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film piracy Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Illegally Recording Films Can Get You Almost Two Years in Prison

by Monika Bartyzel Oct 29th 2008 // 3:03PM

Filed under: Exhibition »

We've seen the ads countless times. Piracy is theft. If you steal a movie, you're no better than a thief. So on, and so forth. But what actually happens if you do?

As The Hollywood Reporter posts, heading to the theater and recording two films can land you nearly two years in prison. Michael Logan had recorded two films in a theater in Washington, D.C. -- 28 Weeks Later and Enchanted. Granted, the "MPAA says forensic analysis indicates Logan could be responsible for illegally recording more than 100 films from January 2006 to January 2008 in four states and the District of Columbia," but he was only found guilty for two.

Man, I would hope that he did record more -- not to suck it to the studios, but for the simple fact that it would suck if those were the films you got sent to prison for. I'm not saying that they're bad, but if I was getting sent to the slammer for a film, I would want it to be something really great.

Perhaps we'll see a revamp of those commercials in the future. I know tons of non-pirates who think the ads are a big joke, but maybe the message could be relayed a little better if stories like these were used. Weigh in below!

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MPAA Hates Film Piracy: Who Knew?

by Martha Fischer Mar 14th 2006 // 4:00PM

Filed under: Box Office », Newsstand », Politics »

Because they'd rather deal with piracy than address dwindling audiences and shrinking box office receipts (Really, can you blame them? It's to hard find anyone to arrest because audiences are small, while pirates are everywhere!), the MPAA, the National Association of Theatre Owners, the Canadian Motion Picture Distributors Association and the Motion Picture Theatre Associations of Canada have come together to...create a website! Woo hoo!

Announced yesterday at ShoWest, www.fightfilmtheft.com was designed to train theater employees to spot people with camcorders and stone them with Whoppers stop their piracy mid-stream. In addition to telling employees what to look for and how to proceed when they spot a pirate (just so you know, you should NOT "Grab the recording device out of the suspect's hand"), the site also publicizes a rewards program that was initiated last year by the MPAA and NATO. Under the program, employees who "stop theft" get $500/incident - there's a downloadable form to claim the reward and everything. However, since last year there were 69 incidents and only 30 rewards given out, it sounds like you theater employees need to read the rules damn carefully before trying to do any enforcing. Otherwise, all you'll get for your trouble is a whack with a tripod, which totally isn't worth $8 an hour.

[via THR]

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