Woman Filming Parts Of Sister's Birthday Party At Theater, Charged With Felony Movie Copying

from the throw-her-in-jail dept

Over the last couple of years, the movie industry has pushed hard for stricter and stricter laws for anyone caught "filming" a movie in the theater. Of course, these days, with more and more people having portable video cameras either in their mobile phones or other devices, the likelihood of these sorts of laws being abused or misused only grows over time. Take, for example, the case of 22-year-old Samantha Tumpach, from Chicago, who took her sister out for a surprise birthday party at a movie theater recently. While there, she used her new camera to tape parts of the event, including her, along with friends and family, singing happy birthday to her sister. But, in the course of all this, she also caught two small segments of the film itself, less than four minutes, total -- hardly a representative case of "pirate" or "camcording" activity. Still, the theater pressed charges, and Samantha was arrested and spent two nights in jail -- and may now face three years in jail as a felon. Good thing Hollywood got those laws, so they can get young women celebrating their friends and families' birthdays put in jail.

Filed Under: birthday party, copyright, felony, filming, twilight