Yesterday we went to see Wild Safari 3D at the CN IMAX downtown. Lots of fun, the 3D technology actually works (except for the difficulty of keeping a squirmy two-year-old from taking off her glasses), and we’ll leave the unsettling racial politics (the trackers are black, the zoologist/ranger is white) for another post.

Instead, we’ll focus on the closing credits, which include something I’ve never seen before in a movie. Along with exhorting viewers not to buy ivory, and assuring us that no animals were harmed in the movie (tell that to whatever the lions were eating), the credits announced that no pirated software was used to make the movie.

It’s an interesting move, and I wonder why the filmmakers included that announcement. Of all the evils they could have renounced (“No toxic dumping occurred during the making of this film.” “All members of the film crew were paid a living wage.” “This film was not financed by selling crystal meth at daycares.”), why software piracy?

So some questions: is this part of a new campaign where software makers encourage filmmakers to comply with anti-piracy audits? Has anyone seen that disclaimer in a flick before?

And how about the one I’d like to see: “Made entirely using open-source software”?