Last week a HUGE and excellent debate broke out over the post about the girl who was caught red handed recording a portion of the Transformers movie in the theater. Some thought she should get charged… some thought that she shouldn’t. The bottom line was that she did get charged and Kristina was nice enough to send me the update to that girls case.
Apparently the girl pled guilty to the charges and got a reasonable sentence. The following is from WIRED:
The guilty plea (.pdf) by Jhannet Sejas, 19, a Marymount University sophomore, spared her a maximum year in jail. Under last week’s deal in Arlington County General District Court, Sejas was fined $71 in court costs and could have been on the hook for a maximum $2,500 fine, according to court records.
When arrested on her birthday last month, the Annandale, Virginia, resident said she was taking the short clip with a Canon PowerShot to show her 13-year-old brother. Neither Sejas nor her attorney were immediately available for comment. If Sejas stays out of trouble for a year, the misdemeanor will be expunged from her record.
I was one of those people who thought that the girl HAD to be charged… but that the sentence or punishment should reflect the fact that it was a relatively minor infraction. I think a $71 fine is pretty minor. The fact that the judge structured it in such a way that in a year it can be removed from her record was good to.
Apparently the MPAA and the National Theater Owner association are also happy with the outcome. I think this turned out pretty much good for everyone. The principle was upheld, a message was sent, and yet the girl didn’t get dragged over the coals.
So what do you think? Was this a good outcome for this situation? Think the girl got off too light? Think she got shafted?
“How did the theater know that she had only chosen 30 seconds to record and not the whole movie. This was only found out when she was escorted out.”
I agree completely. You can’t blame the theater for doing there job. They wouldn’t have called the police if the girl hadn’t been doing something wrong. Making the theater the bad guy here only makes the problem worse. I think her fine was pretty lenient. Something in the $200+ range would have been more appropriate. And I liked Donna’s idea with the community service.
Only having to pay the court costs was lenient. $2500? Probably too much for a first time offender that was simply naive. But no, a $73 fine does not cover the cost to taxpayers for her going through the system and is not what I’d call any kind of reasonable punishment.
Anyone can pay a $73 fine, something in the $200-300 range certainly would have been more appropriate. Exceptions to the law often make laws meaningless and this girl is essentially being exempted from this one.
Just my two cents.
I think the punshiment dealt fits the crime. She did break the law, so it would have been wrong for her to get off; however I’m glad they didn’t throw the book at her. I was a little afraid that might happen.
Ive been in trouble many times and this is exacctly what I thought would happen
i think that a 70 dollar fine is not going to stop anyone, anywhere ever.
Everyone keeps talking about the clip only being a few seconds long and that the theater overreacted. How did the theater know that she had only chosen 30 seconds to record and not the whole movie. This was only found out when she was escorted out. I think the theater was right to call the police, if that’s what is written in their policy. Whoever didn’t call could have lost their job because they were not following policy. You just can’t sorta prosecute. Well, they only starting to beat this person… let’s let them off easy. That mentality does not work. If she gets away with it this time, what will it lead to. Like someone else said: Keep your camera at home, dumbass.
It’s posted everywhere, you know you aren’t supposed to do it, so why do you think you can get away with it. I’m not saying roast the girl, but the judge was very fair. I think it went well, all things considered.
I think it worked out very well. It’s just enough of a warning that it might stop others from doing the same thing in the future.
Think about it though, there are traffic tickets that cost less than that. Traffic tickets are given out for driving that could actually hurt someone. This “crime” could not have hurt anyone except the little brother who was going to watch poor footage of a horrible movie. And it was not intended to hurt anyone.
I’m glad she didn’t get a larger fine, but $71 is still a pain in the ass fine and it’s the principle of the thing. It wasn’t the girl’s hair-brained idea to take this bullshit to court, so the Regal chain should be paying the court costs. It’s only fair.
i think that she should of gotten like a 1000 dollar fine, 70 bucks dosn’t really send a message.
She’s damn lucky. Maybe I’m off, but if it was a court in Hollywood, she might not have gotten off so lightly. Keep your camera at home, dumbass.
And $71 is one expensive movie ticket:)
Personaly I think she got off a little to light. I would have liked to see her get 25 hrs of community service working at a community theater to see how hard people actualy work in the entertianment industry helping make sets and such. I think it would have been a good punishment not excessive as a year in jail but also sends a message to the community we wont allow this. Also would have her payed for court fees.
I think this could have been handled “in-house” in the movie theater. (Whether they PURPOSELY let it get beyond to “promote awareness of this ‘HORRIBLE’ bootleg epidemic”, i dont know.)
That being said, once it did get “out” (cops, courts, judges, etc.), the final judgement kinda puts a little of my faith back into the legal system. A judge cant ignore the law, nor did he feel the need to “make an example” out of her and give her the $2500 fine or jail time, when it seems like she did simply just do something stupid.
The judge made a reasonable call, the theater got some justice, girl got a small punishment with the very LIKELY chance to have a clean record in a year.
I think the fine is pretty low.
The message has been sent, the punishment given out. The job is done.
All sides win.
Nice to see something sensible result from the whole piracy issue.
I also don’t like this attitude of “well y’know Bush commutes a guilty man’s sentence over national security but we take this girl to court.” the system’s fucked up so just let her go.
That’s a bit like saying lets throw out road traffic law because murder and rape laws are for far more serious crime and deserve more of our time.
Also what this also does is undermine slightly the MPAA’s multi-thousand dollar suits against individuals for downloading content.
If someone who *records* content and goes to court gets this, they’re gonna have a harder time justifying themselves over their actions if someone decides to stand up to their blackmail.
The american justice system has lost all connection with reality. The law was created to get the people who record the entire movie and share it on the internet. A sane system would look at a case like this and say: This is a big fat waste of my time.
This is all about the letter of the law vs. the spirit of the law and I’d like to hear Bruxys opinion on it. The american system uses technicalities to get guilty people off the hook and get innocent people on it.
Just my two cents
/Joel
I just don’t like how the situation was handled by the theater (and the media since many important details are missing)
Why call the cops? It’s obviously not high end pirating equipment so the easy thing to do is review the recording and then move from there. If it was recorded from opening credits to time of being busted then call the cops. But if it really was a small clip then erase the film, give them the boot and ban them from the theater.
For the theater to press charges isn’t setting an example. It’s creating a bad image for the company and making a minor action into a natioanal story. The girl was stupid but so was the theater.
I’d like to shaft her alright.
Kidding! Kidding!
Seriously, though, somebody get this girl an agent. She looks crazy hot to my eyes.
I think this was the best possible outcome for everyone involved. I am surprised that this didn’t actually go worse. Kudos to everyone.
-Calviin