Um, what the teacher did was a clear violation of the law and he should be prosecuted to its fullest extent (prison and a fine as it was a felony). You have 30 witnesses...it's an open and shut case. And that tool shouldn't be a teacher anyway.

From the MPAA.org site (http://mpaa.org/piracy_FederalLaw.asp ):

"The Copyright Act of 1976 was the last comprehensive copyright law revision in the U.S. and brought our law up to the highest international standards. The Act was amended in 1982, substantially increasing the penalties for the illegal duplication of copyrighted material,

******making such offenses felonies on the first offense.*****

****Copyright owners may file civil lawsuits against copyright infringers, and the government may file criminal charges.*****

*****Violating these statutes carries tough penalties, including incarceration and monetary fines.***** The Communications Act of 1984 and later amendments provide penalties and remedies for theft of cable TV and satellite services, and the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 prohibits the circumvention of technical measures used to protect copyrighted works against theft. "

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My Gawd!! Who are they hiring to teach our kids, imbeciles??? It only requires an ounce of common sense to know its not wise to show your students pirated movies ...to say nothing about his taste in movies.

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I think most teachers do the best they can under the circumstances of our lousy public eduction system but, there is something wrong here with this teacher.

This should be like a warning sign to the school district that he needs to find some other line of work away from children.

There is no logical rationale for showing a pirated movie to a class when you have other things you should be doing except to get on their good side. And if he craves that sort of affirmation from fifth graders, there is something not quite right mentally.

Who knows how far he will go or how deep that need to "connect" with children goes.

People don't just turn into monsters overnight. And even if he is nothing more than an incompetent teacher with some "issues", this should be intepreted as a warning sign that was luckily caught early on.

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Hi There

Not to seem controvesial or anything, but maybe he just wanted to suprise his students. No doubt it was a stupid thing to do, but passing such extreme judgement without knowing the full extent of the event seems a bit premature.

And if you're concerned with what students are learning online, an interesting point was raised by a friend of mine in terms of shareware.

"What if Napster stocked textbooks?" - http://mcarthursrant.blogspot.com/

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Rednose, he could surprise them with...work. But let's say he wants to surprise them with a film; then surprise them with a LEGALLY obtained film. Is it that much to ask that a teacher not commit a felony in his quest to impress his students?

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Okay, first everyone really must understand one thing. He showed a movie. Yes, it was a pirated video, yes he really should've been doing what he was supposed to, and yes that was a reeally stupid thing to do. But all he did was show a movie, please stop acting like he molested some kids. In my school, because yes, I am a young...'child'(16), we do watch movies in the band class a lot near the end of the year, because we truly don't have anything else to do. Even some R rated ones (Pan's Labyrinth)that aren't horrifically gruesome or covered with nudity, but the one thing my teacher is smart enough is to not allow pirated videos. And with that, knowing that the teacher still is insanely retarded, everyone must truly understand, all he did was show a video. Give him a suspension for some weeks or so, something like that, maybe an assistant teacher person to kind of overlook him. I do not think he should be fired.

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I'd thank him for saving me the 30 bucks it would cost to sit through another ogre adventure with my two girls.

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@Eklen - he broke the law. Do you get that? And it's been reported nationally. The law is very clear on this and there is zero reason for him not to be prosecuted. He committed a FELONY.

This isn't a case of "oops, I made a mistake." Not even close. A mistake is burning your toast in the toaster oven. A mistake is forgetting to pull your parking brake. Purposely downloading a movie, transferring it to DVD/media, requisitioning a TV/DVD player and finally settling the kids down to watch a pirated film is NOT A MISTAKE. This took effort, time and planning. Mistakes happen in an instant, not over the course of several hours...

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Yes, this was a pretty stupid thing to do. And while I object to the bootleg aspect of this, the fact that this guy showed his class a movie is really no big deal. Didn't anyone ever have a day in school where nothing was going on at the end of the year so the teacher would show a movie?

And Andrew is right, I wish my kid had seen it in school instead me having to pay/sit through it.

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Same thing happened to me. they showed Shrek 3 at my kids daycare the day after it opened. I took my kids to see the movie opening weekend thinking they would freak out but they were bored. They told me the entire plot on the way to the movie. I bet they'd already watched it half a dozen times at that point. My kids are 3 and 7.

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YouFaceTheTick: I think Elklen was simply suggesting that we apply a reasonable amount of perspective to this situation. Illegal - yes. Stupid - yes. But let's compare this guy to a teacher who has been tenured for years and just doesn't give a rip anymore. Which do you think is really more harmful to the generation that will run our country when you and I are in nursing homes? Perspective...

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Nobody should have to pay to see Shrek the Third. Its a bad movie.

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It's June 22... school here ended yesterday, and I imagine most schools in New York state did as well... I imagine most students had already taken their final exams... so what's the big deal with showing a movie? Ignoring the legal issue, I know it's illegal, it the article makes it sound like the only problem this kid's dad had with it was that he was showing a movie rather than teaching... unless this happened several weeks ago, there's not much else they could do.

My sister's class, for the last week and a half, either watched movies or took exams. So did every other middle school class.

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See films that have nothing to do with the actual class?

Let's see, I can count my four children.

Oh, and I can count myself. And a whole bunch of others, I'm sure.

That isn't the big deal.

Playing a pirated copy of something? OK, that's possibly the different spice.

Did the films that I saw actually have the real royalty/license/whatever? Knowing my old school district, probably not.

The more things change, the more they stay the same I'd say.

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Filmy, I get the dad is mad about the lack of schoolwork (I'd agree) but I think many are losing sight of the fact that the guy willfully broke a law. He's not even smart enough to steal movies and keep it to himself. Rather he must flaunt his stupidity by broadcasting his crimes to 30 witnesses/hostages-to-his-retardation. It's for the audacity of his actions that I feel it'd be in the world's best interest if this tool were made destitute and then imprisoned so he maybe won't get a chance to reproduce.

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See films that have nothing to do with the actual class?

Let's see, I can count my four children.

Oh, and I can count myself. And a whole bunch of others, I'm sure.

That isn't the big deal.

Playing a pirated copy of something? OK, that's possibly the different spice.

Did the films that I saw actually have the real royalty/license/whatever? Knowing my old school district, probably not.

The more things change, the more they stay the same I'd say.

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Not to mention the mere fact this movie is rated PG-13! Parental guidance suggested under 13 which means the movie has strong language, violence, sex or what have you deemed inappropriate for audiences under 13. These kids in fifth grade may be 10 or 11 at most. I teach Kindergarten in Los Angeles and wrote a letter to parents reminding them that Spiderman and Shrek are PG-13 and not recommended for children under 13 without parental guidance. Only two or three of them have not seen both movies regardless. When shoe, notebook, pencil, book and backpack companies market these PG-13 characters to preschoolers and babies where do we draw the line!?! Isn't this about the same as pushing sex, drugs, cigarettes, firearms and alcohol to youth? Why don't the studios have to pay? I know what the ratings say and I am a mother of two. (now aged 21 and 16, thank goodness!) Have you ever tried to tell a child they cannot see the same movie of ALL their peers? "All the other families took them!" I used to ban rap/hip hop with slack lyrics from my home. Was accused of being 'overprotective' why does it take an Al Sharpton or Jesse Jackson to teach our families and schools about what is appropriate. Aren't we adult enough to stand up to these greedy studios who ram this junk down our throats each night following the nightly news? Even the previews are PG-13 sometimes they show extreme amounts of violence! Seems if they don't show the violence at the dinner hour the children won't holler loud enough for everyone to go see it before it comes out on cable or DVD. The music, the marketing, the mixed messages. "Might makes right" is not exactly what we want our youngsters practicing on the playground now is it?
Regardless of piracy issues, another can of worms, this movie was totally unsuitable for the age group it was viewed by very poor judgment on the part of the teacher but you cannot blame him that most of these kids had ALREADY seen that movie and just wanted to see it again rather than do collaborative work. Of all the videos to show...what's wrong with "Sound of Music", "Willy Wonka and The Chocolate Factory" (the original), "Old Yeller", "Swiss Family Robinson", "Wizard of Oz", or perhaps some of the awesomest National Geographic, Discovery, Animal Planet and Time videos out there! Call me a wet blanket but we all must protest against this elementary marketing approach and insist on responsible filming/viewing for our youth.
Each one teach one.
Ms. Anna Fisher
Kindergarten Teacher
Los Angeles Unified School District
Los Angeles, CA

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As the angry dad in question, I'd like to thank you all for the supportive comments. I'd particularly like to thank the teacher, Ms. Anna Fisher, because, I'm afraid, that too many teachers saw my a concerns as an attack on the profession as a whole.

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Really, you guys are ridiculous. I've NEVER been to a school that did let there teachers show movies. So what he took ONE day out of what...about 8 or 9 months of school just to let his kids have a good time and ya'll bash him like he "touched" one of them. I bet all but maybe one of you guys have a movie, video game or album that you either downloaded or burned from someone else. It's really not that serious.

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you cant and will not stop bootleggers,so quit it already,you are powerless,youdont count so sit there and take it,and a jail term for a bootleg movie?..what are you part of the gestapo..you guys are morons

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