kansas and gets to Munchkin land.
Re:There is probably already a bittorrent (Score:5, Insightful)
Bingo. It's in the best interest of the *IAA's to thoroughly convince everyone that any IP theft is taking place outside the studios, paving the way for things like DRM & DMCA. These measures are necessary because the theft is obviously taking place out in the public, beyond the studios' control.
The Dalai LLama
...hey, can I score a pair of those googles?...
Re:There is probably already a bittorrent (Score:5, Insightful)
The biggest threats to the whole industry is (1) their inability to control costs on marginal product and (2) over-saturation of the market with expensive product.
The second point is rejected by the industry because the weekly blockbuster releases have all been are consumed and mostly paid off with two or three weeks of their release. Although the core audience is not growing, they are fanatically dedicated to going to the newest and biggest release every week. For five years there has been no break in audiences absorbing the box office ticket price increases necessary to blockbuster films. The film industry is in a positive feedback loop,which is not a good thing. If there were any film executives with engineering training , they would see that this will burn out your resources too quickly. In this case the resource is the attention span of the audience for cookie-cutter blockbusters.
Movie execs are known for their 'MORE, MORE, MORE!' mentality, so the concept that they may be creating and releasing too much product too quickly would be difficult for them to grasp. The movie business operates on a pay-per-view basis and having too much product available in the theatres and video stores can only work to drive down the price that the audience is willing to pay for the product. You see this a little with the number of special offers that the video rental outlets are using to get six-month-old product off the shelves, stuff like $1 US 24-hr rentals of new releases on weekdays or much shorter periods between theatrical and DVD/video release. Often a DVD is now released even as a film is still playing in second-run theatres. Distributors want to cash in before the film is forgotten.
I think that the emphasis on preventing 'piracy' (in this case pay-per-view without the distibutor or studio getting the pay) is somewhat missplaced because it implies that the first viewing of any product is most important 'money point' and that is getting to be less true every year. Film is now becoming like television; a product that is often a background medium that sets the mood rather than commands complete attention. Why go through the hassle of illegally copying this weeks blockbuster when next week there will be another one just the same? And next month it will be in DVD and available at the supermarket for a dollar rental?
Re:There is probably already a bittorrent (Score:4, Interesting)
And pepsi commercials. I stopped going completely when they started that crap. I PAID to see the movie, not f(*)ing commercials. I don't like previews either, but I'm willing to tolerate them.
Luckily, here where I live there's a place called the Alamo Drafthouse, that serves food and beer during the movie, and never shows commercials before the movie. In fact, they show entertaining clips from old movies that are somehow related, or previews to old movies that are related. If they ever start showing commercials (they won't) I will stop going to the movies altogether.
Most people I talk to aren't as incensed as I am about it, but I think it could have something to do with the fact that people are going to the movies less. I mean, whether they admit it or not, the hassle of getting there early to get good seats and then sitting through 20 minutes of commercials has to be a deterrent.
Or is that just wishful thinking on my part?
TS release in 3...2...1... (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:TS release in 3...2...1... (Score:5, Interesting)
It's almost as if they want to make the problem worse.
Personally if I were the MPAA I would let these morons record all so they can flood the market with bad quality DVDs and making it such a bad case of hit or miss that the only way you can be sure of getting a good copy is to buy one.
A smarter move would be to finish hunting down the people in their own industry who are leaking production quality material before the movie even makes it to the theaters.
No, it does happen (Score:4, Funny)
Damned in-theater pirates... they give piracy a bad name.
OTOH, I should also point out, that this type of copy is often made from the projection booth. Good luck scanning the audience for that piracy problem.
This might make sense... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:This might make sense... (Score:5, Interesting)
This is a nice publicity stunt that might (in the unlikely event of it being well implimented) possibly add a day or two to the length of time it takes a poor quality camrip to appear on suprnova, but nothing more
Isn't someone... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Isn't someone... (Score:4, Interesting)
The fact that you paid $6.50 to sit in their theater, which coincidentally works along the same lines as an EULA; i.e. "by paying $6.50 you agree to the fact that you'll be able to watch Harry Potter on the big screen with the hella-loud sound system, and that if we catch you doing anything stupid like, say, yakking on your cell phone or taping the movie, we can and will throw you out".
$6.50? $6.50?!?! (Score:5, Funny)
In NYC, it's almost double that.
Re:Isn't someone... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Isn't someone... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Isn't someone... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Isn't someone... (Score:3, Insightful)
They Have No Right To Observe Us! (Score:3, Funny)
Waste of time... (Score:5, Insightful)
All a pirate has to do is pay the kid making minimum wage running the projector a couple hundred pounds to let the pirate sit in the booth and record from there!
Re:Waste of time... (Score:3)
And what if the pirate *is* the kid running the projector? I know of at least one of these instances.
Re:Waste of time... (Score:3, Informative)
That's what the watermarks are for.
Re:Waste of time... (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Waste of time... (Score:3, Informative)
THIS teenager ran a projector... (Score:5, Interesting)
Large multiplex cinemas may have well-paid, adult projectionists with night-vision monocles and decent security - but there are thousands of smaller single-screen cinemas where any old kid (like me) runs the projector for pocket money. All it takes is for one of them to bring in a camcorder.
much ado about nothing they can do anything to.. (Score:4, Insightful)
which is what's this is really about, or they got some very stupid idiots deciding where to put the money.
maybe they haven't noticed that nobody really watches shitty cams made in secret during a public view? or if watches, wouldn't be very likely to watch it in the theatre anyways if he'll settle for that.
Could be a good thing... (Score:5, Funny)
We've got ours (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:We've got ours (Score:3, Funny)
They were probably recording the whole thing, streaming it out over the internet in real time.
Come on... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:We've got ours (Score:3, Informative)
Perhaps it would be possible in the top row of a large stadium-seating theater during a lightly attended movie, but at that point, wouldn't the back seat of a car in an empty car park be more private?
Bootleg piracy seriously hurts them???? (Score:5, Interesting)
Harry Potter's target audience isn't the people who scour the net for zero-day pirate releases, and anyone who doesn't go see the movie because they saw already saw it in a grainy fuzzy download, probably wasn't really that interested in the movie anyway.
Re:Bootleg piracy seriously hurts them???? (Score:3, Funny)
my cell phone camera pumps into the laptop for storage and i control it all via my gameboy
take that mpaa!
2 problems (Score:5, Insightful)
Second, all the good pirated coppies come out before the movies hit the theatres and are from the studio themselves.
Sounds like the guys trying to thwart the pirating aren't very knowlegeable themselves about what/how it happens.
In the future (Score:5, Funny)
Pirates will begin modifying their video equipment to look like these devices, thus foiling the ability of pirate scouts to spot actual pirates.
Then, one day, a movie theatre employee will kick out a blind man, suspecting him of pirating the movie.
All matter of hell and lawsuits will spew forth and in the end, only the blind people will suffer.
So, ban movie theatre pirate scouts before it's too late!
Wow! (Score:5, Funny)
Whoops.
Night Vision Googles? (Score:4, Funny)
Would it be possible to jam these? (Score:4, Interesting)
I've got no interest in seeing OR ripping off Harry Potter, but I don't take kindly to being spied upon in a movie theatre.
Re:Would it be possible to jam these? (Score:4, Insightful)
Arrrrrrrrrr (Score:4, Funny)
Of course, there are still pirates on the seas today, and maybe people do use night vision technology to spot them, although radar's good, too.
Internal studio leakage. (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Internal studio leakage. (Score:5, Informative)
FOr your enlightment:
What's CAM, Workprint, Telesync, Telecine, Screener,DVDRip, Subbed?
CAM - This type of VCD was recorded by someone in a cinema with a camcorder and the audience can be heard! The picture quality is usually OK but the sound is mostly very bad and hard to make out speech.
TS (Telesync) - These are also recorded in a cinema but usually on an expensive camera and they should have a seperate audio source (so the audience cannot be heard), these are generally very good quality and highly watchable.
TC (Telecine) - Done a number of ways, all from taking directly from the reel. Ripped in either widescreen (letterbox) or in full-screen (pan and scan) with excellent audio and video.
Screener - A Screener is usually recorded form a promotional video tape or DVD which is sent to censors and film critics etc.. The quality is usually as good as a commercial VCD, some times a copyright message appears on the screen.
Work-Print - Each frame of the film is copied from celluloid (or another source). The sound is usually perfect and the visual quality can vary. These are sometimes incomplete movies.
LD/DVDRip - Are ripped from DVD or Laserdisc versions of the film and the quality is as good as genuine.
Remember the good old days ... (Score:3, Funny)
watermarks... (Score:5, Interesting)
Maybe it would make more sense, i think, to flash the serial number of the film print for a frame or two at random points in the film. At 24 fps, the human eye would not notice, especially if the number is simply super-imposed on the video, possibly in a section of the current frame that attracts the least attention of the viewer's eyes. I went to a research talk once of an algorithm to automatically detect the point of high interest in every frame of video, so this could be done automatically.
Re:watermarks... (Score:4, Funny)
"Weird, I went to see that Harry Potter movie and now all I can think about is 2917772119442.2"
Re:watermarks... (Score:5, Informative)
In summary: Im absoultely positive the MPAA is using watermarking techniques, and I am sure that they have put tons of research money/time into defining watermarks that will survive the MPEG or DivX encoding algorithms.
And btw:
A serial number in a random frame can be blotted out easily or the entire frame can be cut out by someone compressing the video stream to an mpeg or divx.
Re:watermarks... (Score:3, Interesting)
I always see those conductor-punch holes at scene changes, and those are only 1 frame aren't they? At 24 fps, the human eye doesn't notice that it's looking at a bunch of frames flying by, it's fooled to think it's all smooth analog motion.. But it DOES see every frame. If the eye couldn't see every frame of a 24 fps film, then we would be using a slower framerate because 24 would be overkill.
Re:watermarks... (Score:4, Interesting)
The marks on the film would be set about 15 seconds apart. The second projector would be set 15 seconds before the start of the film. The projectionist would watch the corner of the film near the end of the reel. When the first mark appeared in the corner, the second projector would start but with the light off. At the second cue mark, the first projector's light would be switched off and the second's light switched on. This results in a continuous film.
Now the film is spliced together into a long single strip. This allows one projectionist to run many screens as long as they don't start at the same time.
The cue marks are never only one frame, they are always about 20 frames in order to avoid being missed by the projectionist. People can detect one frame as a glitch but can't absorb symbolic information like letters, numbers, or logos from one frame.
Re:watermarks... (Score:5, Funny)
> each theater might present a different number written on the wall of the trash compactor in the next release of Star Wars,
"A simple trivia contest at a local science-fiction convention ended in a violent standoff when two opposing gangs clashed over the winning answer. The gangs have yet to be identified, but the dispute seemed to have started over the misuse of a phone number, perhaps a cell number used to sell drugs to other convention attendees. One gang started shouting '3263827', while the other responded '3263838'! The only injury reported was a man whose fantasy unitard cut off circulation to his genitals. Police are investigating."
That argument is bunk (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:That argument is bunk (Score:4, Interesting)
( $14 CDN + $9/(drink+popcorn) ) * 4 people ~= $92
It is getting close to the price of renting a home theatre and having somebody coming over to set it up for you:
http://www.megacityone.com/ [megacityone.com]
Of course, they're not first-run movies, but there are no screaming kids, nobody kicking your seat, you can bring your own food and drinks, play a few rounds of ---Insert FPS here---, you can drink booze or smoke if you're so inclined, and you're supporting local businesses.
With the current trends, the gap between "big theatre" prices and "home theatre" quality is only going to narrow... I'm sure somewhere Blockbuster et. al. probably rent projectors these days... if not, they will soon.
obligatory seinfeld quote (Score:3, Funny)
% Anna and George in George's car.
George: I'm a bootlegger.
Anna: You're a what?
George: I'm bootleggin' a movie, baby!
Anna: Isn't that illegal?
George: I can do hard time for this one. And community service!
Anna: Is this your FiberCon?
George: (Takes it and throws it out window) Get outta my way!
Countermeasures (Score:3, Funny)
Magnesium flares!
Privacy (Score:3, Interesting)
QC (Score:3, Insightful)
Of course, it could go horribly, horribly wrong... (Score:5, Funny)
"Boss told me to check for videocams in the theatre."
"Dude - fair warning, Paul Reuben is in there. I wouldn't go if I were you."
"Who? Look, I just do what the boss says. See ya in a few."
"!"
"You got a fork suitable for removing eyes around here?"
Hope WB is able to handle the 'problems' of this technology.
-Adam
Have they really thought this one through? (Score:3, Insightful)
In the back row of a darkened movie theatre "things" happen. People disturbed in the middle of an essential part of the human mating ritual by drooling minimum-wage usher-boy aren't going to be too happy.
And that's not counting the dangers from one person armed with a pocket flash/laser pointer and a malicious sense of humor
Study? (Score:4, Insightful)
I suppose that the movie studios can do what they want to - but we can lobby to change the laws. I think that IP Laws and IP enforcement have gotten silly beyond imagining, when things like this happen.
Blinding NV... (Score:3, Insightful)
just publicity (Score:3, Insightful)
Night Vision Action (Score:3, Funny)
What is the attraction? (Score:3, Insightful)
Defeating watermarks (Score:3, Interesting)
Has no one written a program to merge several films and subtract out the noise (e.g. watermarks)? I mean, comparing two videos and establishing which bits are identical IS old tech, no?
All you need is software like that and video from two theaters, and you should even be able to enhance the quality and remove motion.
Reality cinema - endless loop (Score:3, Funny)
Shortly thereafter, someone in the movie industry will publish the footage. Reality cinema arrives when we pay to see this footage. Finally the loop is completed when pirates copy this footage.
To put it simply: Good (Score:3, Insightful)
Taking a camcorder into a theater is breaking the law. If they can spot people with night vision goggles, that's great. They shouldn't be doing it.
Completely setting the MPAA aside, this is blatant copyright violation. It's clearly prohibited, and no one can reasonably feign ignorance on this. How many people reasonably take the camcorder for purely personal viewing with no intent to distribute the copy?
If it's for personal viewing, they can wait, spent $4 more, buy the DVD, and be legal.
WTF? Who wants to watch the pirated version? (Score:3, Insightful)
I could go to the theater and watch the movie with great sound and a huge picture or I can download it and view it sitting at my desk or on a laptop LCD. How is the latter even an option? WTF? I know the theater is expensive, but jeez. Don't cheat yourself.
-matthew
so don't release stuff with a delay! (Score:3, Insightful)
2. Bootleg copies are made because the movie is released early in the UK.
Why go through the trouble of trying to prevent (1), when it's a lot easier to prevent (2)? What's the deal with the 4-day delay anyway? Do they need the extra 4 days to translate British to American?
Long Term Solutions (Score:5, Interesting)
The reason people pirate movies is probably similar to the reason people pirate compact disks. They want the product in a more convient format, or they want the product at a lower price.
Long term, here are some suggestions to movie studios to avoid piracy. Most of these require the studios to look past the short term bottom line, and try to serve their customers.
1. Release the movie simultaniously world wide. By releasing movies on different days in different parts of the world, movie studios create demand for piracy. It is understandable that a languague translation might take extra time, but there should be no other delays in movie releases.
2. Get rid of region coded DVD's. These are simply pissing off legitimate users of your product. If you want to reduce piracy, make your product available as conviently as posslble.
3. Release the DVD the day the movie is released in the theater. Doesn't have to have all the special features. That way people who can't get to the theater get the product they want.
4. Stream movies over the internet. If the consumer wants to watch movies on the internet, give them a way of doing it legally.
5. Lower prices for movies. If studios want to capture the low end of the market, they need to lower movie prices. Video games can have play times of upwards of 120 hours, yet cost $40. If an average video game lasts only 60 hours, that is still only 66 cents per hour of entertainment. Movies last two hours, yet cost $8. That is four dollars per hour of entertainment. They can make up any lost revenue through merchandising, product placement, enhanced DVD's, etc.
The big problem with almost all of these suggestions is that the cut into revenue sources, such as pay-per-view, TV premieres, etc.
In the long run, customers will demand more convience, just as they are doing with recorded music. The studios will have no choice.
Re:Long Term Solutions (Score:4, Insightful)
If you're into arbitrary metrics for 'value', why not consider $ per square foot of display area? I have a feeling that the movie theatres might beat your gaming rig on that one.
Re:Damn (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Damn (Score:3, Interesting)
A much better suggestion is the use of a fibre-optic lens that would be hooked into a recorder under your coat. The optics could then be attached to something inconspicuous (like a lapel pin). Of course, that seems
Re:Damn (Score:5, Funny)
Re:How is this news? (Score:5, Insightful)
However, I also think this is doomed to fail.The quality of some cam recording lets me think that some pirates may be friends with a projectionnist, thus giving them access to "private" screening with no audience except a camera.
And what of the ushers themselves. Surely quite a number are in facts students with part-time jobs. The same students that download films on p2p. what's to prevent _them_ from camcording the film ?
The only real defense against this would be releasing the film the same day everywhere
Re:Only Four days sooner? (Score:4, Insightful)
Bull. Unlike the music industry's widely publicized lawsuit campaign, this anti-piracy measure does not cause any harm or inconvenience to ordinary patrons. Heck, most probably won't even notice it. It only stops folks who shouldn't be doing what they are doing anyway.
They are following the music industry by removing one of their best forms of publicity - the small-scale, private piracy that ultimately leads to increased sales of their products.
Do you have any statistics to back that up? I'm inclined to disbelieve it.
Re:infra-red? (Score:3, Informative)
If the spurious infrared light interferes with the camcorder, then that's more of a side benefit. The goal here is to see if there are any cameras in use in the crowd.
Neat experiment: Take your remote control (Television, vcr, whatever) and point it at the lens of your digital camera while looking at the lcd. You'll see a flashing dot
Re:New Perk for underpaid Cinema Employees- NVG's (Score:5, Informative)
http://www.snopes.com/autos/law/stealth.asp
"A friend of my father's was a cop in Nevada, and he was assigned the graveyard shift, posted outside of town on a little used section of road, given a radar gun and ordered to stay put and to pull motorists over for speeding. One night, while the officer waits by the side of the road, the radar gun starts screaming for no apparent reason at all, registering about 140. The officer, who was sleepy anyway, attributes this to a faulty gun, and ignores the incident.
A week later the same thing happens again, on the same stretch of road, at about the same time at night. This time, however, the gun registers 145, and the officer pays more attention. Later, after his shift is over, he has the gun checked out for problems, and is told it is operating perfectly. A week later, same road, same time, the gun goes off. By now the police officer is confused, and angry.
The next week he has men stationed at a road block a few miles down from the spot where he has been positioned. Like clockwork, the radar gun goes off, and he alerts his friends to get ready for whatever is racing down the highway.
At the road block is stopped a black Lamborghini, with an engine iced and baffled for silent running. The driver is a drug mule, hauling a load and staying on the backroads, and less frequently monitored highways. The car itself is running without headlights, while the driver wears night vision goggles.
Status: False"
Re:I wish I was in the UK (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Prices are ALREADY REASONABLE!!! (Score:5, Insightful)
A new paperback costs $6-$7. A used one can often be had for $1-$2.
Who moderates this sort of obvious nonsense as "Insightful"??