I don’t really blame the theatre managers for this. I mean, ultimately they turned a potential felony matter over to police. Sentencing will be handled by the courts who will also decide if she is guilty of this crime, not the theatre managers. Any damages awarded would damages caused to the studio, not the theatre. I think theatre managers, especially at higher profile locations, receive a lot of pressure from studios to stop film piracy. NATO (north american theatre owners) even offers a reward for management and staff who turn over offenders to police.

Also, it seems to me that this is the kind of case that works to the benefit of film studios. It’s similar to when record companies levy massive suits against 9 year old kids who download copywritten material on their computor. The problem is so massive that the studios/companies can’t possibly file suit against (or even locate) every offender. Instead, a few highly visable cases like these against oblivious minors makes everybody think twice about copywrite infringment. I think that these companies think this is the best way to combat piracy.

Also, if this girl was in the auditorium taking pictures and singing happy birthday. I am very glad I did not attend this showing. Keep that crap in the designated party room please.

I hope they were authorized to sing happy birthday. The song is under copyright.

“I hope they were authorized to sing happy birthday. The song is under copyright.”

Sometimes I can’t tell who is honestly posting on FilmJunk and who is trolling. It makes it hard for me to decide whether I should point out that singing Happy Birthday does not carry a penalty when used outside of performance media. You don’t need permission to sing it at your kids birthday.

Also, to the person waxing the studios car above, do you really think that rhetoric applies here? How does 4 minutes of a movie played in a theater that is being used partially for a birthday party count as culpable copyright infringement? Any reasonable court will throw this case out and set a precedent against future nonsense, but this is Chicago we’re talking about.

From the article:

“She plans to fight in court the felony filed against her because she said she did nothing wrong — and certainly didn’t try to secretly tape the movie.

“It was never my intention to record the movie,” she said.

Welcome to post modern America, where criminal intent is an antiquated notion.

Sorry to offend Dave, I was just making a joke about how stiff copyright law is becoming. I’ve never been accused of being a troll before, and I hope I can rectify that misconception
I don’t agree with what happened to this girl at all. I don’t think that movie theaters should make their patrons into felons. She seems like a nice enough girl, I’m sure if the staff member of the theater who spotted her filming the movie had told her that what she was doing was inappropriate she would have stopped. They could have even kicked her out of the theater. This might be silly, but I think those cops could have been doing much more important work than stopping a patron from filming a few minutes of one of the top grossing movies in America of this moment. It makes me want to go to a theater even less thinking that I’m being watched while I’m watching a film.