Changing theater etiquette

[iris lilies]

When I see videos posted on facebook of parts of concerts I always wonder how this is allowed? Back in the 70's and 80's, when going into a concert, a person was actually "frisked" sometimes and cameras or tape recorders were confiscated! This was to prevent bootleg recordings I guess. Does this not apply any longer?

Ah if you’re suggesting that people be required to drop their cell phones in a basket before they enter the theater, that would be the death of theater. It would be over. No one would attend. The audiences would be zero.

The intellectual property aspect was mentioned in this NPR broadcast. Recording an entire performance is not legal. Probably recording bits and segments is OK.

[jp1]

When I see videos posted on facebook of parts of concerts I always wonder how this is allowed? Back in the 70's and 80's, when going into a concert, a person was actually "frisked" sometimes and cameras or tape recorders were confiscated! This was to prevent bootleg recordings I guess. Does this not apply any longer?

You'd have to take everyone's phone.

[Simplemind]

We were at a concert about a year ago and the artist said at the beginning that if there were cellphones used he would stop. He wasn't half way through the first song when he stopped due to a guy about 20 rows back filming. Believe me.... the irritation of the crowd around the offender was enough. He stopped and nobody else tried after that.
Don't get me started on people texting in a movie theater.

[jp1]

Googling to see what I could find, this came up. Apparently the rapt attention style of attending concerts was not always the standard. The description sounds more like how people go see a rock band in a club today.

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2...why-so-serious

While most were in their places by the end of the first act, the continuous movement and low din of conversation never really stopped. Lackeys and young bachelors milled about in the crowded and often boisterous parterre, the floor-level pit to which only men were admitted. Princes of the blood and dukes visited among themselves in the highly visible first-row boxes. Worldly abbés chatted happily with ladies in jewels on the second level, occasionally earning indecent shouts from the parterre when their conversation turned too cordial. And lovers sought the dim heights of the third balcony—the paradise—away from the probing lorgnettes.

[catherine]

Ah if you’re suggesting that people be required to drop their cell phones in a basket before they enter the theater, that would be the death of theater. It would be over. No one would attend. The audiences would be zero.

The intellectual property aspect was mentioned in this NPR broadcast. Recording an entire performance is not legal. Probably recording bits and segments is OK.

I think ushers should take on the role of police--if they see someone recording the performance, they could all gang up on the offending party with their flashlights and shame them into shutting it down.

My son is an actor and musician, and I have serious problems with people profiting off of the creative talents of all artists.

[iris lilies]

I think ushers should take on the role of police--if they see someone recording the performance, they could all gang up on the offending party with their flashlights and shame them into shutting it down.

My son is an actor and musician, and I have serious problems with people profiting off of the creative talents of all artists.

It is hard for me to believe that anyone is actually profiting from these boot leg phone recordings. Of course I’m not in New York where the new stuff happens I’m only in the flyover country where tired old Productions show up.

I will bet that the majority of the transgressors are taping performances for their own use or to impress their friends that they were there etc.