Consumerist: Transformers

Teen Faces Charges For Recording 20 Seconds of "Transformers"

Meg Marco — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 16:32:02 EDT

Don't use your digital camera in a theater to record 20 seconds of the movie Transformers (even if it's just to show your little brother) or you could face 1 year in jail and a $2,500 fine.

From the AP:

Sejas said the theater's assistant manager saw her holding up the digital camera and reported it to the general manager, who called police.

The Marymount University sophomore was charged with a misdemeanor and was banned for life from the Regal Cinemas Ballston Common movie theaters.

"I was terrified," Sejas said. "I was crying. I've never been in trouble before."

Arlington County police spokesman John Lisle said the theater wanted to prosecute the case, which is a first for the police department.

"They were the victim in this case, and they felt strongly enough about it," Lisle said.

Well, that seems fair. According to the article "copying a movie from a theater is a felony under the Family Entertainment and Copyright Act of 2005," though the teen has only been charged with a misdemeanor.

Teen Faces Charges For Recording 20-Second Movie Clip [NBC4] (Thanks, Ian!)
(Photo:Wikipedia)

McDonalds Gets Mad When You Order Drive-thru Wearing Transformers Voice Distortion Helmet

Ben Popken — Tue, 03 Jul 2007 23:36:10 EDT

While wearing an Optimus Prime voice distortion helmet, Gawker video master Richard Blakely and sidekick Sarah Meyers tried to order a spicy chicken chalupa through McDonald's drive-thru.

Amused, Mickey D's was not, as the manager refuses service and calls in the duo's license plate number.

Apparently, it's only okay for the McJobbers to conduct transactions in a hard-to-understand, robotic, voice.

Optimus Prime is Refused Service at McDonalds, Shows Mercy to Feeble Humans [Gizmodo]

Paramount Tramples Blogger For Bumblebee Compliance

consumerist.com — Fri, 07 Jul 2006 07:43:17 EDT

So we know that companies tend to stamp down hard on emerging technologies they don't understand. That pisses us off plenty. But dammit, we really get our dander up when they start stamping down on fans they don't understand.

John over at the Movie Blog recently posted a picture of Bumblebee from the upcoming Transformers live-action movie. It's to be directed by Michael Bay, so you can be sure that it will be execrable. Never the less, John happily posted the picture, giving Paramount some small amount of free publicity.

But they weren't happy about that, so they asked him to remove it. John did. But Paramount decided to have his entire internet site shut down anyway.

After 1800 diggs tore Paramount a painful orifice oozing bad publicity, Paramount relented, got the blog back up and called John to apologize. But exactly when are companies going to start cluing in on the power of Word of Mouth?

An Angry Open Letter to Paramount