U.K. Glassholes who just threw down £1,000 for a pair of Google's futuristic specs should expect to check their tech at the door of local cinemas.
British movie houses are concerned about Glass wearers committing piracy—illegally recording a distributing bootleg copies of films.
"As a courtesy to your fellow audience members, and to prevent film theft, we ask that customers do not enter any cinema auditorium using any 'wearable technology' capable of recording images," the Cinema Exhibitors' Association (CEA) said in a message to the U.K. public. "Any customer found wearing such technology will be asked to remove it and may be asked to leave the cinema."
The CEA's position on wearable tech is a bit stricter than mobile devices, according to chief executive Phil Clapp, who said it is generally "very difficult, if not impossible" to detect when the headset is recording. "So our approach is a precautionary one," he told PCMag.
Other companies are adopting a slightly more lenient attitude: The Vue cinema chain told The Independent that it will ask guests to remove the eyewear "as soon as the lights dim."
Glass owners, of course, could still record the film—just from a different angle.
Two years after the headset went on sale to the U.S. general public, Google last week launched Glass in the U.K., opening its beta Explorer program to any local resident over the age of 18. The wearable computer will set you back £1,000, which translates to about $1,700 at current exchange rates—$200 more than the U.S. retail price.
The Brits aren't the first to crack down on Google Glass in the theater, though. Last month, Alamo Drafthouse Cinemas CEO Tim League announced that visitors to the American chain (in Texas, Missouri, Michigan, Virginia, Colorado, New York, and California) will not be allowed to wear the device inside its auditoriums once the lights dimmed.
Even if you could fool employees into thinking the headset is turned off, it's unlikely you could record a full-length feature film, anyway. According to Google, the Glass battery powers down after 45 minutes of continuous recording. So, unless you intend to sell a Frozen montage to unsuspecting kids, you're out of luck.
Criminal gangs, however, reportedly have the professional ability to combine taped video with other images and sounds to produce counterfeit DVDs for sale or upload, The Independent said.
With that in mind, cinema staff have been schooled in the art of piracy: recorders often sit in the center of the theater, using friends on either side—or sometimes children—to act as a human shield.
Google, meanwhile, recommends that cinemas treat Glass like mobile phones: "simply ask wearers to turn it off before the film starts."
"Broadly speaking, we also think it's best to have direct and first hand experience with Glass before creating policies around it," a spokeswoman told PCMag. "The fact that Glass is worn above the eyes and the screen lights up whenever it's activated makes it a fairly lousy device for recording things secretly."
After a January incident in Ohio, where a man wearing prescription Google Glass while watching Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit was pulled from an AMC theater by Homeland Security agents, the Motion Picture Association of America ruled that the device is not a threat to piracy.
For more, see PCMag's review of Google Glass Explorer Version 2.0 and the slideshow above.