In a blow to anyone that enjoys the occasional “questionably obtained” feature film, Malaysian authorities have implemented a system of night vision goggles to help them identify and catch pirates filming in the act. Minimum wage earning ushers are now encouraged to be snitches for multi-billion dollar movie studios. After showing patrons to their seats, the specially trained shot blockers don the night vision goggles, scanning theaters for anyone attempting to make an illicit copy of the film by way of hand held camcorders or cell phone cameras. Authorities claim to have nabbed 17 thieves over the course of the past 2 months. While we don’t imagine that this will slow down the flood of foreign pirated copies onto our shores, if you’re having a harder time than usual getting your grubby hands on Spiderman 3 or Pirates of the Caribbean3, you’ll know who to blame.
[Via Reuters]