Neil Gane, director of operations at the Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft (AFACT), said the night vision scopes would be deployed at the majority of the 304 Australian cinemas screening the movie. He said the film industry had become concerned over the past few months as "a number of big name movies that were the first to appear on the internet have been forensically matched to cinemas in Australia".

He would not name the movies, citing ongoing investigations, but said that, for a number of years, movie studios had been adding "unique forensic markers" to film prints distributed to theatres, allowing them to trace any leaks back to a specific location. For Australia's release, financial rewards of $200 will be provided to cinema staff for catching pirates, who will be ushered out of the cinema or referred to police, depending on the seriousness of their offence. But Gane said the industry was not only looking for the commercial pirates who sell their illegal camcorder recordings on DVD. Even those filming short clips as a keepsake on their mobile phones would be targeted.

"The anti-camcorder strategy is to prevent any person from making an illegal copy of a movie from within a cinema. This would include people making keepsakes or trophy copies on their cell phone or any other recording device," he said. "It would be up to police to decide whether there would be enough evidence to charge the individual."

Under the Copyright Act, the maximum penalty for those found with a device for making an infringing copy is $13,200. In November last year, Sydneysider Jose Duarte, 23, was fined $1000 for filming The Simpsons Movie on his mobile phone and uploading the footage to the internet. AFACT said it was the first illegal copy of the movie to be intercepted anywhere in the world. This month, seven of the world's biggest film studios, joined by the Seven Network, launched an unprecedented crackdown on film and TV piracy by suing Australia's third largest ISP, iiNet, for failing to prevent its users from downloading illegal content.

While Gane acknowledged that most of the illegal movie recordings came out of countries with lax copyright laws, such as the Philippines, he said he expected more cinemas to adopt night vision devices as Australia was increasingly showing movies before the US and Britain. Australia opens around the world today but due to the time difference Australians will be among the first in the world to see the film, leading to an increased risk of illegal filming as pirates race to be the first to release the film online.

Night vision devices have been used in America for the past two years and in the Asia-Pacific they have been deployed in Singapore, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Thailand and now in Australia, Gane said. "Traditionally, yes, we haven't had much of a camcorder problem in Australia. However, with day and date releases of our member company major release titles, they're often released in Australia before they're released in the UK and America," he said. "Over 95 per cent of pirated movies that first hit the internet or are sold on DVDs originate from illegal recordings in cinemas."