I would normally be writing a review of the film Skyline right now, which opened last night. Alas – we never made it to our seats. After finding out that the local theater no longer respects student discounts on the weekends, I also encountered a mandatory bag search while getting our tickets torn. “We’re just checking for recording equipment,” she tells me. But when she sees that we have brought in snacks, she says “We can’t allow any outside food or drinks.” I quipped that she wasn’t searching for food, but recording equipment, and she found none. But she still wouldn’t allow us in with our goodies.

So, I got a refund, noting the reason on the refund form and to the completely unconcerned manager.

But there’s something important going on here. This theater clearly created a draconian policy on concession under the guise of fighting piracy. The theater certainly could not have posted a sign outside reading “Your bags will be searched for food” and not suffered irate customers who decided to go elsewhere.

And yet, as a nation, we seem willing and even eager to accept tighter controls, greater restrictions, and a whittling away of our liberties if it comes under the banner of criminal enforcement. The Patriot Act could only have passed after 9/11 as a part of our new War on Terror. All of the arbitrary prison sentences for non-violent drug offenses are suddenly okay when done as a part of the War on Drugs. Now that there’s a War on Piracy, are we to allow similar erosion of our liberties to protect us from – what? – camcorded films and bootleg video games?

I understand that the rules of illegal search and seizure do not operate the same way in private establishments, but think about what acquiescing to a search means.

The threat of someone sneaking in a camcorder is extremely low, but the possibility of patrons sneaking in candy and soda is rather high. Nearly ever dime a theater makes is from concession, hence the rise of popcorn prices coinciding with the rise of ticket prices: fewer customers because of high prices means they have to extract more profit from fewer people. So are theaters willing to “fight piracy” for movie studios only because it gives them carte blanche to eradicate outside concession? Likely. And this probably means a higher profit margin per head in the short term, since those who wouldn’t buy $7 popcorn or $4 Twizzlers can’t then bring in their own goodies from home. But the penalty for this sort of heavy-handed tactic can only end with fewer customers.

So while Hollywood has theaters checking for camcorders, several will be turned away for outside concession, and several others will decide they’re fed up with theaters altogether. No one likes being tacitly criminalized via a search after being raped on tickets 30 seconds earlier. Thus, this anti-piracy measure – like so many others – will fail miserably, blowing up in the faces of theaters who’ll lose customers (like me), and movie studios who’ll suffer from smaller ticket sales.

I can wait to rent Skyline for $1 from Redbox, and in the process, Hollywood and Regal Cinemas just lost $21 fighting the War on Piracy.

I can live with that.