This is a tough one. Here’s the story from the Washington Post… I’ll give my thoughts further down:
Jhannet Sejas and her boyfriend were celebrating her 19th birthday by taking in a matinee showing of the hit movie “Transformers” at the theater at Ballston Common mall.
Sejas was enjoying the movie so much that she decided to film a short clip of the sci-fi adventure’s climax to get her little brother hyped to go see it. Minutes later, two Arlington County police officers were pointing their flashlights at the young couple in the darkened theater and ordering them out. They confiscated the digital camera as evidence and charged Sejas, a Marymount University sophomore and Annandale resident, with a crime: illegally recording a motion picture.
Sejas faces up to a year in jail and a fine of up to $2,500 when she goes to trial this month in the July 17 incident. Arlington police spokesman John Lisle said it was the decision of Regal Cinemas Ballston Common 12 to prosecute the case, a first for Arlington police.
Wow… ok… there are a couple of things about this story that have to be considered before jumping to any opinion:
1) She knowingly broke the law.
I’ve always said that the way to fight piracy is not to persecute teenagers at home downloading “The Girl Next Door”, but rather to step up efforts against those who do the actual pirating by stealing screener discs or filming in the theaters. The girl is 19, she’s not 5. She damn well knows pulling out a recording device and filming a movie is against the law, doesn’t matter if it’s 2 hours or 2 seconds. She decided to do it anyway. She got busted. No tears for her from me.
2) If they don’t prosecute, what message does that send?
The theater here is in a really difficult position. They’re trying like crazy to fight piracy. Here they are now… they caught a person red handed pulling out a recording device and filming part of the movie. It’s cut and dry… she’s guilty. So what message is the theater sending if they DON’T press charges? What use is having a law if it’s not enforced? Doesn’t that actually encourage piracy?
3) Lindsay and Paris threaten people’s lives and walk
I’m sorry… but there is something seriously fucked up if a person gets caught drinking and driving… putting EVERYONES life at risk on the road, and get nothing, while this girl could get a year in prison for recording someone say “autobots, we must retrieve the all spark before Megatron” Yeah, she’s a real threat to society. Where is the balance here?
So here are my thoughts. The girl SHOULD be charged. Sorry… she knowingly broke the law, she got busted. Laws are there to act as a deterrent. How much of a deterrent is it if they catch someone and do nothing about it? At the same time, the idea that she could get a year in jail seems beyond excessive to me… so something needs to be done about that.
My friend Peter over at Slashfilm has a totally different opinion than mine. He believes that the Theater is totally wrong and that people should Boycott Regal Cinemas unless they drop the charges. Many people agree with him. Me personally, I think they MUST charge her… and there is no one to blame here but the girl herself. She made this situation, and now Regal is in a tricky spot with how to deal with it. Maybe I’m wrong.
I want to know what YOU guys think about this? Who is at fault here? What should be done?
I read a story today about this guy, he’s been a member of the AAA for 39 years, during which he’s called them about six times. Anyway, this guy is having some motorcycle trouble and it won’t start. He’s stuck by the side of the road and he just needs it jump started. So he calls them up and they just keep telling him “It’s not our policy to do motorcycles” or whatnot, over and over they just keep repeating this to him and they won’t help the guy out. I mean jump starting a motorcycle is no different from a car, it just takes 2 seconds of effort, nothing extra is required but this idiot operator, she can’t think for herself, right? She doesn’t get paid enough I guess. These people can only repeat the company policies in front of them on their computers or whatever, their robots, they have no soul, they just mindless automatons. And it’s silly because it would only take 2 seconds to help this guy out, and they’ve done it before for him in the past, even when he had a motorcycle. No maybe if this guy was more irritable and rude he could have wasted time talking his way up the chain of command to someone who would have said alright to it anyway, but he was too nice I guess. Anyway I bring this up because you are sort of like that mindless automaton just endlessly repeating company policy. You’ve got no heart. Some young girl is going to get jailed for a year and/or fined for some really pointless crap well, “the law is the law, no exceptions” right? I trust you wouldn’t throw a fit or anything if it was your daughter or grandmother or somebody you knew in a similar situation.
Man, your a cold emotionless sonofabitch. Why don’t you try having some heart, jackass. After all, I know someday when I’m an old man laying on my death bed I’m going to think to myself, “Man laws were so awesome, I’m glad I spent my entire life following them exactly to the letter and endorsing the imprisonment and/or heavy fining of young girls! Long live movie corporations! I hope they make lots of money!”
I mean to hell with compassion for your fellow human beings even if they are idiots, right? Except that’s the whole point, when all is said and done the only thing that matters in life are the meaningful relationships you’ve made with other human beings and how you treated your fellow man. But no, appearing as a “no-nonsense the law is the law” tough guy type was more important to you.
You spend so much time debating the laws and shit like they were brought down from the mountain by Moses or something, but they aren’t, they were thought up by regular people like you and me who aren’t really any better than us, in fact they are probably worse, bought and paid for by soulless corporations who only want to make more money.
Anyway, Transformers was a piece of shit.
John –
Refusing to answer a question two times is not the same as answering a question two times. It’s similar to how doing something that harms no one in any way does not count as deserving to be punished.
You said that her story was “BULLSHIT”, that she did not record it for personal use. And yet you refuse to give even one example of what she could possibly have used it for other than personal use.
Then you compared her footage to taking a gun on a plane THREE times. I think there are really only two possibilities here:
1) You’re just fucking with us and don’t believe that horse shit
2) There is a top secret, deadly terrorist use for this footage that you can not reveal for national security purposes. Which begs the question: if the blurry 20 seconds of footage from this movie could kill people on a plane, then why are we prosecuting this girl and NOT Michael Bay, the maniac who projected it for 2 1/2 hours onto every screen in the country?
Okay, so your lawyer, who said to you that you did not break any laws by watching Sicko, is right – I mean he better be, you posted an article about it on your blog (hopefully you checked that out before posting the article, not just for this conversation :) – and yes, I am assuming that you had a higher source here than just google. So, good for you.
Well, yep, they sure ain`t turning a blind eye to this girl – to whom someone should have told about the wonders of such sites as apple.com/trailers in case she desperately wants to promote a movie – because she is probably being made an example for the new zero tolerance law. Very popular law the zero tolerance one in the united states.
Or hopefully and more likely an advertisement for it. She, the first violator of this law who gets caught, gets a small fine or something, has to go through all this shit, and everyone in the world will know that their zero tolerance is for real. After all, giving her too harsh a punishment would give them too much bad puplicity.
And the court “has” to give her some sort of an punishment for this because it is a case example that can be used as a reference in future cases, but hopefully they`ll set an opposite example by giving her no punishment. But in the end the punishment will be so small anyway that it will not even matter.
But the context and intent of this law breaking event does unfortunately matter, as in most cases.
In this case the context of the crime is that she filmed 1/432 part from the end of a movie with a pretty shitty camcorder.
So, we get to see what “fair use” means nowadays. Here is a quote from the law concerning fair use:
“Section 107 also sets out four factors to be considered in determining whether or not a particular use is fair:
1. the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes;
2.the nature of the copyrighted work;
3. amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and
4. the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.”
So, sometimes you get to, at the very least, say when it is more okay to do something than some other times.
I mean the guy from The National Association of Theatre Owners says there is such a thing as “good stealing”.
Wow. Nicely put.
It makes it sound that he is on the girls side – hence gaining some points for empathy, but since they are loosing zillions of dollars they had to do something with this darn piracy issue, and this was the only way to fight it properly.
And I do think your allegories are way too simplistic, but you use the allegories you like. Oh, but they won`t wait until you start using the gun on a plane before they arrest you…
So, in my opinion, there is not only black and white, with no grey areas. In fact the grey area is the largest area – it has all the varying degrees of black and white in it (and yes, I am talking about right and wrong here). And so does, or at least should have, the law.
Once again Alistair, you keep trying to paint this girl as a victim. As if he accidentally tripped into a pane glass window and was being criminally charge with purposeful vandalism.
An no, check your facts, I never broke any law when I watched Sicko.
And my friend, if he got busted downloading it, and was charged… then guess what… he’s have no one to blame but himself for doing it.
This “poor girl” is not a victim. She made the CHOICE to do what she did. She got busted. No tears from me.
The rule is idiot proof: “No recording in a movie theater”. You don’t get to say when it’s ok and when it’s not ok. You just don’t do it.
Comparing it to more serious crimes such as bringing a gun on a plane even if you have no bad intentions of doing so it perfectly allegorically comparable regardless of it’s difference in severity. If you bring a gun on a plane you create the assumption of guilt. Same as pulling out a camera and recording in a movie.
She broke a law that you’d have to be half brain dead to break, she got busted. What is the debate? There is none.
Now, we can discuss what the appropriate punishment should be. I think you and I are closer in opinion in that regard.
The moment they just turn a blind eye to this girl who got busted red handed, it opens a door for anyone else to just say “oh… I was only going to film 8 minutes”. Are you supposed to take their word for it? Only an idiot would do that. So a SIMPLE rule was put in place so no one has to judge intent “JUST DON’T DO IT AT ALL OR YOU’LL BE PROSECUTED. It’s that simple. She did it anyway. No tears.
Right “the John”, you won, not by answering any of my questions, or by handing out good arguments, but by simply stating “I was right”.
And, on one thing you were right, on a thing that I agree on, which is that she violated the law.
Just like you violated the law when you opened your eyes to watch “Sicko”.
And I violated the law when I walked across the street, even though the red light was still blinking.
We are all evil people.
Oh, And nice touch with the allisair name thingy. Funny. :)
I think this issue can be laid to rest in peace on this blog perhaps. Poor girl though.
Here are some quotes for you all from the above mentioned Washington Post article:
“Kendrick Macdowell, general counsel for the Washington-based National Association of Theatre Owners, said that illegal pirating of films costs the industry billions of dollars and that the industry was stepping up efforts to stamp it out.
Because of that, he said, there has to be a “zero-tolerance policy at the theater level.”
“We cannot educate theater managers to be judges and juries in what is acceptable,” he said. “Theater managers cannot distinguish between good and bad stealing.”
Shit, maybe they should hire more intelligent theater managers…
“The movie industry needs to recognize that their audience isn’t the enemy,” said Cindy Cohn, general counsel for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a San Francisco-based nonprofit group that specializes in digital rights issues. “They need to stop treating their fans like criminals. . . . What they’re doing is extremely unreasonable, coming down on this poor girl who was actually trying to promote their movie.”
Jason Schultz, senior staff lawyer at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, said he is aware of only one case prosecuted under the federal statute. In September 2005, a Missouri theater employee pleaded guilty to two counts of using a camcorder to copy two movies.
He said he has never heard of a case like Sejas’s.
“I’ve heard of people’s devices being confiscated, or them being kicked out of the theater,” Schultz said. “This is the first criminal arrest for someone filming for personal use that I know of.”
And here is the whole article: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/01/AR2007080102398_pf.html
Nice try allisair,
The moment she took it out and started using it she violated the law.
Nice try though. Once again the John triumphs.
Oh, by the way, checked “THE LAW” again.
You can bring a recording device into a theater, and if there is no footage of the film in there, you are not guilty of anything. Go figure, huh?
So, if she is given something – and if one year in jail plus a $2500 fine is the maximum penalty available for illegally recording a motion picture – well, then she should get 1/432 of that.
Which in my opinion should be nothing.
Okay.
So, “handnhalfsword” is basically claiming that if Regal did not prosecute this girlie, their right to prosecute others who for example filmed an entire movie, would be diminished.
I don`t know where you heard this, but that is not the case. In the future, had they chosen not to prosecute this girl, they would still have the same rights as before this incident. Check that out for yourself, if you do not believe me.
They are doing this most likely to make a scary example out of her to the rest of the “people” (“we shall not tolerate this kind of behaviour in our fine cinemas…we must fight piracy… etc.”), while not understanding that “the professionals” – who actually might make them loose money – couldn`t care less of their “zero tolerance” policy. It does not in anyway help them, the movie business, nor anyone else.
And for you John. You finally seem to understand bits and pieces of what I am saying here. But then again not really.
She recorded 1/432 of the duration of the movie. That would be like driving about 80,185 in an area where the speed limit is 80.
You would not get a ticket for that.
But the real question in this issue is – and hopefully the court will give us an answer in the form of making an example out of this girl, by giving her no punishment what so ever – “how serious is the crime of pulling out a recording device in a theatre, in itself?” Then, when the court decides on the seriousness of that crime in itself, how do they start “measuring” the varying degrees of severity in this crime, which will then dictate the severity of the punishment?
And John, could you please stop comparing this to more serious crimes like breaking and entering, it is rather stupid. It is like comparing the time when your friend (sorry if I am confusing facts here again..) showed you that bootlegged copy of sicko, to him accepting money stolen from some elderly man`s home, and then giving you some.
And since you are so keen on judging people, why didn`t you turn him in? He had committed a crime, no? Who cares about his intentions concerning that copy, they are irrelevant. Or is his crime less serious, or is yours? Could you tell me why that would be the case? After all, she recorded a wortless 20 seconds clip of a movies duration. You have all committed a crime here. So, explain, why is her crime the most serious one?
And while you are doing that, tell me what is the point of prosecuting this girl, simply why do it?
I don’t know the exact legal principle involved here, but I do recall that failure of an individual or institution to protect their property rights creates a situation where the property rights are diminished.
If you and I have neighboring property, and I allow you to have regular access to my for some reason, it becomes legally harder to restrict that access later on.
I think the movie/theater business see themselves as obligated to protect their property rights to the fullest extent of the law, or risk having those rights diminished.
Should Ms. Sejas receive the same punishment as someone who records an entire movie?
No
Should she receive a harsh punishment?
Yes
Hey Vern,
You asked:
“If you get a chance please answer my question about what you think she was planning to do with this valuable footage she stole from the Regal chain”
I’ve answered that twice. But for repetition sake I’ll answer it again. The answer is… IT’S IRRELEVANT. The girl breaks into your house in the middle of the night. Walks around and only takes a spoon (worth nothing). What she took may be relevant to the charge of THEFT (which is all you seem to be focusing on), but what she took is totally irrelevant to the charge of BREAKING AND ENTERING.
“yeah officer, I broke into their house… but all I took was this little spoon” “Oh, well in that case have a nice night young lady”
And Alistair,
Your speeding example just proves my point. Crime and outcome. She’s guilty. Period (Speeding). However, should her punishment be equal to that of a person who filmed the WHOLE movie and put it up on the internet in it’s entirety? NO! You and I agree on that. Just as the guy who does 90mph shouldn’t get the same punishment as the person who does 120mph. But she should still be prosecuted.
Yes John,
she did bring out a recording device in a movie theater, and that is against the law.
And sorry about accusing you of downloading “Sicko”, I guess it was your buddy then.
But you still, and maybe forever on, seem to miss the point.
I`ll try to explain this by using the beautiful “speeding violation” example: So there is a guy, who gets caught driving above the speed limit in an area where the limit is 80 (a crime), and he was going 120 (the outcome of the crime).
And then there is another guy who gets caught driving above the speed limit in an area where the limit is 80 (a crime), and he was going 81(the outcome of the crime).
Now, just like in the speeding violation case, the crime and the outcome of that crime are in this case interrelated, not irrelevant.
So. Does the logic work now? Or shall I try again?
And yeah, boycott The Regal Chain Of Cinematic Pleasure – or whatever they are called.
John –
If you get a chance please answer my question about what you think she was planning to do with this valuable footage she stole from the Regal chain, leaving them helpless and naked. If you’re going to make us bang our heads against a wall in frustration with your bizarrely simplistic misunderstanding of the complexities of everyday life you should have the courtesy to entertain us with this tale.
In fact, don’t even tell us what you think she was going to do with it, tell us what is THE VERY WORST THING she could do with it. All I can figure is that she could put it on Youtube, where no one would watch it because many official, high resolution clips are already available and also everybody who wanted to see the movie already watched it a month ago and forgot about it.
And seriously, you compared taking 20 seconds of footage of a movie to taking a gun on a plane – TWICE? As if you thought that was really a good comparison?
Hey Alistair
you keep trying to change the issue. The issue is NOT how much of the movie did she illegally record. The issue is “did she break the law, that wasn’t by accident, but rather fully intentionally” of taking out a recording device and recording the movie. Yes or no? That’s the law.
And no… I did not download sicko. Get your facts straight.
“Oh, it’s ok that she broke into your house (a crime), because all she took was one plate (the outcome)”
You keep trying to equate the crime with the outcome, as if the outcome determines the crime.
That girl broke into your house? Doesn’t matter if she took your TV or one plate… it’s irrelevant… she’s guilty of breaking and entering. PERIOD. No questions asked. How much did she steal? That’s a different charge.
This girl took out a camera and recorded in the theater. BANG. That’s the law right there. How much did she steal? That’s irrelevant to the first law. It may become applicable to another charge… but not to the first one.
You keep trying to excuse one issue based on another and the logic just doesn’t work.
Okay John. Let`s give it another try.
Well, we shall never know if she would have pulled out the camera again in five minutes time.
Just like we cannot know, let`s say, if someone who stole one chewing gum from a store, and then got caught, would have in five minutes stolen every single item from that same store.
Let`s use another example: you downloading “Sicko”. That is illegal, right?
Well, let`s say you had gotten caught with that copy of “Sicko” on your computer.
How could we know that if you had been given just one more day with that copy of “Sicko”, you would have been selling burned copies of it in the street?
No-one.
Yet that would not matter in that case. The only thing you had actually done was download a copy of “Sicko”.
(So maybe the cops should have waited until the end of the movie to check out if she would pull the camera out again.. But they most likely thought she had been filming since the beginning of the film.)
So the only thing she did actually “steal” is 20 seconds of the movie.
There is no he said/she said here, it is a fact, right?
And what about intent?
Well, the intent doesn`t even matter because that 20 seconds in itself is utterly worthless – even if she had originally wanted to stuff the internet with those 20 seconds – and makes no-one loose their hard earned money.
It is more worthless than a stolen pack of gum. Simply because it is “immaterial”. Where as filming an entire film is worth a lot more than a pack of gum even though it is also “immaterial”. Strange, huh?
And yeah, your allegories are “bang on” on the most simple level, which is that “breaking the law is breaking the law”, but what you don`t seem to understand is that the law is a rather complex thing. It varies from the most minor of offences to the most grave. If you bring a gun on a plane you can kill everyone on that plane, if you film 20 seconds of a film you can`t do shit with it.
The law says that you can`t take out a camera and record in a movie theater. Just like the law says you can`t steal.
But both laws have a lot more to them than just “you can`t do this or that”. So, yes, what she did “steal” is unfortunately a big part of the issue.
Just like there is a vast difference between, let`s say, stealing a pack of gum and stealing a car, there is a vast difference between stealing 20 seconds of a movie and stealing the whole bloody movie.
And the speeding example? Well, there is also a difference between driving 150 and driving 81 in an area where the limit is 80.
Sorry Alistair, your logic doesn’t hold up.
Stealing is stealing. Who is to say she wasn’t going to take the camera out again in 5 minutes? What she stole was not immaterial as you try to make it out to be… because what she stole isn’t the issue no matter how much you try to make so.
The law is… you can’t take out a camera and record in a movie theater. There. How simple can it be. If you want to start judging intent, then you’re screwed. “Nope officer, I wasn’t going to put this on the internet. Nope officer, i wasn’t going to record any more than what I already have.”. Who do you believe? You can’t make it a “He said / she said” so you just take the intent out, and make the law “No recording in the theater”. How hard is that?
But officer… I was only driving 150 for 20 seconds.
The analogy of the house and TV is bang on. You said it breaks the law of breaking and entering. Well… this chick broke the law of pulling out her camera on the theater. one is clearly more severe than the other… but the principle is the same. As is the gun on the airplane.
Sorry John, but the incident we are discussing here is not allegorical to bringing a weapon on a plane.
An allegorical situation to bringing a gun on a plane would be someone filming the whole damn movie. Then after being caught, claiming she/he was not gonna do anything with the copy. In that case intentions don`t mean shit.
But she filmed 20 seconds, at the end. In this case intentions don`t really even matter. Yes, she was “stealing”, but something that is immaterial, and in this case has no worth what so ever, and makes no-one loose any money.
And that “tv stealing” example.
Am, I think you don`t fully understand how to use the term logic. You are mixing breaking and entering, stealing something with real value – when it does not matter what someone does with it – with an above mentioned immaterial “stealing”.
And the comment from “handnhalfsword”. Yeah, well, it was a pointless comment because, yet again, it is not at all allegorical with the topic we have here.
I’ll try this the next time I’m pulled over:
“Um officer… I’m sorry you clocked me doing 120 on Interstate 10, but I was just trying to show my little brother how cool my new Mustang is. I was trying to get him excited about cars.”
Hey Vern,
Check again, it is the law that you can’t bring or use a recording device in a theater. Civil action doesn’t send you to jail. Only criminal offenses do that.
The issue of if she was planning on selling the material is 100% irrelevant. By your logic, if someone breaks into your house and takes your TV… and then just leaves it on the street downtown without “selling” it, then she’s not guilty of anything.
The situation is allegorical to brining a weapon on a plane. You may have no intention of using your weapon on the plane… but they don’t want to have to judge your intentions. Therefore, the law is there to remove intent from the equation. Since you can’t “accidentally” bring a gun on a plane, removing intention is the right thing to do.
The movie and theater industry lose money to piracy. No one can argue that… so to take intent out of the equation, there is a law that says you can’t bring or use recording devices into a theater. You can’t “accidentally” record something… so the only way you get busted is if you INTENTIONALLY, PURPOSEFULLY AND WILLINGLY break the law, bring out your recording device and film anyway.
Let’s say I try to record Bourne Ultimatum and get busted. By your logic all I have to say is “Oh, I wasn’t planning on selling it” and therefore I’m innocent. That makes zero sense.
The law is the law, and it’s there for a reason. Don’t like the law? fair enough… then do something about it and get it changed. But for now, it is the law… this stupid kid purposefully broke it. She got busted. This is her fault 100% and she should get smacked for it. We agree jail would be too much… but smacked nonetheless.
First of all, the law is not “no recording in a theater.” That’s a rule made by a theater. If rules count as laws now then maybe we should fine you $2,500 next time you sneak a Subway sandwich into a theater.
The law that is relevant is copyright law, which is the business of the Dreamworks, GM, Mountain Dew and whoever else owns this horrible piece of garbage that she was “stealing”. (Stealing I guess in the same sense that taking someone’s photo is stealing their soul.)
If her story is “BULLSHIT” then I would absolutely LOVE to hear what your idea of the truth is. What was she going to do with this 20 seconds? I want details. Be creative.
And finally, I would like to know if you have any morals or ethics of your own, or do you just default to laws? I was up for jury duty one time and in the pre-questioning one of the lawyers asked if we would enforce a law that we didn’t believe in. His example was if it was illegal to wear yellow, and you didn’t think it should be illegal, would you still help convict someone of wearing yellow? Of course you’re supposed to say yes, and everyone did except me, because if that’s the case why don’t we lock up the Jews too. “Well, I disagree with it, but IT’S THE LAW!”
So my question is, do you really feel comfortable with fining someone $2,500 just for being stupid for 20 seconds? I guess you will dodge the question by pretending to honestly believe that making a short clip for personal use is the same as transferring the movie to DVD, printing up copies and selling them on the corner. But in your heart you know that this person has no connection to actual piracy or bootlegging. I agree that she did something stupid (two things: 1. liking TRANSFORMERS enough to make a clip of it 2. making a clip of it) but I personally find this post MUCH more stupid and I don’t think YOU should be fined.
anyway thanks.
Hey Vern,
Sorry man, she was stealing. Plain and simple. How complicated is this law:
“No recording of any kind in the theater”
She knew that was a rule. She entered the theater knowing that was a rule. She chose to say “fuck you” to the law, took out her camera and started recording. No tears for her from me. Jail would be far to excessive… agreed… but she’s got no one to blame here.
And I’m sorry… but she was just recording it to show her little brother? BULLSHIT. I don’t take her word for it. There is no need for it to be a judgment call… JUST DON’T DO IT. That’s why the law is there, so people don’t have to make a judgment call. She broke it, she’s guilty. That’s the end of the story.
Alfie – but nobody here has said “it’s okay to steal movies.” What we have said about fifteen times is that a girl recording 20 seconds of blurry robot shit is not stealing a movie. And if we have to answer every off topic question you ask then you have to answer my question about executing retarded children. Yes or no, and does it give you a boner or not. thanks.
Anyone caught in a movie theater recording part of a movie should be fined no less than $1,000 per second. Half of that should go to the usher who detected the infraction.
Anone who has their cell phone turned on in a movie theater should be fined $10,000, and again half of that should go to the usher.
Was it the police that caught her, or did her camera tranform into an Autobot that arrested her?
Was it her intent to record and copy to make a profit? That is the only thing they are worried about…. Making money… could she? no! What would they police benefit in prosecuting this girl? Nothing… All the court cost, lawyers, judge, people that file the paper work and the police etc… will get paid… from the tax payer…. it should be throwen out of court and the cops demoted for wasting time…… then she should sue them for wasting her time…
I would laugh if the cops tried to charge me….
godfather I meant cds and albums….but radio is another lame excuse I have heard people use to justify downloading and file sharing but its horseshit…I don’t want albums with talking over every song or every second song. there is a huge difference and you know it…plus you don;t get to many radio stations which play every song of an album. if you want a shitty radio recorded version of a single fine. I want the album in its best possible sounding form.
look this idiot was caught red handed…..they have to charge her.
should she go to jail – of course not
should they let her off scott free – no.
you have to start somewhere and she willingly and knowingly broke the law.
and again please will someone give me an answer as to why it is fine to steal music and movies without going back to the old “they are all rich so fuck them” attitude which seems to be the only reason people think it is fine.
we had a fucking cock knocker on here a while back saying he was going to get a bootleg of 300 or some shit because he didn’t want to pay for the dvd as the cost to manufacture a dvd are small therefore the studio over charge the studios rip people off blah blah blah so he was just going to effectively steal it. fine ….but why stop there….fill your car with gas and drive off…and when the cops pull you over tell them that the oil companies jack up their prices and rip people off so you are no longer going to pay for it. Next time you are out for dinner tell the waiter you want a break down of the total costs of all the ingredients of your meal and you will pay them the equal amount.
what a fucking lame excuse that is “oh but they charge too much for the product” – thats life..it aint fair and if you can’t afford it you can’t have it. there are cars i would love to own but I can’t afford it. doesn’t mean i am going to go and steal the fucking thing
sad to think there is an entire generation coming through who think it is prefectly fine to steal peoples hard work purely because the makers happen to work in a very lucrative field.
i want all you guys who download to go into a shop tomorrow and stack your selves up with dvds and cds and just walk out of the shop. when they try to stop you just tell them that the studios are rich enough and as for the cds well you could have just gotten it off the radio anyway and just walk away. i am sure they will understand.
and for all you people who say you shouldn’t arrest little jimmy in hid bedroom downloading songs etc yes you should. john you said something about you don’t arrest the guy picking up the stolen money on the street. you do if they know it was stolen. possession of stolen goods is a crime.
here is why i am so against it…..
you guys think that it doesn’t effect anyone or anything but you are totally wrong…
the more rampant it becomes the more the studios are going to play it safe…smaller films need every dollar they can get. its already hard enough to find true gems like breach among the gharbage (norbit, wild hogs, silver surfer etc etc etc)
John – OF COURSE I am saying that. She paid money to see the movie, and she was going to try to get her brother to see it. Now she is banned for life from the theater, and cannot buy tickets there anymore. They are actually losing money on this nonsense.
Are you telling me that you honestly believe that she was going to/could possibly have sold her 20 second handheld clip to people and they would watch that instead of going to see the movie? See, laws are not meant to just be a big net that catches anybody it can and then you eat them for dinner. Laws are made to allegedly protect people and in a case like this where only a lunatic could argue that any harm was intended or created, it is ridiculous to then prosecute the innocent person based on a technicality.
And copyright law in itself is a weird thing because it originally was meant to protect artists and their work. In fact it used to expire. Now the work of a dead man (or living one) is usually owned by a corporation that had nothing to do with its creation. It is no longer art, it is property. That’s a fact of life but I can’t help but be suspicious of any common citizen that goes Charles Bronson on people over these laws. It’s kind of sick. But in this case not even the corporation is being harmed.
I agree with the guy above me: what the fuck?
p.s. Re-reading your original post and your comments here it occurs to me that you are most likely being sarcastic, because that would be pretty god damn crazy to believe that. so I apologize if I was getting upset and you were just pulling everybody’s leg here. Good one.
All i have to say is…WTF to most these comments. That’s all i’ll say, it’s a lost battle.
Okay, yeah, the law is the law, (even though looking at the world, or the U.S, “the law” is a rather fluid concept) but WTF?
It is sort of insane that she could face jail – even more insane is that some of you agree on that, or giving her a huge fine – for filming a movie for 20 seconds at the end.
It has no use what so ever in “the great market for bootleg films”, it does not hurt anyones business – how could it?
And what about “sending a message to all”?
What bloody message?
The people who are actually doing this kinda thing for real with high tech shit are somewhat different from this girlie.
Does anyone really think that they are unaware of the consequences of what they are doing?
Putting them in jail sends a message.
Sure, fine, give her a small fine – or make her sell popcorn at the theatre for one week – with no dent on her criminal record and that`s it.
And yeah, boycott the theatre.
@ Naylad and the Handnhalfsword who said $50,000 was a good fine:
Naylad, would you agree speeding is more dangerous than filming a short clip in a theater? Yes or no? If so, then I demand that you stick by your guns and go to jail for at LEAST a year and a half to two years and pay a 10,000 dollar fine for endangering my LIFE. Put your money where your mouth is. If not, and you think putting someone away for filming is more important than putting someone away for speeding, you have problems OR you’re just mouthing off behind the safety of the internet and wasting your and our time by posting here.
Handnhalf: 50,000 dollars? OH, OK, how is she ever going to possibly pay 50,000 dollars? Seriously? She’s 19. You’re going to ruin her financially for life for filming a fucking MOVIE for 20 seconds???? When you get pulled over for a speeding ticket, I demand the courts charge you with twice that amount for putting other drivers at risk.
She broke the law and if it’s anything like here, broke it after a huge cinema screen size warning.
As John said, prosecuting downloaders doesn’t stop piracy, just like prosecuting dope-heads doesn’t stop drugs.
You want to stop drug dealing, stop the people making drugs not the people getting high.
You want to stop piracy, stop the people making illegal videos in cinema, not the people downloading.
You can’t download it if it’s not available to download, can you?
The punishment should be proportional to the crime, sure, but letting her off is basically declaring open season on recording in cinemas.
I think people are over reacting, that law was put in place to stop piracy. I personally think that piracy only takes place if someone is attentionally recording a movie to distribute it. If her excuse is true and she was doing it so her brother would be hyped up for the film then that 20 sec clip on her cell phone would only guarantee the theater another ticket purchase. The police need to be busting people the right people to get the message across not busting people who are just stupid. She probably didn’t even think taping that 20 secs was even going to be a big deal and I don’t think it is either. Finally that guy who said “someone who smokes an illegal substance that endangeres the lives of so many people each day gets off with a small fine?” obviously knows nothing about drugs and shouldn’t be commenting about weed unless he actually knows what he is talking about.
In Conclusion if I was the cop who busted that girl I would of been more upset that the theater was wasting tax payers money on a bloody cell phone recording. Honestly, in the time those cops waisted their time at that theater people were probably murdered, theifs escaping, or even a car accident had to wait even longer for a cruiser to show up because the closes cops were too busy busting a teenager with a cellphone.
Hey Vern,
You asked:
“could someone please explain how this young lady’s actions caused harm to the Regal Cinema”
Are you seriously asking how people who sneak in recording devices and use them in a theater hurts a theater? really? You simply can’t see why this would be a law? Really?
Okay then, before we lock her up (and John for downloading SICKO, and Dave Poland for his bootleg of HOSTEL 2, and every one of you for stealing grapes from grocery stores, taking the tags off of matresses, pasting copyrighted photos onto your web pages and dubbing your Billy Joel record onto a cassette tape so you could listen to it in the car in the ’80s – ADMIT IT CRIMINAL, YOU BROKE THE LAW) could someone please explain how this young lady’s actions caused harm to the Regal Cinema chain, and how punishing her will benefit society? As a followup, what is your stance on executing retards.
Sorry Alex, but talk to your uncle again. With the evidence against her (being caught in the act by county police, and they have the camera with the recorded footage and her prints all over the device), any decent defense attorney will plea this one out, down to a misdemeanor with a hefty fine and no jail time. It’s in-and-out of the courts without a lengthy trial (not that a trial of this kind could possibly last very long anyway), she avoids jail time, and the theater sends the appropriate message, that piracy will not be tolerated. Everybody wins, even the defendant, who did after all commit a crime.
Seems a majority here are for the fining of the young lady, but two more things I want to add:
1) As has been said, stealing is stealing, no matter how it’s done. She got caught recording a movie where it’s explicitly stated that no person is to record any part of a movie. She’s guilty of it and that’s that;
2) No one says she’s going to jail, but that is a possibility;
3) To anyone that thinks “who cares, it’s only 20 seconds”. Try owning a business and having property rights to something, then have someone take it from you without paying for it. I bet you’d be pretty pissed at the fact you’re losing money;
4) Alfie – who says “music is meant to be paid for” and how do you figure? If it was, radio would be dead!
“Most lawyers will argue that a 20 second clip for personal use is covered under fair use” (Peter – first commenter)
Its a good thing she isnt being charged for the USE of the clip then. She is being charged for the method in which she chose to OBTAIN the clip.
If someone films the movie, for ANY reason, its still illegal. She should be charged for it.
Alfie – I don’t ever download movies, I don’t even know how to do it. But I’m pretty sure there is not a rampant problem of people downloading 20 second handheld digital camera clips of a part near the end of TRANSFORMERS. If there is then my opinion of kids today just got even lower because you can’t even tell what the hell is going on in that movie when you watch it on the big screen, I can only imagine what her clip looks like. The actual problem with bootlegs, from my understanding, is the high quality ones which by definition come from insiders at the studios and not from people with handheld cameras in theaters. Stopping those will require policing within the studios and not this kind of ludicrous harassment of stupid young moviegoers. There is no logic to it at all, it accomplishes nothing, and the people pressing the charges are the movie theater, not the owners of the movie product/car advertisement.
As far as I can see the argument here is that she was actually planning on selling her clip. I would like to hear someone in detail explain how that is not a completely ridiculous phony argument based on assumptions that make no sense in any way. Maybe I’m missing something here. Thanks.
On her excuse: I don’t buy it either. Call me old fashioned, but once upon a time, when you saw a film, how do you tell a friend or family member to check out said film?
Uh…you tell them?
When the movie is over, call your bro on your cell and say “Get your butt down here! You got to see this film…and I wouldn’t mind seeing it a second time…it’s awesome!”
It should be noted that the cops were *right there*. Does this mean Regal has had incidents (or suspected incidents) in that theatre before? Or…was she just simply caught after being spotted and made up a story?
I think she got caught and made up a story.
Many people obviously think that the chick should be cut loose. Only a few minutes…right? What’s the harm? Well, consider : give an inch…
She broke the law. When you drive and go go over the speed limit, and the cop pulls you over, you can bullshit if you want, but most of time, the cop will give you a ticket. I don’t the fines in some states, but I’ll just say, oh, 100 dollars. Get enough and your license is suspended. Don’t pay them and the police knocks at the door and takes you in the county lockup.
You all don’t want this half wit to go to jail? So be it. Fine her.
In fact, I propose that whoever is caught with a cellphone (which BTW, has no business being on anyhow) doing this should be given a “ticket” of 100 dollars, and be escorted out of the theatre. They also should have a picture taken and if any employee or cop sees them on sight, ask them to leave. Yes, they will have go go an extra distance to see the film, but they are banned from that establishment.
Oh, by the way…Happy Birthday.
I would accept no jail time if she was fined at least $50,000.
Yes, she should be punnished, although I year in jail is a little tough. I would say give her 6 months in jail, a $5,000 fine and 6 months community service.
In the end, the law is there and if it is broken, it must be enforced or else you send the message that the laws are meaningless.
Fine her – let it be known that filming in a theater won’t be tolerated. But Jail, c’mon? Did she really have any chance of profiting or costing the theater/movie company from reaping revenue?
Like I said before, I don’t want the hot piece of ass of the streets. Innocent I say.
she didn’t break the law on a technicality.
she just broke the law outright.
it is illegal to film inside cinemas.
she did.
she got caught.
too bad.
o.k. vern so lets say they let her go totally unpunished.
I see tons of people saying its wrong to charge little timmy downloading music or movies in his bedroom…o.k. so we don’t chase the people using and we don;t prosecute the people who are caught red handed RECORDING MOVIES IN MOVIE THEATRES.
so who do you charge…or do you just give up and let rampant piracy fuck movies in the ass the way the music industry has been…and anyone who thinks the music industry hasn’t been affected doesn’t work in it and doesn’t know what they are talking about….go and do some research and look at the facts and figures. the music industry has been completely sodomized due to downloading. there is a generation of people coming through who won’t even know that music is meant to be paid for.
again i go back to my old standard line…if someone can give me a bteer explaination to why downloading and bootlegging is o.k. other than the fact that “rock stars/actors/studios/labels etc etc are rich already so fuck them” because that seems to be the only justification given and if thats the case i dare all of you fucking downloading mother fuckers to walk into a record store tomorrow and just walk out with a bunch of cds and dvds without paying for the. whats the difference??
oh and if you are going to start talking about the prices of dvds and cds being more than they need to be and labels over charging blah blah blah well if thats the case are you going to start trying to fuck over the oil companies too because if you think the labels and studios are over charging the oil companies are complete fucking criminals with the price gouging and price fixing they get up to.
sorry for the rant but downloading fucks me off…..its theft. end of story.
Wait a minute, you people seriously think she should be punished? In what way would that help society? Some girl making a poor quality recording of a 20 second clip of a horrible movie in order to impress her younger brother harms no one EXCEPT POSSIBLY the brother if he pays to see the movie. If the brother wants to press charges I don’t think he has a case but obviously we can all feel for him. The theater chain pressing charges is insane and a huge embarrassment for normal human beings who just want to go through life peacefully and not persecute some 19 year old because her bad taste in movies caused her to harmlessly break the law on a technicality. Everyone who is involved in this ludicrous abuse of power should be ashamed of themselves and should be sentenced to move somewhere where there is actual crime so they can find out why we have police and laws.
no she shouldnt go to jail she pay a fine because she is not like selling it and making maoney off it and look at paris or Lindsay they actually could have killed someone where this girld couldnt have killed anyone so no jail time for her. she did brake the law what about these people like who actully make money off it and people like lindsay who walk.
and john how come you haven’t mentioned the fact you guys have been nominated for podcast of the year and that voting has opened now…..
http://www.podcastawards.com
i think that is it anyway…votings open now
Here reason of showing a snippet of it to get her younger brother excited is bullshit! I think she’s full of shit!
If her brother couldn’t get excited about watching the film from the trailers, then he WON’T get excited with a bad bootleg version of a small scene from the film.
A year or 2 in jail? That would be excessive for this situation. BUT, a fine and a conviction is enough.
Regal did the right thing here.
Now I feel like watching Transformers again…
charges but no jailtime. nobody was fucking endangered.
I knew someone had to bring up hilton..
and its true john.
but if she DID in fact only film the climax then i dont think she should go to jail… because that would make her reason true(that she wanted her w/e to be hyped about the movie)
To John
Sorry John “Stealing is stealing.” and when you watched sicko without going to the theater you stole, you broke the law, the law doesn’t care if you went to see the movie on openning day. Did you buy two tickets by chance? because you got to watch it at home and at the theater so you should have to pay twice. and even if you don’t think she should go to jail you still think she should get a stiff fine? you think this girl should pay what? 1000$+ for recording a few seconds of video.
I do believe laws like this are there for a reason but not for people like her and you. at most they should have kicked her out of the theater and banned her, but giving her a criminal record is excessive . do you think you should get up to a 2000$ fine for watching a dvd some one gave you? of course you shouldn’t and neither should she.
I think by law she must endure watching “Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants”. I mean, that is equivalent to LIFE in prison isn’t it?
I am glad you just raised that point john….the only defence I have ever heard of why bootlegging and downloading is o.k is because the singers, the bands, the directors etc etc are already rich.
Such a fucking lame excuse.
Its theft plain and simple….If it is so o.k. to do why are these same downloading fuckwits walking into best buy and just taking dvds of the shelves and cds and walking out without paying???
because its fucking theft and this idiot in this story knew the rules and broke them anyway…..
I know it might seem unfair in a world where guys like mel gibson walk free from doing much much worse but fuck her. shes an idiot.
John
We must separate your comparisons: 1) The situation listed above is done by a knowing person in sane mind. These actions are fully justified against her, and I do agree that she should be charge, albeit not to the extreme. A fine is justified, but it’s highly doubtful she’ll get jail time for a short clip that didn’t appear anywhere other than her phone. If it ended up on the net, you bet your ass she’d be serving time.
2) The drunken sluts (Lohan and Hilton, among others) that drive under the influence is not as clear a case. These people do things under the influence of alcohol (and probably more) and are not in sound mind. That’s one reason they get off, and I’m sure there’s more secret dealings behind closed doors (“you come to my kids party and I’ll be lenient on you”) than we know. I’m not saying that these people SHOULDN’T be punished, but there’s a major difference in the mindset of these two scenarios. Let’s not get into the argument about these celebrities that have body guards and can have a DD without a problem. That’s a whole other mess of B/S.
She should be publicly Bitch-slapped, then posted on You Tube, for recording a Lame Ass Movie.
Her excuse makes no sense, either. She was taping a clip to get her little bro excited? Just show him a clip on Youtube, dumbass!
Hey Bradley,
Apparently you can’t read. I specifically said she shouldn’t go to jail, that jail was excessive.
HOWEVER…
Stealing is stealing. I don’t fault people for picking up money sitting on the street… but I do fault the person who stole it and dumped it there.
Piracy is wrong, it is stealing. Period. Just because the people you’re stealing from are rich, doesn’t make it any less stealing.
As for Sicko, as I said, the day it came out I went to the theater and bought and paid for my ticket (well… maybe it was the second day it was out… either way).
@Ben
Weed endangeres your life. Only because your sense of judgment is always in flux, so you could do stupid things that put your life and others in danger. You get off easy with this, but a girl who is bootlegging a movie gets sent to jail for a year and pays a fine of 2500$.
They are basically saying that a movie buisness’s income is more important than the safety of a person.
If you do not understand this then I would question your sense of morality.
my big problem is Regal Cinema’s
Ummm yeah and she shouldn’t be aloud to remember the film either, piracy is such a bullshit term. nobody is being harmed by her recording the film and if anything the movie theater will gain business.
I suppose youthink everyone that posts vidoes of t.v shows on Youtube should go to jail? everybody who links to a youtube video containing copywrite material should go to jail as well, Recording a clip of a movie in a theater should be at worst as much as a not wearing your seatbelt fine.
How can you support laws that were paid for by the movie business?
Hey John you know what if you think this girl should go to jail you should go to jail to for watching Sicko at home. So John either you go turn yourself in to the police or you support this person who is getting the shaft simply because of a bunch of bullshit laws that paid there way into existance.
IMHO, I Think she should be fined, the digital camera file confiscated and deleted , but I believe she should not go to jail for a couple of minutes of recording the movie. However, if she recorded the whole movie, she should feel the full strenght of the law.
I can understand that she must feel pissed off about it (who wouldn’t). I always search youtube a few days after a new blockbuster has come out, just out of curiousity, to see how many crappy-cam clips there are of said film. Loads of people do it, just for a lark, all the time, and yet she’s the one that gets caught.
The studios position is (conveniently) clear; no matter how long the clip, piracy is piracy.
While i think she should be punished she doesn’t deserve $2500 and a year in jail. I say give her a $5 fine for every second recorded. That’s $100
I appreciate the position of the theater, but a 20 second clip on a camera phone! That is not something that can be considered piracy. Too short and crap quality. If she was sitting there for 15 minutes with a high quality recorder, then I’d see the need for getting the law involved, but a 20 second clip?! Just delete it and get out of the theater.
Well if i’d said what i’m about to, and been the first commentor, i might have sounded original, but as it happens, i agree that she should pay a fine (just a few hundred bucks mind) and that be the end of it.
I think that the theatres should be doing something, sadly, there is no excuse for what the lady did, and most importantly, as some of the comments above have proven, threaten her with jail time will just piss people off, and maybe encourage more piracy.
ummm what the fuck does lindsey lohan and paris hilton have to do with this???? i notice you didn’t put mel gibsons name there considering hilton actually did some time while he walked completely free…silly comparison john….
anyway…
fucking throw the book this idiot….
what a ridiculous idea your friend has to boycott regal cos of this…
if you can’t charge people you catch at the source actually in the act of bootlegging then why bother making it illegal at all.i mean people john you have said in the past that it is bullshit to charge the kids at home who are downloading..now your mate is saying you can’t charge the people recording films in the thatres.then who the fuck can they charge and arrest???
…her excuse is total horseshit..she was only filming a little bit to show her brother….I mean who needs a trailer when you can tsake a fucking camera into a theatre and make your own!!
she knew it was wrong…she did it anyway so fuck her.
Make her pay the fine. Don’t send her to jail.
Love how there’s always some lame-ass excuse as to why they did it. “I was doing it for you, Paramount… AND the children!!” Meh.
I think she should by all means be prosecuted. She broke the law and she knew it. However, intent and prior misdeeds should weigh heavily during sentencing. She was filming a few seconds for personal use and has no priors (that we know of – we dont think she is a pirate kingpin in disguise).
A comment on Ethan:
Ethan you said that weed = endangeres the lives of so many people! Well I think you smoke the wrong weed dude!
She must be punished, by a money penalty and banned out of the theaters for a couple of years. She’s 19 and (srry) stupid.
If she won’t get puished she’ll probably do it again,and many will follow!
Law = Law!
Cheerz
If she was recording part of the movie with a video camera, she should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
If she was recording part of the movie with a cell phone, she should be executed for having her cellphone turned on in a movie theater.
She knew what she was doing. Burn bitch, BURN!
Just fine her the cash. Don’t send her to the clink.
this is complete and utter crap!
When someone gets punished more severly for bootlegging a movie, than someone smoking weed is the day a REALLY bad message is sent out. Someone who takes money away from an entertainment buisness gets merciless treatment but someone who smokes an illegal substance that endangeres the lives of so many people each day gets off with a small fine?
This is total crap. I am absolutley against this one!
Here is how I see it. This hot little number in fact broke the law. She should be fined $2,500 not sent to jail which is fucking stupid considering Paris and Lohan could have killed people but walk away.
She is hot…INNOCENT!
Personally I think she should be charged and prosecuted. You cannot record in a movie theatre. It is the law. It doesn’t matter if it is two seconds or two hours, theatre management is going to call the police if they witness a crime taking place. It was well within the rights of management at this theatre to place the call to the police. And it is well within the rights of the theatre to prosecute her and to show they are tough on piracy, even if it was only a short clip she recorded.
Furthermore if she is here on an educational visa and she knowingly broke the law she needs to be deported. If she is a US citizen, I can virtually assure you that she will receive probabtion on top of a fine and not serve any actual jail time.
Delete the file from the phone, slap her on the wrist, and let’s get on with life. I think we have bigger problems than this in the world.
Hmmm – Unless this was a ploy to garner more publicity for the movie hmm?
No fucking way should she go to jail!! Jail is for criminals that are a danger to sociaty and or themselves. Jail is for people as an EXTREEM punishment for hanis crimes and fellonies. Should she be prosecuted – hell yeah! The punishment should be a fine fitting the crime, for instance: cell phone video capture should be less than say a FUCKING CAMCORDER!!! If your using a camcorder your fucking retarded and should pay the MAXIMUM fine! This isn’t a jailtime offense – but punishable hell yeah.
She should be charged and forced to pay a fine. But JAIL TIME? A YEAR?!! That’s excessive if you ask me.
She broke the law and should be punished. Her excuse is just bad. If she wanted to hype the movie just tell how fucking great the damn movie is
Wow, that’s tough. I’m sure she didn’t think she’d be caught filming a few seconds of the film, but as you say she probably knew what she was doing was considered illegal.
As you, it constantly disgusts me that people, not just celebs, get away with repeated offences of drunk driving with little or no repercussions, but this girl gets national attention. What she did is equivalent to stealing gum from the 7-11, not holding up the store. Yes, prosecute her, but let the punishment fit the crime. It shouldn’t be ‘cut and dry’ and she gets the same punishment as the guy you taped the entire movie with his HD digital camera.
Well this just isn’t going anywhere. I live in a family with a few lawyers my uncle being a major criminal defense attorny. Any criminal defense lawyer with even the smallest amount of experience will get this case thrown out within the first couple of trials. it’s just all around a weak case for the prosectuction and sends no real message to the general public if thrown out. it’s all up to the movie company to see how much money they are willing to throw at this thing which is not worth it on their part. the state for sure wont fund the prosectution, like john said their’s just to many more important case’s to deal with like dui’s.
Jeeez, I had a ton of typos in my last comment :)
Yea i say she should be charged and pay a heafty amount for piracy but its a small crime so i dont think she should go to jail. Thats a waste of tax payers money. I know if i tried to record a movie and I got caught now I have a police record, pay a 2,500$ fine. I would seriously think twice about doing it again.
John, yes, the guirl knowningly broke the law. But you must agree the law is their to prevent movie piracy. Most lawyers will argue that a 20 second clip for personal use is covered under fair use. There is no markatable use for the clip. And the movie theater management could have watched her for more than 20 seonds before calling the police. If I was the management I would have asked her to delete the footage from her camera and asked her to leave. That seems fair.
The article also says that she is an immigrant. So I’m unsure if she’s a US citizen or in the country on a educational visa. But if she is in the country on a visa, wouldn’t this charge cause her to be deported?
A black mark on her permenent reccord and jail time seems way too harsh. I think even you John would agree with that.