A 22-year old girl who recorded 3 minutes of Twilight: New Moon could face 3 years in prison. Oh yes, you read that correctly. While in the movie, the young woman took out her video camera to capture moments from her friend's surprise birthday party... and a bit of the movie as well. As the theater has a "zero tolerance" taping policy, they called the police and the woman spent 2 nights in jail, and Illinois law permits up to 3 years, should the person be convicted of infringement.
Will this woman serve 3 years? Probably not. Will she even be prosecuted? Maybe. But only as an example and scapegoat designed to scare movie pirates just like the RIAA did for the music industry a couple of years ago. Dear Film Industry: it didn't work then, and it won' work now! The music industry, even stepped out as the guinea pig and PROVED that to everyone. Piracy is not down, suing doesn't work, yet this hard line is still being taken. This is unbelievable.
Do you think serious pirates are ever going to let you catch them?? Of course not; they're much more savvy, and would never deliver a shitty 3-minute clip of the movie. Duh. I mean, if anything, this girl was just a shitty pirate. I have a better idea - why don't you let this girl hone her craft, since she's obviously working on a big operation here, and go after her when she's got a couple more infringements under her belt. As least it would justify the cost to the taxpayers. Learn to properly scapegoat, for Christ's sake.
I'm sorry, I shouldn't be so sarcastic. The naivety just really irritates me. It's time to smarten up, think out of the box, and figure out a way to monetize film (and music) in a way that consumers will embrace. And in this specific instance, a little public policy goes a long way. This movie has made millions upon millions of dollars already. A 3-minute clip, even if uploaded and downloaded millions of times, is not going to take away or even replace that.
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