• This Google Glass user went to the movies. Then he got interrogated for about four hours.


    Days after a California driver escaped a traffic conviction over wearing Google Glass behind the wheel, the search company's augmented-reality device is once again testing the law. On Saturday, an Ohio man was detained for several hours by federal agents who suspected him of recording "Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit" in his local movie theater using Glass's video function.

    "About an hour into the movie," Columbus-based Tiberiu Ungureanu told The Gadgeteer, "a guy comes near my seat, shoves a badge that had some sort of a shield on it, yanks the Google Glass off my face and says, 'follow me outside immediately.'"

    What followed was a lengthy interview that ended only when Ungureanu convinced an agent to search his device for evidence of the offending footage. There was none.
    While Ungureanu initially suspected his interrogators to be officers from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, they later turned out to be agents from the Department of Homeland Security — specifically, from the Immigration and Customs Enforcement department, which deals with international piracy cases in collaboration with the movie industry. In this case, officials from the Motion Picture Association of America, who were already at the theater, contacted ICE when they learned that someone was in the audience with a recording device.
    "On Jan. 18, special agents with ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations and local authorities briefly interviewed a man suspected of using an electronic recording device to record a film at an AMC theater in Columbus," Khaalid Walls, an ICE spokesman, told The Washington Post on Tuesday. "The man, who voluntarily answered questions, confirmed to authorities that the suspected recording device was also a pair of prescription eye glasses in which the recording function had been inactive. No further action was taken."
    ICE has taken a prominent role in Washington's global anti-piracy efforts, even going so far as to publish a public service announcement on YouTube and linking to it from various file sharing domains that it's seized.

    In confirming the FBI's non-involvement in Ungureanu's detention, an agency spokesman added that Ungureanu actually works with the FBI on occasion.
    "Incidentally, we have a positive relationship with the person involved, and they contacted us," said Todd Lindgren, an FBI public affairs officer based in Cincinnati. "He's a routine liaison who works in the cyber field, and some of our cyber agents had a relationship with the guy."
    The MPAA did not immediately respond to calls and an e-mail requesting comment. Nor did Ungureanu himself.
    "While we're huge fans of technology and innovation, wearing a device that has the capability to record video is not appropriate at the movie theater," said Ryan Noonan, a spokesman for AMC.

    The incident offers a teaser for the kind of legal troubles Glass could cause not just on the highways but in other public settings where electronics are prohibited. It also suggests a privacy paradox for Glass users in that, to absolve themselves of suspicion might require consenting to a search, one that could lead authorities to dig through sensitive or personal data. And while the issue of warrantless device searches has reached the Supreme Court, whatever ruling comes down will apply only to cellphones. Google Glass users will likely have a lot more experiences like Ungureanu's before they get anything resembling legal clarity.

    Update: In an e-mailed statement, the MPAA tells me it doesn't find Google Glass objectionable — yet. "Google Glass is an incredible innovation in the mobile sphere, and we have seen no proof that it is currently a significant threat that could result in content theft."

    Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/...ut-four-hours/
    Comments 25 Comments
    1. megabyteme's Avatar
      megabyteme -
      I feel safer knowing Homeland Security is poised and ready to deal with such high-level terrorism.
    1. wtj's Avatar
      wtj -
      I remember the 50's when they interrogated people who subscribed to Pravda and proclaimed that Russia had secret police that would arrest people on hearsay with no due process............HYPOCRITICAL AHOLES!
    1. duke0102's Avatar
      duke0102 -
      It has a recording function so I can kinda see the issue from the cinema owners point of view but wow, terrible priorities there. Reminds me of lol:
    1. IdolEyes787's Avatar
      IdolEyes787 -
      Quote Originally Posted by wtj View Post
      I remember the 50's when they interrogated people who subscribed to Pravda and proclaimed that Russia had secret police that would arrest people on hearsay with no due process............HYPOCRITICAL AHOLES!

      Oh the glorious gift of retrospect that allows us to mock the decisions of our predecessors while at the same time pretending that given the same situation we wouldn't do the exact same thing.
      Anyway I suppose that is a wise person checks the chassis first before jumping on a bandwagon.

      Also I find it funny that you decided to write "HYPOCRITICAL AHOLES" as the contraction from "asshole" is sort of a hypocrisy itself.You know "I'm going to swear but I'm not really going to swear because that would be wrong".

      By I digress from the actual topic so I guess what the real issue is here is why the fuck does anyone need to wear these glasses at a movie and if someone did why weren't they immediately beaten to within an inch of their life long before the authorities arrived?
    1. icerush's Avatar
      icerush -
      geez get the sand out of your vag.
    1. IdolEyes787's Avatar
      IdolEyes787 -
      The best thing about the internet is that you get to act tough without ever having to back it up.
    1. PsYFuR's Avatar
      PsYFuR -
      The yanks about their anti terrorism... The irony is not lost on this Englishman
    1. wtj's Avatar
      wtj -
      Quote Originally Posted by IdolEyes787 View Post
      Quote Originally Posted by wtj View Post
      I remember the 50's when they interrogated people who subscribed to Pravda and proclaimed that Russia had secret police that would arrest people on hearsay with no due process............HYPOCRITICAL AHOLES!

      Oh the glorious gift of retrospect that allows us to mock the decisions of our predecessors while at the same time pretending that given the same situation we wouldn't do the exact same thing.
      Anyway I suppose that is a wise person checks the chassis first before jumping on a bandwagon.

      Also I find it funny that you decided to write "HYPOCRITICAL AHOLES" as the contraction from "asshole" is sort of a hypocrisy itself.You know "I'm going to swear but I'm not really going to swear because that would be wrong".

      By I digress from the actual topic so I guess what the real issue is here is why the fuck does anyone need to wear these glasses at a movie and if someone did why weren't they immediately beaten to within an inch of their life long before the authorities arrived?
      The contraction was to avoid "bot censoring". And I don't believe it's any of YOUR or ANY POLICE EMPLOYEE's business WHY an AMERICAN wears ANYTHING without witnessing a crime or receiving a judicial order SPECIFIC to the instance.
      It's called the BILL OF RIGHTS of THE US CONSTITUTION, you ASSHOLE!
    1. IdolEyes787's Avatar
      IdolEyes787 -
      That's the spirit that made America great in it's own eyes at least.

      Anyway besides the fact I'm Canadian and we're known fascists I always get confused when somebody uses The Bill of Rights when in the same breath trying to censure my opinion.

      You're apparently a Civil Rights lawyer,could you please explain that seeming contradictory thing you just did to me.
    1. megabyteme's Avatar
      megabyteme -
      Quote Originally Posted by IdolEyes787 View Post
      why the fuck does anyone need to wear these glasses at a movie and if someone did why weren't they immediately beaten to within an inch of their life long before the authorities arrived?
      The article states the glasses have his prescription lenses in them, making him not only an early-adopter, but a total nerd. So, I also wonder why he hadn't been beaten.
    1. IdolEyes787's Avatar
      IdolEyes787 -
      Don't worry I'm sure the cops did it.
    1. megabyteme's Avatar
      megabyteme -
      If the cops aren't brutal thugs, the terrorists win.
    1. IdolEyes787's Avatar
      IdolEyes787 -
      Probably explains their "When in doubt,shoot a visible minority" policy.
    1. icerush's Avatar
      icerush -
      Quote Originally Posted by IdolEyes787 View Post
      The best thing about the internet is that you get to act tough without ever having to back it up.
      Doubt you'd be such an asshole anywhere other than the internet.... Next time you feel like crossing the border south, please drive around!
    1. IdolEyes787's Avatar
      IdolEyes787 -
      Quote Originally Posted by icerush View Post

      Doubt you'd be such an asshole anywhere other than the internet.... Next time you feel like crossing the border south, please drive around!
      In real life I'm a lawyer for a major oil company so shows what you know.

      Also I said that I was a Canadian,not that I lived in Canada so :Fail 1 You 0.

      Btw I totally get why insult comedy escapes you as it's necessary to have a brain capable of melding two incongruent things into one seamless whole.
    1. icerush's Avatar
      icerush -
      You get angry really easily bud, you should try and relax.
    1. megabyteme's Avatar
      megabyteme -
      Quote Originally Posted by IdolEyes787 View Post
      melding two incongruent things into one seamless whole.
      Yeah, we know how much you like to melt into a seamless hole, queer.
    1. IdolEyes787's Avatar
      IdolEyes787 -
      Your wife's been indiscreet again it appears.

      Quote Originally Posted by icerush View Post
      You get angry really easily bud, you should try and relax.
      What's an easily bud?
    1. TheFoX's Avatar
      TheFoX -
      NEWS:: An armed response team, including members of SWAT, as well as assistance from Green Berets, were sent into a cinema to detain an extremely dangerous man. The man, simply known as GoogleEyes787, was armed with a pair of Google Glasses(TM) and members of the detention team took every precaution to detain this dangerous character.

      Arnold Blistweiler, ex Marine and co-ordinator for this joint action task force said that catching this character was more dangerous than his time serving during the Gulf War. 'Even though bullets were flying through the air, mortars were going off all around, and I was personally facing over 1,000 of Sadams' personal guards, that was nothing compared to the fear we all felt when tackling GoogleEyes787.' he stated, while wiping the sweat from his brow.

      It has become obvious that these pirates are the worst of humanity. Child murder and rape don't even come close to the carnage that someone with a recording device can achieve.
    1. megabyteme's Avatar
      megabyteme -
      , FoX. Let's wait with sheer excitement for the first cams to surface which will track with the wearer's eyes as he turns to look at people coming in, dips down as he reaches for his Juju Bees, does a nerdy head bounce while he laughs, gets bored and stares at the ceiling, and of course checks his iFone 17 times. Oh yeah, HUGE breach of Fatherland Homeland security.

      Let's not forget the virtual reality experience we'll get from the "sucking on a beverage repeatedly" cam.