Critics want rules making video phones technically illegal in cinemas updated
Next time you put your shiny new video-capable mobile phone in your pocket and head off to the movies, consider this: you could be breaking the law.
You're unlikely to be prosecuted, but handsets that can make video recordings are technically prohibited from theatres under an ordinance designed to stop pirates from copying movies.
Now the government is being urged to remove the grey area by reviewing the Prevention of Copyright Piracy Ordinance.
'Technology has advanced a lot over the past three years and mobile phones with video-recording functions have become a daily necessity,' university lecturer Alex Ng Chun-wing said. 'The government should clarify this.'
The ordinance prohibits cinema patrons from bringing in equipment that could be used to record the film. It is aimed at pirates who use video cameras to copy new-release movies, and carries penalties of up to three months in jail. But it does not specify whether it covers phones with a video-recording function, which have become increasingly popular since the ordinance was last amended in 2001.
A recent survey by Digital Weekly magazine found about 34 per cent of 825 respondents were using such handsets. Only 40 per cent knew that taking their phone into a cinema was technically against the law if it could record video.