Google Glass has been officially banned at the geek-centric Comic-Con, a convention for fans of science fiction, comic books, anime cartoons and other genres of arts and entertainment.
This geek-and-meet event has grown in size exponentially over the years. This year it will be on the lookout for eye spy recording wear such as Glass when movies are being screened.
The Google Glass smart eyewear is capable of recording video from voice command. Commands can even be made in whispers, such as "record video." This has many commercial copyright holders nervous that devices such as Google Glass will lead to even more mass piracy of content like movies.
Then there are the exclusive events, like Comic-Con, that hold screenings, discussion panels and other things that the promoters want kept inside the confines of the convention. It had already instituted no filming rules well before Google Glass was something on their radar.
Also, movie theaters have already placed bans on the smart glasses in the United States and United Kingdom for fear of piracy, according to a report. Glass can only capture about 45 minutes of video at a time on its battery, but many clips and other material at Comic-Con would be the right length to be captured as footage on the device.
Comic-Con has had many highly anticipated and exclusive trailers and clips and has made efforts to restrict use of audio and video recording devices for parts of the convention, according to another report. For example, this year's convention has trailers from the very highly anticipated films "The Giver" and "Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice."
Interestingly, the Comic-Con handbook calls Google Glass "Glasses" instead of Glass. This is the first time this particular device has been banned at the convention.
You can't even use the device during a screening or panel with film clips if it is prescription, according to reports. The promoters and organizers of this convention work directly with the film industry to gain exclusive trailer footage that can only be seen at the event.
This ban doesn't affect the entire event for Google Glass wearers, however. The headgear can still be worn during other parts of the convention. It is a four-day long event, so there will be opportunities to sport the eyewear if that's your thing.
The Southern California event regularly has hundreds of thousands of attendees, from all parts of the country and around the world.
