This is just ridiculous. Regal Cinemas called the police on a teenage girl who recorded 20 seconds of Transformers on her still camera to send to her younger brother. Regal is pressing charges and she now faces up to a year in jail and a $2500 fine.
The Washington Post reports:
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.
Find out more after the flip...
This is an abuse of copyright law and a waste of taxpayer money. Yet, Regal Cinemas would have you believe it's the victim. In fact, Kendrick Macdowell, general counsel for the Washington-based National Association of Theatre Owners says that because "illegal pirating of films costs the industry billions of dollars...there has to be a zero-tolerance policy at the theater level."
Excuse me?
I'm a filmmaker who understands the importance of protecting intellectual property. But this is just stupid. Because of this "zero tolerance policy", a teenage girl who recorded 20 seconds of video on her still camera faces the same punishment as a bootlegger.
I encourage you to join me in boycotting Regal Cinemas until they drop all charges.
You can email the President of Regal Cinema at ddelaria@regalcinemas.com to let him know what you think about his company's actions.
Let your friends and family know that aside from paying Regal Cinemas $10.50 per ticket, their taxes are now subsidizing a frivolous court case against a teenage girl with a still camera.