Each film at the Toronto International Film Festival (tiff) is preceded by a warning about piracy. It reads:

TIFF piracy warning. Picture totally not taken by me

It is illegal to copy or record any portion of a film or take a photograph of the screen without the permission of the copyright owner. TIFF reserves the right to undertake anti-piracy measures and to expel anyone recording or photographing.

I’m no lawyer, but that sounds like a load of crap. We already know that the Copyright Act carves out a number of exceptions. For example, Part III tells us that:

29. Fair dealing for the purpose of research or private study does not infringe copyright.

29.1 Fair dealing for the purpose of criticism or review does not infringe copyright if the following are mentioned: [...]

So under copyright law in Canada, an audience member could legitimately record a portion of the movie for those purposes without it being an infringement. However, the story doesn’t end with the Copyright Act. In 2007 the government passed an “anti-camcording” law which makes recording in a theatre into a criminal offense. Specifically, C-59 makes into a criminal:

A person who, without the consent of the theatre manager, records in a movie theatre a performance of a cinematographic work within the meaning of Section 2 of the Copyright Act or its soundtrack

The most reasonable interpretation of “record” would be to assume it means “take video of.” It seems like a stretch to have it include “take a picture of the screen” since the entire purpose of the act is to prevent people from making bootlegs of movies, not to stifle criticism. I’m sure that nobody has ever been prosecuted for taking a quick still of the screen in a theatre. It would have been nice for Parliament to actually take some time and think through the Act and define all the terms, but this kind of crap law is what you get when you rush through a law because of an industry PR campaign.

Even if we assume that recording includes taking a picture, it does NOT require the permission of the copyright holder, as claimed by the TIFF warning. The Act actually specifies whose permission is required, and it’s “the theatre manager.”

Am I wrong in my interpretation of Canadian law covering making recordings in a theatre? If not, why does the film festival need to lie in its warning. Would a simple “Please don’t pirate” not have sufficed? We could all still yell “yarr!” without having to feel angry about being lied to.