CAP code
A CAP code is part of an anti-piracy techhnology called CAP, or Coded Anti-Piracy. It is in the form of either a code printed on the sprocket edge of a motion picture print, or a multi-dot pattern that is printed in a couple of frames in various segments of a film print of a theatrically exhibited motion picture.
There are two styles of CAP code. The original style of CAP code, developed in 1982 by Eastman Kodak along with the Motion Picture Association of America, is a series of dots printed along the edge of the film where the sprocket holes are. A newer, and more common variation, has been developed by Deluxe Laboratories, and is placed directly in frames of a film print.
The dots are added to the print before it it sent to a theater, and the dots are usually in a pattern, to identify the particular theater that is playing the print of a movie.
The Deluxe Laboratories variation of CAP are dots are usually placed on bright areas of a film frame, so they can be easier identified, and are a reddish-brown color. They are not to be confused with cue marks, aka "cigarette burns", which is either a black or white circle (or ring) in usually the upper right-hand corner of the frame, used to cue the projectionist that a particular reel of a movie is ending, as most movies come to theaters on several reels of film.
The orginal incarnation of CAP developed by Kodak is a technology for watermarking film prints to trace copies of a print, whether legitimate or pirated, to its original. The more-commonplace version developed by Deluxe was developed to thwart film piracy from theatergoers with camcorders, or prints that have been illicitly telecined to videotape or DVD.
A newer Deluxe Labs-style CAP-code appearing in a frame of a movie, in the upper center. The CAP code here is in the shape of a "T". (Courtesy VCDquality.com)
File:Kodak-style CAP code on film edge.jpg
The original Eastman Kodak version of a CAP code. It's printed edgewise (on the bottom center of this picture) among the sprocket holes, and is printed every 100 frames. The dots in a total of 11 CAP coded frames total the sum of the CAP print number. (courtesy Carl Welles, film-tech.com)