While most are well aware that the movie industry are seriously clamping down on camcorder based piracy in cinemas, it is not until now we see just how serious they are with this news about a lady who was convicted of illegally capturing a 20 second clip with her digital camera.  Jhannet Sejas went to the cinema with her boyfriend to celebrate her 19th birthday to see the matinee showing of "Transformers", which is located in Ballston hall in Arlington, Virginia. 

She tried taking a video clip to later show her 13-year-old-brother, but got a nasty surprise when police officers showed up with flashlights during the movie, ordered the two out and confiscated her camera as evidence.  She was charged with illegally recording a motion picture and faces up to a year in jail and a fine of up to $2,500.  The trial takes place later this month.  She has also been banned for life from the movie theatre she was caught at, which she regularly visited.

According to the general counsel for the Washington-based National Association of Theatre Owners, movie piracy costs the movie industry billions of dollars.  He said that because of this, there is a zero-tolerance policy at the theatre level and theatre mangers cannot distinguish between good and bad stealing.  According to the EFF, while they usually hear of people being thrown out and having their equipment confiscated; this is the first criminal arrest they heard of for someone filming for personal use. 

From what I can see, if people are going to be treated as criminals for taking short video clips in the cinema, this is potentially going to scare more people from going to the cinema.  All it takes is one successful camcorder recording somewhere in the world (where the movie is in the theatres) for a movie to go widespread online and this could easily be done at a cinema in a remote area which may be less strict about people using devices during the movie showing.

Thanks to DamnedIfIknow for leting us know about this news, who made the following comment: 

Absolutely RIDICULOUS!!   This is what they are spending the taxpayers money on?  Gotta love the MPAA quoute: "It's happening all over. And there's been a rash of camcording in the Washington area of late."  Hmmm......one word.....EVIDENCE?!?!? Just supposed to take your word for it? Not likely.