Hollywood, demonstrating the horrifying and disgraceful power it wields within America s enforcement agencies and public administrations, is listing five people arrested for allegedly camcording the new movie Transformers. In each case police officers were subverted from their normal duties to act as unpaid corporate copyright cops, financed by local tax taxpayers. No mention is made of the ages of the people arrested by the MPAA stand-ins, but it s a good bet they were youngsters, not sophisticated criminals.
Says a statement issued by Hollywood s MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America): The first arrest was made in the Bronx, New York, by the New York Police Department just prior to the July Fourth holiday. The suspect was observed by security personnel in the American Theater for illegally camcording Transformers on its opening day. The defendant is the first to be charged under an amended law passed by the City Council and signed into law May 1 by Mayor Michael Bloomberg that increases penalties for camcord thieves in New York City.
The defendant faces up to six months imprisonment, fines ranging from $1,000 to $5,000 and a civil penalty up to $5,000. On the 4th of July, in El Centro, California, the projection manager at the Ultra Star Cinema observed a suspect recording an evening showing of Transformers using a Nokia camera/video phone. The El Centro Police Department was alerted and officers arrested the suspect who faces up to one year in jail and up to $2,500 in fines.
Also on July 4, a movie patron reported to theater management that an individual was using her cell phone to record Transformers at Marcus Cinemas in Addison, Illinois, just outside of Chicago. Theater security and Addison Police were called and Addison Police arrested a twenty-seven year old female for violation of Illinois Camcord Statute - a misdemeanor, and for Trespassing. The suspect faces up to one year in jail and fines up to $1,000 and a probationary period of up to two years.
The Trespass violation carries a penalty of up to six months in jail and up to $500 in fines, followed by a probationary period of up to one year. Late last week an employee at the AMC Universal Theater in Orlando, Florida observed a suspect recording an afternoon screening of Transformers and alerted theater management who then summoned the Orlando Police Department. Officers confiscated the suspect s recording device and found that over 30 minutes of the film had already been recorded.
The suspect was taken into custody and faces up to one year in jail and fines up to $1000. Over the weekend, a movie patron at the AMC Discovery Mills 18 Theatre in Lawrenceville, Georgia, notified theater management that an individual was using a small camera to record Transformers. An off-duty Gwinnett County Sheriff s Deputy employed by the theater observed the suspect and made the arrest.
The Sheriff s Deputy seized a small Sony camera along with almost an ounce of marijuana found in the suspect s pocket. Violation of Georgia s anti-camcord statute can result in up to one year in jail and/or fines up to $1000. My daughter, Emma, and I took in Transformers at our local cinema in Duncan, British Columbia.
It s a moviehouse in the style of the seventies. It s always clean, and a matinee show costs only $C5.25.
Drinks, popcorn and candy are, of course, out of sight, but since we never buy any, it s not a problem. Kids in our area are just like kids everywhere. It s common to see them carrying picture capable mobiles and during Transformers, Emma and I noticed several of the younger members of the audience using their cellphones.
I d bet a dollar to a dime not one of them had any intention of doing anything illegal with the images, stills or moving. But whether I m right or wrong, one thing is sure: if these kids had been in the States, they would have stood an excellent chance of being arrested, giving them police records at best and, if they were old enough, jail terms, if the major studios had their way. Hollywood argues scores of teams of high-tech criminals are using tiny camcorders of the kind made by Sony, one of the complainants, to film feature movies which later appear online, or on DVDs sold on street corners around the world.
This may be happening, but certainly not to the extent Hollywood claims and to criminalise children, most of whom were probably just experimenting with devices that are now standard in almost every home, isn t merely ridiculous, it s a travesty. No way does a kid copying a Hollywood movie deserve prison time or a police record. Time Warner, Viacom, Fox, Sony, NBC Universal and Disney are whining the counterfeiters and kids with camcorders are ruining them.
But in the same breath, they re reporting truly mind-boggling revenues. How bad things in Tinseltown? Like, really?
Well actually, things aren t too bad at all, p2pnet posted in March, going on: In fact, they re pretty darned good and ironically, it s the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) which says so. In its annual theatrical market statistics report, global film audiences, boosted the worldwide box office to an all-time high of $25.8 billion, compared to 23.
3 billion in 2005, an 11% increase, crows Hollywood s MPAA delightedly. The US box office, rebounded in 2006 to finish the year at $9.49 billion in revenues compared to $8.
99 billion in 2005 - a 5.5% increase from the previous year, with 1.45 billion movie tickets sold in the U.
S., ending a three-year downward trend in ticket sales, it says. In 2006, 63 films grossed more than $50 million at the box office, a 12.
5% increase from the previous year, and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man s Chest exceeded the $400 million mark. And far from seeing a drop in the number of movies produced because of hard times, Hollywood output, has been steadily growing over the last several years with total releases topping another all time high of 607 in 2006, compared to 549 in 2005, an 11% increase, says the MPAA, adding: Movies continue to be the overwhelming choice for entertainment drawing more people to movie theaters than theme parks and the major professional sports leagues combined. And while the studios bleep and moan, Hollywood insiders are responsible for many, possibly even most, of the flicks which show up online, and on underground markets.
In the US, and in a growing number of other countries such as Canada and Sweden, money rules and bullshit talks.
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