Fans angered at FNC's US Concert Policy

[RussianRoulette]

Is it me or has FNC really been a hot mess lately?

- First they have the Keeho situation with P1Harmony
- Then they have the whole situation with FT Island and Minhwan/Hongki right now. (You can read the latest update here)
- Now they have this new situation with AMPERS&ONE (which I will be abbreviating to A&1 for this post).
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A&1 is currently on their US Tour and there has been a massive privacy situation going on with their fans at the concerts.

After the tour started it was announced that taking pictures and recording the concerts would be strictly forbidden. At first fans weren't sure if the no filming rule was venue-specific or if it was an FNC rule though it seems it has been clarified that this rule is being enforced by FNC.

Fans have been angered by this new rule, especially since it doesn't seem like they announced it until after the tour started and people paid for VIP interactions with the artists.
(I also want to shout out that i'm 99% sure that FNC started enforcing this rule with P1Harmony's last US tour which I think was a few months ago? But I still saw lots of fancams of that tour so it looks like it wasn't heavily enforced.)

The issue going on here though is that it has been reported by fans that to enforce this rule venue staff have been confiscating audience member's phones and going through them without their consent which is very very VERY much illegal in the US. Police officers aren't even allowed to take your phone and go through it without a warrant.

It has been reported that staff are very heavily going through people's phones, even going in and searching people's photo/video trashes to make sure nothing was filmed and then deleted.

The deleted photos don't even seem to be limited to filming/pictures of the performances but any personal selfies taken at the concert venue seem to be getting deleted as well.

News of this has spread around the kpop community and many people have been shouting out that the fans who were subjected to this are technically able to file police reports over this.

A&1 still have about 10 tour stops left in the US and many fans are threatening to call law enforcement if staff tries this at future stops.

Kpop fans are currently asking for a statement from Leo Presents (the people handling their US tour) for a statement on this situation.
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[mimenet]

So my understanding from working in (live) theater is that you typically agree in some form or another that upon entering the building to view the event, you will not violate the copyright of the performance you are viewing. Usually this will be printed onto the ticket.

Depending on the venue and what their contractual agreement is with their audience, they may outright ban phone or heavily prohibit usage. While I don't believe they can demand the phones after the fact, they can definitely bar entrance unless the phone is not on your person. They can also detain you if they have reason to believe you committed a crime (in this case copyright infringement). I don't know if this is actually a case of truly confiscating the phones, or if they're just intimidating people into handing them over.

 

[RussianRoulette]

So my understanding from working in (live) theater is that you typically agree in some form or another that upon entering the building to view the event, you will not violate the copyright of the performance you are viewing. Usually this will be printed onto the ticket.

Depending on the venue and what their contractual agreement is with their audience, they may outright ban phone or heavily prohibit usage. While I don't believe they can demand the phones after the fact, they can definitely bar entrance unless the phone is not on your person. They can also detain you if they have reason to believe you committed a crime (in this case copyright infringement). I don't know if this is actually a case of truly confiscating the phones, or if they're just intimidating people into handing them over.

To my understanding, the no phone rule wasn't originally a venue thing but a rule FNC asked the venue's to enforce last minute. I don't know if this helps answer anything but I know I saw people online saying the Boston stop last week was enforcing it though if you go to the venue's website nowhere do they say they prohibit phones or anything. I also don't know if there is a loophole in the fact that they didn't announce the no phones rules until after the tickets were already sold?

Of what i'm seeing online it seems the detaining thing you mentioned is probably closest to what was going on. People were getting stopped (i'm assuming as they are leaving but i'm not sure?) and they couldn't walk any further until they could prove to security staff there was no recordings on their phones. There seems to be a mix of some people just being forced to show their phone gallery and some people straight-up having their phones yanked away.

I feel like if FNC wasn't to ban phones they need to do what you mentioned and ban the phones before people enter the venue, not after they are already inside or mid-concert.

 

[zxcvbnm<>]

lately ?

 

[gatoelblue]

So during IU's tour she banned filming. Even had a custom intro asking us to not film herself.

Many people still did whereas I respected the rules, in an arena though it was hard to have security enforce it.

But yes it is very illegal to search someone's phone without an warrant. At an venue used to work at, even when an guy took perverted angled photos of female performers, we could not even demand he deleted them.