Google Glass has been banned from every movie theater in the UK

The UK’s data regulator may have clarified that Google Glass shouldn’t be singled out for special measures over personal use, but that isn’t stopping domestic companies from enforcing their own rules. The Independent reports that just a week after the Google wearable finally went on sale in Britain for a hefty £1,000, UK cinemas are banning it over fears that “Explorers” could use them to pirate movies. “Customers will be requested not to wear these into cinema auditoriums, whether the film is playing or not,” says Phil Clapp, chief executive of the Cinema Exhibitors’ Association (CEA), which offers guidance to 90 percent of the UK’s cinema providers. Movie chain Vue is enforcing a ban, asking users to remove their eyewear “as soon as the lights dim,” while Odeon requests that “guests and employees do not wear Google Glasses […] capable of recording images and video within the cinema auditorium.”

If you’ve just acquired a Google Glass headset for £1,000, don’t show it off at the movies. UK cinemas are to ban the headsets over fears that the gadgets can be used to make pirate copies of Hollywood blockbusters. Two years after its US release, Google finally made a prototype of its hi-tech eyewear available in Britain last week. The spectacles, which allow the wearer to read emails, take videos, and access the internet via a display fixed above the right eye, are being offered to “Explorers” for £1,000. However, the ability to record people without their knowledge, with the stroke of a finger over the spectacle frame or a voice command, has prompted privacy concerns. And cinemas are alarmed that criminal gangs could use Glass to distribute pirate copies of blockbusters movies – recording in cinemas is the source of more than 90 per cent of all illegally copied films in their release form. Phil Clapp, chief executive of the Cinema Exhibitors’ Association, said: “Customers will be requested not to wear these into cinema auditoriums, whether the film is playing or not.” The Vue cinema chain said it would ask guests to remove the eyewear “as soon as the lights dim”. Although Google Glass lights up when it is capturing images, one early adopter has already been asked to remove his headset at a Leicester Square cinema as staff could not monitor whether it was recording.