Arrest Under New NY Anti-Piracy Law

AxminsterLeuven writes "The BBC is carrying a story on new tightened New York anti-piracy legislation: A man has been arrested, after smuggling video recording equipment into a theater showing the new Transformers movie. 'Kalidou Diallo, 48, has been charged with unauthorized use of a video camera in a cinema. Under upgraded legislation, he could face six months in jail and fines of up to $5,000 (£2,487) if found guilty,' the BBC reports."

Comments

Amadou

[Hatta]

I wonder if he knew Amadou Diallo.

How about stills?

[Anonymous Coward]

I took two still pictures during the credits of Transformers using my camera phone: one of the repeated title card, the other the first screenful of scrolled credits.

It's my new way to show that I'd been to a movie without having to hold onto ticket stubs. I did it with Spider-Man 3 (first) and with the latest Pirates of the Caribbean movie as well (as well as a shot of the "10 Years Later" addendum at the end after the credits).

It's really only for my own personal use. There's no real market for them, and I don't publish them on the web. (If I ever full-motion recorded anything in a theater and published them on the net, it would be the ads to complain how many there were.)

I just wish I didn't feel compelled to click the Post Anonymously check-button to tell you this. I'm glad I don't live in New York (tickets are cheaper here).

Re:Why?

[FiveDollarYoBet]

We would get them sent to us when I was deployed to Iraq. Most of them were of laughable quality but it was the only way to see a new release.

by comparison

[rodentia]

New York legislators apparently consider production of grainy, shakey, muffled copies of Hollywood poo the moral equivalent of 2 oz. of pot. I thank God every day that our peerless statesmen are so responsive to these twin evils. It is common knowledge that copyright infringement is a gateway anti-social behavior, leading rapidly to contempt for authority, drug abuse, armed robbery, rape and murder, in that order.

Re:$7

[Anonymous Coward]

I took myself and three other people to a matinee showing of Ratatouille in a fairly nice theater for $23 after tax; that's $5.75 for a major new release. This was in a suburb of Dallas. I don't know what is wrong with people in other areas of the country who are willing to spend $11 to see a movie. The only theater around here that costs that much has leather seats.

Re:Why?

[Anonymous Coward]

especially one that I could experience in a theater at a matinee showing for five to seven bucks.

Here's the thing: that doesn't apply to most people. It applies to most Americans, but in the rest of the world, this film won't be released for quite a while, and even if it was, in many places five to seven bucks is a huge amount of money. The pirates aren't competing with the cinemas, there's no competition for them at all. It's either get a pirated copy, or don't watch it.

Plus, maybe some people prefer low quality video and peace rather than high quality video and loads of kids running around screaming and throwing popcorn. I've only been to the cinema once in the USA, and it was a really weird experience. People cheered and stuff when things happened on the screen. That's really distracting and if it was the same over here in the UK, I'd never go to the cinema again. Is that usual, or was I just really unlucky?

Re:Video player?

[HTH NE1]

From the article:

Mr Diallo was arrested after allegedly smuggling a video recorder, video player and remote control into a preview of the film in the Bronx. WTF would he need a video player? Don't most modern recorders have built-in LCDs?

Much like how a CD copying operation in a garage with four 32x burners is reported as having the equivalent of 128 CD burners, the player probably was the one built into the camera.

Using a remote prevents jitter starting and stopping the recording as well as disassociation from the camera if it is found. Of course, a theater would be smart enough to stake out the camera until it is retrieved rather than prevent it from gathering evidence of the crime.

Now if you could get a cheap-ass wireless webcam with sufficient frame rate, you could be streaming the data to storage out in the parking lot and write off the camera. Even better, you could get multiple captures to improve the quality. (There was an open wireless router accessible in the theater at the last movie I attended.)

Re:Why?

[db32]

I saw tons of new(ish) movies in Iraq. They were all being sold for $2-4 bucks for a DVD with 2-4 new(ish) releases by some random local in a wooden hut on the road near camp. In the meantime the MPAA and friends are chasing down 17yr olds to put them in jail...wonder why they don't go to Iraq and stop the piracy themselves. (Ignoring that Hillary Rosen was on the ground in Iraq in the very very early days begging the new Iraqi government to adopt her proposals on copyright...yeah...they need help with food, water, and security, and this psychotic bitch is going to go and talk to them about music downloads?)

I'm a little disappointed with the Iraqi government for their lack of progress...they should have shot her ass on the spot for that nonsense.

Re:It's retribution.

[Cadallin]

See, that's disgusting. The electric chair is an abomination for exactly the reason you cite. It's an excruciatingly painful and slow method of execution. Approximately equal to tossing a human being (instead of a lobster) into a huge pot of boiling water. I'm not actually against the death penalty. I think it should be used more widely than it is, but not the electric chair. A properly executed hanging is far more efficient and far less prurient than the electric chair (a split second drop followed by a broken neck at the base of the skull causes death about as instant as it gets). Hell, if we really wanted to be morally upstanding, we would perform executions by morphine overdose. Sleep followed by death through respiratory depression.

Revenge should have no part in it. It should be all about what is best for society. There are people out there that have a pathological urge to kill, rape, or perform other horrifically destructive acts (rob thousands of people of their life savings and retirement). Many of these are mentally retarded, or otherwise mentally ill, but in my opinion that's probably irrelevant. In the most extreme cases there is little we can do. And in the less extreme cases, we need to do better.