Movie Theater kicked me out for carrying my M2

Status
Not open for further replies.
Bummer scenario. I don't think I would have checked my camera with the boys at the office, either. Perhaps you should have said that you did have a camera, but it was turned off and did not have a battery installed.
 
rbsinto said:
Yeah. And what if the Martians landed, and they used their x-ray vision to look inside the trunk, and then use their ray guns to blast it open and steal his gear?
It's always something.
Click to expand...

Yeah, because theft is a nonsense idea that never actually happens in the real world. :confused:
 
either way... I don't even own a car so the option is moot :) My only option was to leave it in the office of someone with too little common sense to realize the futility of his position... I don't know if I trust him to keep my stuff safe :)
 
Maybe you should have let them search your bag... it could have been very profitable for you!

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20090525/cinema_lawsuit_090525/20090525

Cinema ordered to pay $10K in damages for search
A Quebec court has ordered a cinema to pay $10,000 in damages after staff searched patrons' bags and turned up smuggled snacks and birth control pills -- and in the process violated their privacy rights.
....
Staff at the theatre were searching customers' bags for video equipment that could be used for movie piracy.
Click to expand...
 
I agree... alone it's not a huge deal, a mountain out of a mole hill maybe... but the point is where does it stop. We already have people getting harassed for carrying a camera on the subway... near government buildings... in malls... out in public... near parks or children. People being harassed for doing nothing wrong besides carrying a camera. I admit, there are times and places it's inappropriate to carry a camera, I don't think this is one of them.

What happens when it happens to you... next time you're going to pick your kids up at the mall and sorry, you can't come in, you're carrying a camera. This attitude towards appropriate or inappropriate photography needs to stop before it gets so ingrained in societies thinking that it's too big to stop or change. It's discrimination and once a type of discriminatory thinking becomes a social norm it's takes a long time to overcome.
 
Juan Valdenebro said:
I'm amazed at so many people saying what if you, instead of this/they must change.

Cheers,

Juan
Click to expand...

That's because Americans have forgotten that their ancestors fought for liberty; all the modern American wants is for everyone to shut up and do what they're told. Same for Canadians, who have even less of a tradition of standing up against inane rules from those in authority.
 
rbsinto said:
Then leave the camera at home on the rare nights he goes to a movie.
The sun will still come up the next morning.
Click to expand...

Sure, he could be a whimpering fool who shuts up and does what he's told, cowering before so-called authority. I'm glad he's not, and I commend him for telling them to stick it.
 
LOL... thanks Chris... I'm not sure what they're going to do about the letter I wrote them, funnily they're probably going to try to mollify me with some free tickets... but how the hell am I supposed to use them, I'll be carrying a camera ;)
 
What matters is that as photographers we need to carry our cameras: it doesn't depend on us when the moment to shoot comes... I carry two or three of them when I go to the movies... What Disaster Area, Chris and others say is that if we don't defend our rights, they'll disappear... And very soon, before us... I don't want to end up allowed to shoot inside home only.

Cheers,

Juan
 
Lots of good points, especially the photographer rights issue... DA let me know if anything comes back from the theaters about the letter, I doubt they write back, but you never know... I'm curious.
 
I gave up going to movies 20 years ago. too much cr-p to deal with. I got kicked out of a mall for having a camera with me right in front of a Ritz Camera store about three years ago. Shucks all I was doing was taking photos of all the young fellows walking around with their pants half way down to their knees which BTW is allowable. What a mixed up world.
 
We (my wife and I) go to the cineplex equipped with her purse. I've never seen (or heard) of a woman's purse being searched by private security/clerk/cop wanna-be types. Which is good, because that's where we hide the two bottles of soda (cans make too much noise when opening them) and candy bars. Once we brought a plastic bag of popcorn in one of her larger purse/suitcases. ;)

Perhaps this is also a good place to hide the M2. I still say, at least in some parts of the world, men and women are treated differently in this regard, which is good.

~Joe
 
The loss of freedoms is incremental, and in just such small "silly" "molehill" steps as this one. The more we "give in" now, the more we will have to give up in the future.
 
I've had that happen to me once at a theatre in Milwaukee, WI. They searched my bag and asked me to either leave the camera in my car or in the management office. So I left my M7 in the office.

I carry my camera with me everywhere. I often don't head to see a movie. I just end up there sometimes. And it's one of my job responsibilities to always have a camera on hand. I don't go anywhere without it. There a dozen or so times where I'm just going about my day and get a call or run into something that I need to photograph.
 
The Smithsonian does not allow Video or Flash photography during the movies in the Imax theaters. The sign is posted and an announcement is made. I've learned to keep the camera in the bag as I walk in, last time it was a Contax IIIa. That means they do allow existing light still photography. I get some great still shots with my Film cameras, you would swear you are on Mars in "Red Planet". Some would make decent posters, but I keep them for my own use.

The M2 is a recording device, and was not permitted into the theater. You have the right to walk off and not buy tickets from them, they have the right to refuse entry.
 
Disaster_Area said:
LOL... thanks Chris... I'm not sure what they're going to do about the letter I wrote them, funnily they're probably going to try to mollify me with some free tickets... but how the hell am I supposed to use them, I'll be carrying a camera ;)
Click to expand...

You probably won't hear a response and in a few years, as things like that happen repeatedly, they'll wonder why they are going broke.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top