A Year In Prison For a 20-Second Film Clip?

PizzaFace writes "It's Jhannet's 19th birthday, so her boyfriend borrows a camcorder to memorialize the occasion, and they head to the mall. They goof around, recording each other in the food court, then decide to catch the Transformers matinee, which started a few minutes earlier. During a big action scene, Jhannet takes the camcorder and records a 20-second clip to show her little brother. A few minutes later, cops who were called by the manager come in with flashlights, arrest Jhannet, confiscate the camcorder, and, at the behest of Regal Cinemas, charge her with film piracy. 'I was terrified,' said Jhannet. 'I was crying. I've never been in trouble before.' If convicted, she could be sentenced to a year in prison and a $2,500 fine. The police say they lack discretion because Regal Cinemas chose to prosecute: 'They were the victim in this case, and they felt strongly enough about it.' The National Association of Theater Owners supports Regal's 'zero-tolerance' prosecution standard: 'We cannot educate theater managers to be judges and juries in what is acceptable. Theater managers cannot distinguish between good and bad stealing.'"

Yeah right.

[Teddy Beartuzzi]

It was probably the first 20 seconds, then they got caught. :)

Stealing what?

[Heftklammerdosierer!]

Photons?

Re:Regal Cinema

[spun]

And just for good measure, sing a few bars of Alice's Restaurant, so they know it's a movement!

This must be stopped.

[Anonymous Coward]

If people are allowed 20 second recordings, then imagine the wide-scale distributed piracy that be accomplished. Let's assume everyone records 20 seconds, with 2.5 seconds overflow on their 15 second section to allow splicing together. That's 4 people a minute. If the movie is two hours, you'd only need 240 people to capture an hour.

Re:The time length is irrelevent.

[Anonymous Coward]

I been caught doing something briefly too. It sucks, but thats life.

That should teach you to lock the door the next time you take a Playboy into the bathroom.

Re:I'm sorry for the couple, but...

[moderatorrater]

You're right, she could have copied the whole movie and uploaded it to the internet, but she didn't, so she shouldn't get prosecuted.

Re:The length is VERY important

[Tmack]

The length of the slip is one of the key points in deciding whether it's fair use or not.

Must...resist... crude..joke...about.. her...slip.....and .. fair..use....

Tm

Re:Devil's advocate

[Culture20]

Why wait for netflix? Buy a 20 second clip from this lady.

Re:I hate people with "original" names

[Anonymous Coward]

No doubt your ridiculous hatred of people for something their parents did (you do know where names come from, right?) makes you incredibly popular with the girls at all the parties.

Re:Devil's advocate

[Imazalil]

But I thought America WAS the prison for all the stupid people. =)

crap, left my flame-proof pants at home.

Movie pirating cost the industry $18.2 billion

[dunstan]

From TFA "Movie pirating cost the industry $18.2 billion worldwide in 2005, the last year for which figures were available, according to the Motion Picture Association of America."

Can any of us make up figures like this and get them reported in the Washington Post?

Well of course she should pay...

[3seas]

... and so should Regal Cinema.

So put her in jail and make a big story out of it, 60 minutes, 20/20, etc....

I'm sure Regal will lose more than the amount of her fine and her lost wages...

If she is so innocent than how did she miss the posted signs all of the place telling her not to record?

Unless there were no signs.

Re:Devil's advocate

[mini me]

IF they were trying to STEAL the movie, they would've started at the beginning

Stealing the movie would require removing the reel from the projector, so theoretically you can do it at any point in the film.

Re:Why not tell them you put it in your car?

[Oktober Sunset]

You sound like a stupid, stuck up prick, the exact kind of moralising wanker who most people hate. I would certainly laugh if I was informed of your death.

How's that for honesty? If everyone was 100% honest all the time, you would probably hear it a lot.

Re:Why not tell them you put it in your car?

[Oktober Sunset]

Flamebait??? But I was just being honest, he said it would make the world a better place!

Re:Why not tell them you put it in your car?

[AngryUndead]

+1 Godwin's Law [wikipedia.org].

Re:Why not tell them you put it in your car?

[YourMotherCalled]

[citation needed]

Re:Why not tell them you put it in your car?

[Stewie241]

oh come on... denying somebody entrance to a private establishment is EXACTLY equivalent to ushering somebody to their death!

That's what you get

[Anonymous Coward]

I stopped reading in the part which says something about some girl and her boyfriend. Whatever happened suits them for having a social life. Maybe if each one of them were at their place coding or learning how to code...

Re:Why not tell them you put it in your car?

[SIIHP]

Well one of us made a veiled attempt to equate taking cellphones with war crimes (that would be you) and one of us called that comparison into question (that would be me).

If you're genuinely thick enough to think the comparison is valid, then you're not worth talking to.

"Right after you go fuck yourself."

Done! Your turn, I have full faith you'll follow through with our agreement.

Re:Why not tell them you put it in your car?

[Anonymous Coward]

That's been scientifically proven untrue. The world needs a certain amount of harmless lying to grease the social wheels. It makes our society function better.

Oh, that's such a lie!

Re:Stupid...

[Antony-Kyre]

Then let us hope the judicial system does the right thing.

Re:Why not tell them you put it in your car?

[pAnkRat]

yeah,

but I get the impression that these articles are lying.