You'll no doubt remember the case of Jhannet Sejas, the young woman arrested for recording a portion of Transformers at Regal's Ballston Common multiplex in Arlington, Va. She entered a guilty plea. After one year, if she remains out of trouble, her record will be expunged. Threat Level at Wired Blogs has the story.

The many dire warnings of heavy-handed enforcement and young ruined lives for a "minor offence" that made their way through the blogosphere have proved, in this case, rather hysterical.

The issue here comes down to whether or not theaters have the right to prevent illegal recording of movies in their theaters. Clearly they do, and they will continue to do their jobs. It is the job of the police and prosecutors to exercise their discretion in whether to arrest and if and how to prosecute. That's what happened in this case.

With the recently reported use of a cell phone to illegally record The Simpsons Movie opening night in Australia, it becomes ever more unreasonable to expect theater employees to discriminate among what type of device is being used to record off the screen. Me, from Threat Level:

"One of the dilemmas that employees face is trying to decide who is copying for distribution and who's taking just a quick screenshot, which isn't as harmful but is against the law in most jurisdictions," Corcoran said in an interview.

In a statement, he added: "We hope that this case reinforces our efforts to educate the public that  unauthorized recording, whether a clip or the whole film, in movie theaters is against the law."

Recording technology is only going to get better - smaller, clearer, easier to use - and movie thieves are going to get better at disguising their tools. If someone is using a recording device in a theater, they will be stopped. The police will be called.

Leave your cameras at home. Enjoy the movie. Why else would you be there?               

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(Originally posted August 2nd, 2007 @ 10:01 am.)

A 19-year-old woman was arrested for recording part of Transformers at Regal's Ballston Common 12 in Arlington, VA July 17. The Washington Post has the story:

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.

"I was terrified," said Sejas, her voice breaking. "I was crying. I've never been in trouble before." She said the assistant manager of the theater saw her holding up the Canon Power Shot and reported it to the general manager, who called police.

Sejas said she had no intention of selling the 20-second film clip. She just wanted to show it to her 13-year-old brother, who had said he wanted to see the movie. She was shocked when the officers showed up.

Illegal camcording of movies in theaters is big business. According to a 2005 LEK study, pirated movies cost the movie industry $18.2 billion worldwide; U.S. movie theatres alone lost over $600 million. In response, the movie and movie theater industries have pushed for Federal and state laws making camcording in theaters a crime. In this case, the first under Virginia's statute, the theater management chose to press charges.

Read the rest of this entry »

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KCRW's The Business, hosted by Claude Brodesser-Akner, takes an in-depth look at the ways and means of movie theft on its July 16 broadcast.  The show goes out on the streets of downtown L.A. to purchase illegally camcorded DVDs of Spider-man 3, Knocked Up (it turns out to be Charlotte's Web) and Ratatouille while they were still in movie theatres, and talks with a pirate DVD seller and finds out she takes in approximately $700 a day in illicit sales.

Guests:

Pierce O'Donnell: Founder of O'Donnell & Associates

Henry Cline: Veteran camera operator

Mike Robinson: Director of Anti-Piracy Operations for the MPAA

Patrick Corcoran: Director of Media and Research for the National Association of Theatre Owners

Rick Ishitani: Detective with the LAPD's Anti-Piracy Unit

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Die Hard was living free on the internet - unthinkingly posted on an independent film upload site - according to Variety's Anne Thompson. Iklipz discovered the posting, removed it and alerted the film's distributor.

New York gave its municipal anti-camcording law its first workout Monday night at a screening of Transformers when NYPD caught an alleged in-theater camcorder pirate in a sting operation. According to the New York Daily News,

About 30 minutes before the 8p.m. showing, theater employees received a call from the NYPD saying they were plotting a sting at the theater, a known haven for bootleggers, police said.

"The movie companies ... knew it was coming from our theater," said manager Justin Hill, 23. "We were taking heat for it because we weren't catching anyone."

Seven plainclothes cops corralled Diallo - who has a history of illegally recording films - moments after the screening ended, police said.

The AP notes police 'arrested Diallo, 48, after an officer seated behind him in the theater saw him raise his right arm after the film began, court papers said. During a search shortly after the movie ended, police found a video recorder "strapped underneath his right arm via a body harness," and a video player and remote control in his jacket pockets, the papers added.'

Movie theaters across the country have recently received new anti-camcording posters - shipped, ironically enough, with prints of Transformers.

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Canada's anti-camcording bill became law Friday, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

On Friday, MPAA chief Dan Glickman applauded the bill's passage.

"By adopting this legislation, the Canadian government has taken a significant step toward reducing the proliferation of camcords generated in Canadian cinemas," Glickman said. "It demonstrates that the Canadian government understands that all it takes is one good camcord to trigger the mass production and distribution of illegal bootlegs in street markets around the world.

Before passage of the law, Canadian theaters could do little more than eject camcorders fron theaters as it was necessary to prove intent to distribute for personal gain to press criminal charges.

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The pre-release pirating of Sicko has already had one effect on the film's reception in theaters - it's opening a week early.

Variety reports the documentary will bow a week earlier than planned in New York, followed by sneak previews at 43 theaters in more than 30 markets Saturday. The film will then expand to an undetermined number of screens on its original release date of June 29. No word on whether or not you'll be able to watch it on your new iPhone, set to be released the same day.

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The Hollywood Reporter reports that Michael Moore is backtracking somewhat from his support of bootlegging. You may recall he supported the idea of stealing movies for private use at Cannes and if you don't,  YouTube will remember it for you:

He has a slightly different perspective now:

"Every filmmaker intends for his film to be seen on the big screen," Moore said. "This wasn't a guy taking a video camera into a theater. This was an inside job, a copy made from a high-quality master and could potentially impact the opening weekend boxoffice. Who do you think benefits from that?"

When asked about accusations that he may have leaked the film himself for publicity purposes, Moore scoffed at the notion:

"Oh no. The (Weinstein) brothers are devastated."

There, see? Totally different.

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As noted last week, Michael Moore's documentary Sicko has been pirated and put on various p2p sites. Now it's on YouTube.

The Hollywood Reporter reports today that the entire film is available in bite-sized chunks. This was news to the Weinstein Company, which seemed rather sanguine about the whole affair:

When sought for an official comment from Weinstein Co. late Sunday evening, a spokesperson was unaware that the entire film was on YouTube. A Lionsgate executive and a YouTube spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment at deadline.

The spokesperson issued a statement also given to other media outlets, saying that "[w]hile virtually every movie released these days faces a similar situation, 'Sicko' is more than just a movie, it is a call to action. We are responding aggressively to protect our film but from our research it is clear that people interested in the movement are excited to go to the theater so they can be part of the experience and fight to reform health care."

How the leak of a version apparently taken from a DVD copy will affect the film's theatrical boxoffice remains unclear. Moore's anti-Bush documentary "Fahrenheit 9/11" was widely bootlegged and available in a pirated version online around its June 2004 opening, but went on to earn $119 million at the domestic boxoffice.

We'll see how they really feel about the issue in about two weeks.

 

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Michael Moore's controversial documentary about the U.S. health care industry, Sicko, has already been stolen and made available on the internet. Advertising Age's Claude Brodesser-Akner downloaded a copy from a p2p site Thursday night and watched it.

Availability on the web so far ahead of its release in theaters is disturbing and should provide some illumination on how much such theft affects box office. Brodesser-Akner, btw, doesn't tell us whether the movie is any good or not.

Update: Peter Sciretta at /film saw it online before Claude, and blogged about it in the wee small hours of Thursday morning.

He also thinks the film is one of the year's best so far.

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