Wait 2 months and rent the movie for $1. Issue solved.
Why don't they just have a cell-phone and non-cell-phone theater. They might even let you smoke in the cell-phone theater.
I disagree with this. Now that our kids are a little older, we occasionally leave them at home and go out places. However, it is important that they have the ability to phone us if anything goes wrong. I always set my cellphone on vibrate when in public areas and if it ever happened in a movie theatre (hasn't happened yet), I would be able to go into the lobby and take the call.
Every time a phone rings, stop the movie, turn on the lights, point a spotlight at the guilty one. Wait until they have finished their conversation. Then restart the movie.
Give other patrons time to beat the crap out of him or her, too.
I was at a showing of the newest Harry Potter last week. The guy in front of us had his cell phone on and was recording the whole movie. I assume he was downloading streaming video.
What we need is the country to return to common sense.
I agree with the sentiment, but as a parent I know that sometimes you have your phone on silent so the babysitter (or equivalent) can call in case of emergency.
The problems are (A) people who do not silence their cells, (B) the proliferation of non-emergency calls, and (C) people willing to carry on extended conversations in the theater.
Unfortunately, you can't legislate good manners and considerate behavior.
Dan
Well, as a parent, I guess it's no more movies for me.
I refuse to be in a place where I can't be contacted immediately if there is an emergency with my children.
THE CYBERSPACE AND TECHNOLOGY BEAT
Cell Phone Jammers, Illegal in U.S., Can Create Silent Zones
By MARGIE WYLIE
c.2000 Newhouse News Service
The incessant ringing was bad enough, but when patrons of the Whiteley Shopping Centre's cinema in London began answering their cellular telephones mid-movie -- shouting to be heard above the dialogue -- Nasser Ahmadi knew something had to give.
"Some people were getting so angry that they were leaving the cinema," said Ahmadi, a consultant to Universal Cinemas International, which operates the multiscreen movie house. "People were asking why we didn't do something about it."
Across the globe, cell phones disturb plays, concerts and films. Phones ring out during funerals and weddings. They bleep and buzz in trains, restaurants and bathrooms. Cell-phone-free zones, polite requests, even icy glares can't seem to stop the ringing and consequent jabbering.
But Ahmadi found something that does: a cellular telephone jammer.
Five months ago, he installed the C-Guard cellular telephone firewall and complaints stopped. Made by an Israeli company called NetLine, the C-Guard is one of a handful of cell phone jammers commercially available today.
But don't go looking for one at your neighborhood electronics store.
"The technology is illegal in the U.S. and it's our position that it should be," said Travis Larson, spokesman for the Cellular Telephone Industry Association, based in Washington, D.C.
Within their operating radius, jammers prevent wireless phones from contacting a cellular radio tower. The affected phone behaves as it would any place where reception is too poor to carry a call.
Users "don't complain because they don't know what's going on," Ahmadi said. "There are lots of places where there are blackouts, anyway. They think it's the construction of the building, so they come out in the foyer to make their phone calls."
"It's very Machiavellian but perfectly harmless," said Jonathan Lemel, managing director for Special Electronic Security Products, U.K. Ltd. of Manchester, England, which manufactures jammers.
Not everyone agrees. The devices are banned in most industrialized countries, which don't take kindly to disruption of licensed radio services.
"Obviously, spectrum is licensed by the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) and purchased by broadcasters of all kind to transmit information," said Larson, the cellular industry spokesman. "And those pieces of spectrum become the property of those using them for the length of the licenses. So using a jammer is analogous to taking someone else's property."
Gil Israeli, NetLine's CEO, counters that if anything's being stolen, it's the peace and quiet of those of us forced to endure loud cell phone conversations.
Regulators have no beef with people installing expensive metal shielding around rooms to block cell phone usage, Israeli observed. "Our only argument with the FCC is whether people should be allowed to defend their space actively as well as passively, using an inexpensive device," he said.
Richard DiSabatini, director of Intelligence Support Group, Ltd., a jammer maker based in China Lake, Calif., agreed. "This is a whole gray area," he said. "If you were in my home and I didn't want you using your cell phone, why shouldn't I have the right to block you?"
DiSabatini's firm does not advertise its jammers. It sells them only for export, to the military, or to those law enforcement agencies exempted from FCC rules, he said.
At its simplest, jamming any radio device involves transmitting a signal on the same frequency and at high enough power that the two signals collide and cancel each other out. The effect is similar to what happens when you drop two pebbles in still water and rings of waves radiate out from them. Where the rings meet, the water becomes smooth.
Cellular telephones, however, are more challenging to jam than most radio transmissions. Different cellular systems operate over a wide range of frequencies. Within those frequencies, any single phone may "spectrum hop" to find a band free of interference. Plus, phones can notch up their power to try to overcome interference.
Cell phone jammers have to be sophisticated enough to squelch phone signals without interfering with other devices, from garage door openers to medical equipment. In addition, they must operate at power levels high enough to overcome cell phone signals, but not so high that the jamming effect leaks outside the intended coverage area.
In fact, leakage is a key reason the FCC and other regulators refuse to license jammers, Israeli said. But if governments set specific rules for exactly how much leakage could be tolerated, he said, NetLine could meet them.
"You don't expect someone in an apartment complex not to use his TV. We accept that some noise will come from our neighbors, but we have some idea of what is a reasonable standard," Israeli said.
To the cell phone industry, however, leakage isn't the only problem. Larson noted that more than 118,000 emergency calls are made each day from cell phones. And what if a doctor in a theater misses an emergency call because of a jammer?
Surreptitiously cutting off cellular telephone access is like snipping off the burning tip of a cigarette because you object to secondhand smoke, jammer foes say. "The answer is etiquette, education, making sure people are using their cell phones in ways that don't invade other people's space," Larson said.
Larson's association and many of its member companies, including cell phone manufacturer Nokia and service provider U.S. Cellular, are pouring money into public education campaigns to encourage cell phone users to be more considerate.
The FCC has fielded enough queries about the legality of cell phone jammers that it issued a notice last year. In it, the agency warns that jammers violate federal laws that broadly prohibit interfering with licensed radio spectrum. Owning, manufacturing, marketing, offering for sale or operating a cell phone jammer is punishable by an $11,000 fine and up to a year in prison for each offense, the notice states.
Stern warnings to the contrary, the agency has never seized a single jammer or prosecuted an operator to the best of his knowledge, said Richard Welch, associate chief of the FCC's Enforcement Bureau.
"We haven't taken any actions because nobody has complained," Welch said, adding that it was possible jammer users were simply flying under the FCC's radar.
Lemel agreed. When a cell phone doesn't work, he said, "the first thing you think isn't, `I'm being jammed."'
It's not because they're not in use, if sales are any indicator. Lemel says the United States is his firm's biggest market for cell phone blockers. And NetLine, Israeli says, also sells many devices in the States, though Europe is its largest market.
Both companies sell liberally in Latin America, the Middle East and Asia, where jammers are used for personal and corporate security. For example, many South American banks jam cell phones to prevent robbers from guiding outside accomplices to mug people who've just made large withdrawals, Israeli said.
Cell phone jammers are readily available on the Internet. Many can be battery-powered and fit in a pocket or briefcase for people who would like to enjoy a meal, movie or church service in peace.
A portable C-Guard sells for about $900 and can cover the area within a 450-foot radius. Lemel's company offers the $890 M2 Jammer, which comes in a briefcase and can block phones within a maximum radius of 50 feet. It's advertised as "ideal for the executive interested in keeping meetings and working lunches free from external distractions." Hubgiant of Taipei, Taiwan, sells its WAC1000 personal jammer, which has an operating radius of up to 30 feet, for $169. And Uptron of Lucknow, India, offers a full range of jammers with coverage ranging from 20 feet to over one mile.
Despite cellular industry fears, the majority of jammer sales aren't to revenge-seeking Luddites, Israeli said. Most go to business owners, government and police. Law enforcement officers can use jammers to throw a net of silence over hostage takers. Corporations use jammers to protect trade secrets. Ahmadi said three British hospitals evaluated the C-Guards in his theater before installing them to prevent interference with crucial medical equipment.
At least one company offers a technological alternative to jamming, and others are working on them.
Zetron Inc., based in Redmond, Wash., manufactures a system that can detect cell phones and warn users to turn them off. It can cover up to a 90-foot radius. BlueLinx Inc. of Charlotte, N.C., is working on Q-Zone, a system that will turn off cell phones or silence their ringers when they enter a protected space. It relies on shortwave technology called Bluetooth that hasn't been widely adopted by cell phone makers and may not be on the market for another three to four years. NetLine is developing a similar system that will work with existing European digital cellular telephones, but not American devices.
In some countries, jammers are gaining currency as a legitimate defense against cell phone abusers. In Japan, Tokyo-based Medic Inc. sold thousands of its Wave Wall jammers to restaurants, funeral directors and others before the government limited their sale. Now jammers must be licensed for use in Japan, and used only in spaces such as live-performance theaters where cell phones are judged by the government to be a nuisance.
But even that's a victory, says Israeli, who thinks such uses help governments see that cell phone "firewalls" can serve a legitimate market under controlled conditions.
"Legislators and government bodies have not yet realized that (jammers) can fulfill a useful role in society," Lem
In Europe babies are not allowed in theaters for insurance purposes, which makes total sense. That theater is going to have to shell out big if a tiny tot falls off a movie chair in the dark and injures her head. It's not a safe place for babies.
I can't wait until some movie theater is sued because Dr. Jones is watching a movie and his hospital is blocked from paging him--leading to the untimely demise of a heart attack victim.
I have zero sympathy for people who answer mobiles in theaters -- except for the fact that I'm an Israeli working in a defense related capacity. Regardless of where I am in the world, I need to be reachable in the event of an emergency. And if I can't be reached, people could die. I would be very wary about allowing something like this because of the possibility of problems in case of real emergencies -- but yes, if I do answer my phone, I fully expect to be kicked out of the theater.
Colleges have been doing this already. It is sad that this is necessary. I am not really in favor of this because sometimes you need to take a phonecall. If people were more considerate this wouldn't be an issue.
Here's a simple solution: see the kinds of movies the idiots who "cannot be out of touch with the rest of the world for 2.5 hours" will not pay to watch. That's right, Eeeeleetist! They're usually very good, uplifting and intellectually stimulating. The cat visits a movie theater once or twice a year, always a matinee, and never in the past several years patronized by any vulgar cell phone/Blackberry maroons.
Cell phone blockers are in use in lots of countries.
I totally support the right of a theatre owner to install such devices and let the movie goers know that the blocker is installed and if the movie goer doesn't like it, they can go somewhere else.
I find cell phones to be a nuisance and they have coarsened society.
What really needs to happen, and all the crazy, laughable self-serving, predictable hostile and anti-social (Emergency paramedics, World War IV, test results - c'mon. let's think of something new and original) logic expressed here by the cellphone junkies would support it, is to legalize personal cellphone jammers, so that we each could control the private space around ourselves.
One answer......Netflix!
While I sympathize with the theater owners and have no use for rude people in general, it could be a real problem for people who have to be on call, but still try to have a life. It could also be a problem in other emergency situations. I spend a lot of time in court and I simply turn my phone off and check messages when I have a break, or if I need to make a call, I step outside of the courtroom. Same should apply for theaters, restaurants, etc. It is bad enough having to see and hear people on the phone all around you every where else you go (I am guilty as well), but there are some places where people just shouldn't have to put up with someone else's ringing phone and the intrusive noise of their "private" conversations. The theater qualifies.