According to MPAA, there's an estimated 2.5 million American jobs that rely on the film industry and with a reported $3 billion of damages sustained each year due to film piracy, the industry can no longer rely on old methods.
The industry used to feel the best method at handling bootleggers would be one method used last year during The Dark Knight's theatrical release...having ushers roam the theater with night vision goggles, searching for anyone with a recording device. You could even make the assumption some theaters potentially rely on the average movie patron to report piracy discovered while in the theater.
The industry has decided on a different approach. With the help of Japan's National Institute of Informatics, Sharp has devised a technology that practically renders a recording device useless when trying to record a movie during its theatrical release. The technology involves a flashing pulse of infra-red light being emitted from behind the screen. The pulses would pass through the tiny holes of the screen and cause a rather nasty interference for all recording devices.
Although apparently invisible to the human eye, in thinking you can get through the loop holes somehow by still deciding to record a theatrical film, in trying to filter out the interference, the system is set up where you'll fail regardless what attempts are made. If you try to blur out the interference, it'll further destroy the little amount of the film that you have on your recording device.
If this technology is as successful as the industry is expecting, the bootlegging industry will b crippled but as time progresses with all forms of bootlegging, someone down the line will devise a method at leveling the playing field.
Below is an example of two images...on the left is an image without interference and the one to the right would be the image with the Infra-red interference