On June 1, 2007, the Canadian federal government introduced Bill C-59 in Parliament to criminalize unauthorized camcording in movie theatres.
It was probably not accidental that the introduction coincided with California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's visit to Ottawa, reflecting Hollywood's concern on the issue. As noted in the previous issue of E-TIPS® ("Federal Government to Change Canadian Copyright Law to Reduce Movie Theatre Piracy", Vol 5, No 23, May 23 2007), the US- based movie industry has complained about the inadequacy of Canadian laws to combat the recording of movies within movie theatres. Until now, movie theatres have been forced to rely on the law of trespass to simply eject movie pirates.
Bill C-59 would amend the Criminal Code to create two new offences:
- the recording of a movie or its soundtrack in a movie theatre without the consent of the theatre manager, and
- the recording of a movie or its soundtrack in a movie theatre without the consent of the theatre manager for the purpose of selling, renting, or other commercial distribution of those unauthorized copies (emphasis added).