Woman Charged With Felony After Taping 4 Minutes Of "New Moon"

[Are_grits_groceries]

Taping three minutes of “Twilight: New Moon” during a visit to a Rosemont movie theater landed Samantha Tumpach in a jail cell for two nights.

Now, the 22-year-old Chicago woman faces up to three years in prison after being charged with a rarely invoked felony designed to prevent movie patrons from recording hot new movies and selling bootleg copies.

But Tumpach insisted Wednesday that’s not what she was doing — she was actually taping parts of her sister’s surprise birthday party celebrated at the Muvico Theater in Rosemont.

While she acknowledged there are short bits of the movie on her digital camera, there are other images that have nothing to do with the new film — including she and a few other family members singing “Happy Birthday” to her 29-year-old sister at the theater.

“It was a big thing over nothing,” Tumpach said of her Saturday afternoon arrest. “We were just messing around. Everyone is so surprised it got this far.”
http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/1916606,twilight-taping-arrest-movie-120209.article

Fill the jails with these miscreants. Build more prisons.

[MrCoffee]

1. Anyone singing in a movie theater should be bludgeoned

Anyone singing "Happy Birthday" in a movie theater should be flogged.

[cbdo2007]

5. And she was running around with a video camera while people were watching the movie?

It's rare that people DON'T bother me doing tiny little things at a movie, let alone singing and running around with a video camera.

I don't know about a felony but disturbing a movie showing should at least be a misdemeanor. :)

[mike_c]

2. are there no prisons, no workhouses for the poor?!

Apologies to Dickens.

[wuushew]

3. Very stupid of her

There are many bootleg torrents already availble.

[anonymous171]

4. A fucking felony!? Who writes these laws!?

[Zodiak]

7. Corporations...who else?

And it is brought to the floor by their lackeys in office.

The Democrats are actually worse than the Republicans when it comes to draconian copyright laws because of a historical connection with Hollywood.

[Freddie Stubbs]

24. Legislators

[Zodiak]

6. If the law is supposed to stop patrons recording and selling movies

Then it is poorly written.

This woman recorded a segment of a movie. The rules of "fair use" do take into account how much a part of the original work is in the copy...in this case, it is not very much 3mins/90mins or so.

The funny thing is they can get her for copyright infringement for "happy birthday" if they want to. (yes, "happy birthday" is fucking copyrighted, with recent actions taken on it as well)

Also, there is no evidence she was "selling" anything, so the law is catching people it was not designed to target.

In short, it is a poorly written law that does not take into account existing U.S. copyright statutes. And what's worse is it makes it a criminal matter, where bootlegging is considered a civil matter in most cases (because the damages are monetary and not direct like theft).

But that is the U.S.......we care 1000% more about corporations' profit than we do freedom.

I hope she doesn't get convicted and the stupid law gets repealed. It is an overzealous application of copyright law, and the prosecution is going to have a real hard time demonstrating actual damages within a criminal context.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

8. And people whine when I call them "Copyright Nazis". -nt

[anigbrowl]

21. she hasn't been convicted yet you know

charges being brought tells you nothing about the law, only about one local prosecutor's interpretation of it.

[Zodiak]

25. Of course I know

Hence my last statement about how hard it would be to prove criminal liability and my hopes she gets off scot-free.

[notadmblnd]

9. What the powers that be are running out of pot heads to arrest and imprison?

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

10. Yet Summit Entertainment goes completely unpunished for filming the whole damn thing.

No justice, no peace.

[LeftinOH]

11. .

:spray: :toast:

[anigbrowl]

20. hehehe!

[Froward69]

12. Kick to greatest to expose "knee jerk Authorities"

[hlthe2b]

13. Now she's also owing for royalties due on "Happy Birthday..."

:eyes:

[skygazer]

14. Who sings happy birthday in a movie theater?

No wonder I don't go to movies anymore.

[FightingBobsghost]

15. New Moon

If anyone should get time out of this it should be Stephanie Myers for writing that steaming pile of crap which is the Twilight Saga.

[chrisa]

16. 3 years? WTF?

People get less time for hitting somebody with a baseball bat, or carjacking.

It's just a movie. Who gives a crap?

[anigbrowl]

19. She didn't *get* three years, that's the maximum penalty for wilful infringement

If she is convicted (unlikely) she'll just get some token penalty like 3 months probation. the 3 years is what the law provides as a penalty against people who go into a theater and tape a movie for the sole purpose of selling illegal DVD copies.

[chrisa]

23. I know, but the possibility of getting 3 years.

For taping a movie is ridiculous. She won't get 3 years, but anything more than a fine would be overkill.

[hunter]

17. Aha! So that's how those internet torrents are assembled!

The torrent gangs pretend to hold birthday parties in theaters and each group grabs a few minutes of video. These are then stitched together into complete movies at the Pirate Bay!

They can't fool us! Arrest them all!

[cbdo2007]

18. ha ha, good one!! I can't even believe people watch half of those downloaded

movies anyways. I watched one once at a friends house and it was someone who did the hand-held camera method and it would shake sometimes and people would be getting up and walking by the picture.

If there really is a movie I want to see, I'll definitely shell out the $5 and just go watch it myself.

[jmondine]

22. "Happy Birthday" is a copyrighted song. Additional charge!