You might remember this story from a few days ago: When 19 year-old Jhannet Sejas taped a 20 second clip of Transformers on her Canon Power Shot camera, she probably didn’t think she was committing a crime that calls for 1 year in prison and a $2,500 fine. If she did, she probably didn’t think the movie theater would call the police, have her arrested, and then press charges.
But they did.
Now we’re hearing rumblings a boycott of Regal Cinemas until they drop the charges against Ms. Sejas. From Free Culture @ NYU:
We demand that Regal Cinemas drop all charges against Jhannet Sejas, and that the entertainment group issue a full apology to the teen.
While the question of whether or not Jhannet’s Transformers clip counts as fair use (it is our opinion that it does, as it is private, non-commercial use of an unsubstantial portion of the original), there is another question we should be asking, and that is whether or not we should be patronizing a corporation that insists on pressing charges against someone who is clearly not the intended target of anti-piracy laws. Regal Cinemas should be ashamed of itself and its silly zero-tolerance policy.
Uh, oh, Regal. Internet backlash is at your door.
Boycott Regal Cinemas [Free Culture @ NYU]
Boycott Regal Cinemas: Teen Arrested for Recording 20 Second Movie Clip [Slashfilm]
(Photo:Andrew Ruess)
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@slungsolow: Your analogy would work great as long as you replaced “steal a cheeseburger” with “take a photo of a cheeseburger”
Thereby stealing the McDonald’s intellectual rather than physical property.
This is ridiculous.
The little girl had no ill intent or profit idea in mind when she filmed a little clip.
All should be dropped and forgotten about.
Hopefully for being soo stupid and vengeful Regal Cinemas will go broke from boycott. We do not have room for such horrible businesses in the country.
Well then most businesses should go broke–lol
For those saying she should have been given a warning, consider this: more than likely Regal Cinemas (or the security guards at the theaters) do warn people and take care of situations like this quietly. However, when it’s just a warning, it’s not a major news story. By demonstrating what they are capable of doing within the law, they are sending a message to potential and current bootleggers, as well as starting a public dialogue on the subject. They’ve brought attention to the issue.
@jitrobug: Amen.
Folks don’t read? It’s not “just like” all these other things…
So I can shoot some opinionated assface in the skull and say I was doing it for my brother?
@jitrobug: You fail to take into account that the film you are viewing is a PRODUCT, not a representation of one – like a picture of said cheeseburger. The film you’re viewing is a tangible good. It is “just like” stealing, in that it “is” stealing.
further on the additional comments:
1) she isn’t a “little girl” – she’s 19 years old
2) no one but her will know her actual intent – so stop saying that she had “fair use” intentions
3) she was given a warning, in that it is common knowledge that recording in movie theaters is a no no – some theaters say as much on the back of the tickets, others put a little warning at the beginning of the reels.
4) ANYONE who puts up a light emitting device (like a video recorder) in the middle of a crowded theater DESERVES to be punished by the theater itself. folks paid good money to watch said film, and they deserve to watch it without distraction from stupid 19 year olds who say their brothers can’t be bothered by existing marketing materials.
@Buran: Fair Use exemption?????? DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT THIS EVEN IS?? I am so sick of people who heard this cute little phrase and use it like some sort of shield against copyright law. Fair use is clearly defined by LAW. Within the law fair use is determined first by its purpose: …”for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research”. To sum it up for those who don’t understand legal things (Buran, you have a paper and pen handy?) Fair use is done to allow for public review, comment, etc., or to allow a work to be studied in a learning environment.
Making a clip for your brother is not one of these. Even then, if you fall within one of the above classes, you still have more criteria to look at which I am not going to do now because she does not even fall into the first class of fair use.
Before you throw fair use around (which you do on the consumerist) learn the freaking law. You use a term like fair use and have no clue what it means.
Seriously Buran, either you are (1) a really crappy attorney who slept through copyright class; (2) a lay person who has heard this cute phrase but has no idea what it means; or (3) are the girls parents trying to drum up public opinion.
Before you EVER use the term fair use again, please read the LAW first. Here…[www.copyright.gov] Go to this page and look at section 107. Maybe you will learn something. Until then, feel free to comment on this or any other intellectual issue topic but STOP USING SPECIFCIALLY DEFINED LEGAL TERMS without having a clue as to their use. Seriously, stop it. This is the second time I have called you out on this and it is getting old.
Class dismissed.
TOO MANY LAWS. We hire people to work full-time making these crap laws. Then we hire people to throw us all in jail for breaking them. Then we have to pay them again just to get out.
It’s nothing but a straw-man industry meant to keep us all scared, all the time. Police state is in full effect.
Transformers is utterly worthless as a movie, to boot. It should have been free, come-one-come-all. THEY should be paying US for the right to foist such garbage on us, and we should be able to jail them for advertising it as a worthwhile pastime. You give corporations the rights of humans and humans end up getting treated the way this girl was.
She stole nothing, yet some people here would love to see her in jail because they were annoyed by someone in a theatre with a phone once.
What is wrong with you people?
filliam: The only thing they brought attention to is that they’re class A asshats.
Read This.
What it comes down to is that some people are happy to see something bad happen to another person, because it’s not fair – nothing good ever happens to them.
No compassion = equal levels of misery for everyone
@veal: Yes too many laws. Why should we stop someone from stealing? Bah. She didn’t steal from you, right? And you thought the movie sucked…then stealing it ok? So, by your reasoning, if I observe you at work and IMO your work stinks, I get to take your check?? Cool.
@sleze69: And how much do you suppose you can “videotape” with a standard issue camera phone which usually caps clips at 30-60 seconds and typically only has a total space of about 2-10 megabytes?