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Canadian Fined For Videoing Movie In Theatre
canadian_right writes "A Calgary man was fined $1,495 and banned from theaters for a year in the first conviction under a new Canadian law making recording a movie in a theater a crime. Until the new law took effect in 2007, prosecutors had to show evidence of distribution to get a conviction; now, recording without permission is sufficient. The Canadian Motion Picture Distributors Association was disappointed that jail time was not given." The man was also banned for a year from possessing any video recording equipment, even a video-capable cellphone, outside of his home.
Why should he be allowed to record the movie?
Because you must record a movie to watch it.
When you watch a movie, you are recording it with your mind. You can easily play back memorable parts at will, retransmit this information to others and with training you can memorize quite a bit of it (see Fahrenheit 451).