Fighting movie pirates can be hard, especially in Asia, where 7-megapixel cameraphones run rampant. So in an effort to crack down on piracy, Malaysian movie theaters have started using night-vision goggles to track down pirates. The method has been useful so far, as 17 people have been caught trying to record films in the past two months. Maybe “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest” can take on an entirely different meaning now.

Sounds like a decent way to combat piracy, but there will always be a release of a movie out no matter what you try to do. There is always someone armed with a camcorder and a microphone, ready to make the next telesync-release. Though I bet if they started using night-vision goggles in the US, they’d catch a few crafty people or three.

Cinemas use night goggles to nab pirates [Reuters]