Canada heavily promotes itself as a place to make films. But now it has a more dubious distinction: an analysis by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) has found that 30 percent to 40 percent of the bootleg DVDs sold in the US were made by camcorders smuggled into Canadian theaters.
In response, 20th Century Fox Film is considering holding back film releases for the Canadian market, and the film industry in general is calling for stricter Canadian laws. One theater chain has even equipped some of its staff with night-vision goggles to better ferret out copiers.
The apparent rise of Canada's illegal film industry stems from several factors. Tighter federal and state laws in the US covering film piracy have not been matched by similar legislation in Canada. And because most film releases are simultaneous in Canada and the US, Canadian pirates get a head start.
And even industry officials acknowledge that Canadian pirates offer technically superior work.
"There are professional Canadian camcord rings and they are very, very good at what they do," said John Malcolm, director of worldwide anti-piracy operations for the MPAA in Los Angeles. "There is a premium placed on getting early copies and high-quality copies. Everyone in the industry knows that camcording in Canada is a major, major problem."
The industry's estimate of how many black market DVDs originate from Canadian multiplexes is not simply a guess. In many release prints, almost unnoticeable identification marks are scattered throughout random frames.
On the studios' behalf, Technicolor and Deluxe Laboratories, the leading producers of those prints, regularly analyze illicit DVDs as well as online film postings, uncover the identification codes and then use them to trace copies back to the theater where they were taped.
In Canada, that trail usually leads to theaters in the Montreal area, which is estimated to be the source of three-quarters of the illicit copies that come from the country.
In the US, federal law as well as 40 state laws can impose harsh penalties for videotaping movies from theater screens, a process known as camming. In Canada, however, it violates copyright laws only if the police can show in court that the camera operator intended to commercially distribute copies of the recording.
"It's very hard for us to prove that a person is actually doing that," said Ellis Jacob, president of Cineplex Entertainment, Canada's top theater chain. "All we can do is get rid of the patron and ask them not to come back."
Like everyone in the Canadian theater business, Jacob has received two letters from Bruce Snyder, the president of domestic distribution for Fox (all studios treat Canada as part of the US market). The messages were blunt. Describing the situation in Canada as "an out of control epidemic," Snyder warned the theater owners that Fox may delay Canadian releases by several weeks.
In an interview, Snyder said he had no complaints about companies like Cineplex, which are, after all, his customers.
"I am not mad at the exhibition community," Snyder said. "The exhibitors are doing everything they can to help us."
Like Jacob, his concerns are with law and law enforcement.
Canada accounts for about 7 percent to 10 percent of a film's total North American revenue. The spillover effect of movie coverage by US television and publications would be diminished if Snyder delayed the Canadian releases.
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