WASHINGTON — Hollywood is singing a new tune in its fight against movie theft: "Oh no, Canada."
Piracy north of the border has exploded in the two years since Congress made it a crime to use video recording devices to copy movies in U.S. theaters, according to industry officials. But with piracy laws more relaxed in Canada, bootleggers can operate there almost risk free.
A frustrated Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. this week canceled all promotional public screenings in Canada, including any for its big summer movies "Ocean's Thirteen" and "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix." The studio estimates that 70% of its releases during the last 18 months have been illegally recorded in Canadian theaters.
"Within that first week, you can almost be certain that somewhere out there a Canadian copy will show up," said Darcy Antonellis, senior vice president of worldwide anti-piracy operations for Burbank-based Warner Bros.
About 1 in 5 pirated movies worldwide originates in Canada, with pirates there on pace to illegally produce 150 films this year, more than double the country's 2005 output, according to the Motion Picture Assn. of America.
In fact, just last week the U.S. trade representative's office put Canada on its 2007 "watch list" for protection of intellectual property, citing "continuing concern" over the country's "failure to prohibit the unauthorized camcording of films in movie theaters."
Movie pirates typically begin making copies during opening weekends and quickly upload them to the Internet. From there the copies are downloaded onto DVDs, which are then sold around the world. Films usually open the same day in Canada as in the U.S.
Canada's theaters are top-notch, many with headphone jacks for the hearing impaired that camcorders can plug into for high-quality sound. Films are shown in English and French in Quebec, so copies can be made in two of the world's most popular languages.
In the U.S., bootleggers face as many as three years in federal prison if they are caught recording a movie in a theater. In Canada, the worst that usually happens to a pirate is getting kicked out of a theater. That's because Canadian authorities must prove that the person who attempted to record the movie also planned to sell copies.
"Sometimes that's quite hard," said Supt. Ken Hansen, director of the federal enforcement branch of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
