If they put it on the web, then chances are most of the people wouldnt have paid to see it anyway, and only idiots buy DVD movies from the market. tbh. There will be ways around it, always is.
Well, within five minutes of this being launched, you can bet $5 lenses on eBay can be had to block out the problem light. And that James Clawson character is an idiot. Someday, one of them will realize that watching a downloaded film doesn't necessarily equate to a lost ticket sale. Anyways.... Still, it's a very interesting concept. Might be good for... umm... bathrooms - stoppin' those pervs!
Why not just flood the theatre with Infra-Red light? That should be enough to piss off most cameras whilst not affecting anyones eyes.
Then what would you do with your several million $ research toy. Got to sell it to some plumb and the movie industry does seem to have the deepest pockets!
I personally don't think this is such a bad thing. I look at it from the perspective of cost/benefit. Theaters might spend the money, which is fine. I think someone walking in and recording the video on a camcorder SHOULD be stopped. That's within their rights. But also useful is the concept of document protection. Identity theft is a growing problem in financial, law, and medical offices, where lower-paid workers may feel a nice buck could be had taking a picture of patient documents with their cell phones and selling them. May also be very beneficial, as mentioned, in locker rooms and bathrooms. Overall, this isn't really stopping anyone from doing things that they have any right to do in the first place, and the cost of such a system would put it out of the hands of some bloke just not wanting to have pictures taken.