Blame Canada!

From syfypportal, If you live in Canada, you will not be able to see previews of the upcoming "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" and "Ocean's Thirteen."

With potential summer blockbusters poised to premier, Warner Bros. plans to cancel all preview screenings of its movies in Canada, in an attempt to clamp down on "rampant" film piracy.

The studio announced on Monday that it will halt all "promotional and word-of-mouth screenings" of new releases, according to Hollywood Reporter, citing the failure of the Canadian government to make camcording -- videotaping a film directly off the cinema screen -- illegal.
"We regret having to cancel our screenings in Canada," said Dan Fellman, president of domestic distribution at Warner Brothers. "But our studio must take steps to protect not only our branded assets, but our commitment to film-makers and to our distributors."

Representatives from major film studios met with a parliamentary committee, claiming that unauthorized recording of Hollywood films in Canadian movie theatres was rampant.
Previews have traditionally been used as a means of advertising an upcoming film, so that word-of-mouth from people who have seen it before general release would draw in more movie-goers on opening weekend; however, the failure of Canada to stop people from bringing camcorders into theatres with them may well be cutting into ticket sales, as bootlegged movies have been showing up on the internet and for sale as DVDs, sometimes before a movie’s official opening day.

"Canada is the number one priority in terms of anti-camcording legislation," said Darcy Antonellis, who works on worldwide anti-piracy operations at Warner Bros Entertainment. "Within the first week of a film's release, you can almost be certain that somewhere out there a Canadian copy will show up."

This isn't the first time a movie studio has taken measures to curtail bootlegged movies in the country. Last year, Twentieth Century Fox threatened to postpone film releases in Canada to eliminate the threat of unauthorized camcording.

Even if movie previews are to be eliminated, movie piracy can still be a problem. Movie studios are also trying to head off bootlegged movies by making new movies more easily accessible for a fee, and also by releasing Movie DVDs sooner after a movie has been released in theaters.
Major studios are in talks with cable giant Comcast over plans to screen films on cable TV on the same day as they are released in theaters.

Comcast's Stephen Burke told attendees at a recent a trade show that subscribers may be charged between $30 to $50 to watch a film release at home on its opening day in theaters, though they have not settled on anything definite.
Studios also want to narrow the gap between big screen debuts and DVD releases, reducing the need for a second promotional campaign. Studios often rely on DVD sales for a large chunk of their profits.

Movie theater owners, however, have resisted any effort to do this, fearing earlier DVD sales would result in the fall of attendance in theaters. For example, earlier this year in the UK, major movie chains pulled the Ben Stiller comedy "Night at the Museum" off their screens to protest the early release of the film's DVD by Twentieth Century Fox.

A week earlier German movie chains refused to show movies made by Fox — including "Night at the Museum" — over the DVD release of its movie "Eragon." Fox had to postpone "Eragon's" release as a result.