French theaters to be equipped with cell phone jammers.
Can you imagine? :booster:
YOU!? What about US!? >_>;
I do admit that those small clips that remind us to shut down our cellphones for the duration of the movie work, but how well…?
Personally I think it’s a bit of an overreaction. Giving private companies the right to block our cell phone usage isn’t a good precedent to set. Just because some people might find it annoying isn’t necessarily any justification. Honestly, how often have you been in a theater and someone starts yapping away on their phone? Personally, I’ve never experienced it. I might have heard a couple ring, but people are usually kind enough to merely silence them. It seems unjustified, and I am wary of this technology that supposedly keeps open emergency channels. The technology has hardly been tested. In my opinion, they need to start banning smoking in these places rather than cell phones.
From what I’ve seen, rather, from what I havent seen… There are no open smoking theatres, I’ve yet to encounter any movie theatre in america where you can smoke.
I do and dont agree with this… Its hard to explain really… I agree with the fact that cell phones shouldnt be allowed in theatres for the reason that we pay money to see a movie, granted we KNOW there will be people in there, and possible distractions if people act stupid… But the fact is, having a midi version of Beethoven playing two rows behind you is just rude. Perhaps there should be a better way to controll this sort of thing, but how can they? I mean, air lines are able to controll the use of cell phones for SUPPOSED safety reasons makes jerking off motion at plane companies.
The thing to think about is that the theatre is on that companies property, and while you are a paying customer, you are also subject to their rules. It’s not like they are blocking your phone when you arent there. Just a way of controlling somthing that people don’t listen to because they think they can get away with it.
I personally hate when cell phones play in theatres so I’m up for this getting put into play.
Ah, no fair! Give ma tah Cell-Phone Jammers!
If you actually bother to read the manual to your phone, in the fine print is a section explaining that your mobile is not to be used for critical commnication purposes ie. In an emergency, so the “we need it for emergency communication” is moot. (While its there for legal reasons, it still apllies). Also, what people do to the operation of your phone on THEIR property is entirely their concern. They are not interfering with you rights in any way and your purchase of the ticket has terms and conditions attached. Personally, I dont care either way, but no-one has any justification for either way anyway 
I’m so against this.
And i have to agree with zep. I have never had anyone be so rude as to pick up their cell in a movie theatre. I have never even heard one ring in the movies, though i have heard the buzz of “vibrate” a few times.
All i can hope for is that someone out there finds a workaround to get past these. I remember when certain YMCAs installed cameraphone blockers, people found a way around that, and i can only hope the same thing happens here.
God bless you GG! One of my assignments for this week was to research this crap. Thanks!
In cinemas, that shouldn’t be enforced. However, in THEATERS, yes. Do you honestly know how annoying it is to hear a cellphone ring? At the Espace Go (theater in Montreal), if your cellphone rings, they stop the play, and kick you out. Do you know how annoying it is for the actors to hear someone’s phone? It’s not a movie, nitwit, it’s actors performing for you LIVE. At least have the decency to properly turn off your phone.
If people were decent, they wouldn’t have to come to this. Apparantly, in France, the problem is much bigger than here.
I’m so FOR this. My university has such a bad cell phone problem. You will not have a single lecture where MULTIPLE idiots won’t have turned off their cells. Then there are people who have it ring for a while because they’re too embarassed or they can’t get to it conveniently and THEN there ARE people who pick the call. I have seen that happen MULTIPLE times.
My point exactly. If it’s annoying to a teacher giving a lecture, imagine how it is for actors whom you PAID to see.
I’ve seen it happen, though it seems to occur more frequently during classes in university, where it’s arguably even more obnoxious. However, I’d agree with your doubts about a technology that somehow lets “emergency” calls through but blocks all others.
That’s what lecture auditoriums need at school…people can’t stop talking on their damn cellphones. >.>
You also paid an assload and a half to go to university.
I was referring more specificially to France. They’re a wee bit behind the times here on public smoking laws…my comment was supposed to be a little quip on how they should get their priorities straight.
Anyway, I just don’t like the idea of precedents being set that allow private companies and locations to install technology that forcibly limits what you can and can’t do on their property. There is still a difference between getting kicked out of a theater for having a cell phone and having technology installed in a building that completely blocks it. While such technology might be very useful in certain situations, I fear the time when I can’t receive I call I might need because the shopping mall I’m in has installed cell phone jammers. These things have a tendency to overdo themselves, potentially to the point where owning a cell phone almost becomes moot. I don’t like the idea of throwing away a right we have just because it’s sometimes annoying when other people do it. And if unversities themselves can’t solve issues with cell phones, then they haven’t enforced rules enough. I know at the University of Chicago, if you get with a cell phone ringing in class, your professor has the right to take it away from you, and then you have to go and explain to the dean why you had your cell phone on in class. With a rule like that in place, you don’t see it happening very often at all. But considering the following situation, which I was in last year. The phone company had to come out and install a line into my apartment. They were going to call me between 10:30 and 12:00 to let me know when they would be at my apartment. I had a class from 10:30 to 11:20. So I let my french professor know I’d have to keep my phone on vibrate that day because of this, and it was the only time SBC could come and install my phone line. Had there been a cell phone blocker installed on the campus buildings, I would not have been able to receive the call in class, and I would have had to miss the entire class rather than just part of it. The moral is, there is a difference between proper and improper cell phone use, and the complete banning of cell phone usage not only destroys improper usage, but also proper usage. It’s the same reason that the Telecommunications Decency Act of 1996 was declared unconstitutional: banning entire sectors of the internet because some people find them indecent also potentially destroys information than consenting adults might find useful, and it’s why I doubt you’ll see a law like this anytime soon in the US.
People still get executed despite the fact innocents fall in the cracks every now and then. If your phone line is that important and it needs to be done at that moment, you can skip the class :P. If you have a midterm you can’t skip , and phones have rung in midterms, then you shouldn’t have made the arrangements in the first place.
You’re comparing people getting executed to cell phones ringing in midterms? Isn’t that a bit of an extreme comparison? I realize cell phones can be annoying, but so can that guy who came to the midterm with a cold and he keeps sneezing and coughing. Maybe I’m just less prone to getting distracted by noises than others, but I wouldn’t consider a cell phone ringing during a midterm as something that would break my concentration to the point that it disrupted my work. And I’m not willing to hand over my right to bring my cell phone with me where I want to and receive calls to private institutions just because some other people can’t remember to put their’s on silent.
I would think that people getting executed wrongly would be a better application of protecting people’s rights than permitting people to view pornography. I’m not saying cell phone ringing is like killing people, I’m using it to show the uneveness of the application of the standard that the costs to the victims should always overrule the benefits.
I’ve been a tutor for years and I’ve had to give review to 2,10, 40, all the way up to 600 people without a microphone. Its distracting, disruptive and idiotic for both the guy or girl in front and the people trying to listen. In my science classes, I really profit from being able to think about the material either that I’m teaching or that I’m learning and it is really not helpful for me and others to have that disturbed. As Xelo said, university costs an assload and a half. I’m not there to be disturbed by the idiocy of my peers.
I see it that as long as you’re in the buildings/rooms, your phone should be deactivated. A big difference with the porn thing is that you watching porn doesn’t bother me in the least. I don’t wanna hear about your preferences, but that’s your business. When you have your phone ring in the middle of class, that is my business because since I (and 3-400 other people) heard it, it was no longer just about you.
Exactly how noisy are your classes anyway? I usually can’t hear my own teacher over the noise my classmates do, let alone a phone ringing.
I agree with all that Zepp is saying. I would also like to add, that you’re solution isn’t always practical. Such as with the war in Iraq going on, I am sort of on stand by and have to be ready to go to Pendleton for preprations at a fairly quick notice. It isn’t something that I can really plan for a specific day. Now granted there are high moments when I have a high chance of getting the call (this month I passed that high period), but it isn’t something that I know will be during a certain time. Also, phones don’t bother me that much. If they go off a lot, then yeah, but it happens so rarely that the measure is a bit extreme to me. At my school, almost everyone has a phone, and the rules are pretty lax, but it isn’t really a problem. I think that I have only heard 4 calls in the semester so far, 3 of them being early in the semester, and 2 of them on the same day. In class I find it more distracting when a teacher brings attention to the call.