Moviegoers will have to leave their Google Glass at home or in the car as all wearable devices are banned from U.S. movie theaters.
The ban on Google Glass
The Motion Picture Association of America and cinema owners released new guidelines prohibiting wearable devices including Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL) (NASDAQ:GOOG)’s Glass because they don’t want wearers to film movies. It is explained in the following statements:
“As part of our continued efforts to ensure movies are not recorded in theaters, however, we maintain a zero-tolerance policy toward using any recording device while movies are being shown.”
“As has been our long-standing policy, all phones must be silenced and other recording devices, including wearable devices, must be turned off and put away at show time.”
The problem with the wearables
This policy was added after an incident in Ohio when a man was dragged out of the theater by federal agents for wearing Google Glass. The movie industry has long worried about how the tech industry could affect the industry, especially if some movie goes film a movie with a camera or smartphone then sell the pirated movies. Whether the movie theaters will e able to successfully enforce the new guidelines remains to be seen, especially when the wearables are harder to spot like smartwatches.
Things could get even stickier as most wearable were designed to track and monitor health. Theaters could find themselves in a bind if they try to kick people out just for having a health-related wearable.
Google Glass has received it’s fair share of criticism for privacy issues, it was even banned from some bars and restaurants in efforts to retain customer privacy. Google Glass has a lot of potential to become the next big thing but that doesn’t mean it is without flaws. Privacy issues and piracy concerns are real issues that could hinder the success of Google Glass.
