Finalist number 10 in the Nokia shorts contest takes a dig at the cinema ads about copyright infringement.

Some cinemas do indeed now monitor the cinema audience with night vision goggles. The severity of the sanctions imposed upon someone caught illegally recording from the big screen usually amount to getting ejected from the film and reported to the police.

Contrary to the claims of the copyright notices UK cinemas now display before film showings, however, copyright infringement is not yet a criminal offence in the UK. This will probably change when the intellectual property rights enforcement directive, passed by the EU earlier this year, eventually gets implemented in the UK.

Using a camcorder in a cinema is a crime in some areas of the US, such as California, however, and there have been a number of people arrested under the relevant statute passed in January 2004.