"The worst idea in the history of bad ideas..."

In the 'this can't possibly be true' file, here's this little alleged nugget. This will likely end up on Snopes.com as an Urban Legend.

Basically, there are claims that various prints of Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull have had audio drops intentionally placed at random points in the film, so as to detect if a certain print ends up online illegally. In defense of common sense, " ...projectionists said the problem was likely a technical error, caused by incompatibility between the film reels and some types of readers used in cinemas."

For the moment, I'm more willing to believe the human error explanation, rather than that Lucas and Spielberg, two audio and visual perfectionists, would allow Paramount to distort their film for some silly quest to catch pirates. Still, studios have been using visible tracking dots for years, and this could conceivably be the next step. Could studios be so willing to prevent alleged piracy that they deny the paying moviegoer a complete viewing experience at the movies?

Whatever the case, Paramount had better come out with an official explanation or at least a denial before the rumor machine takes hold and hurts any potential repeat business.

Scott Mendelson