Thursday of last week, the United States Federal legal system passed a bill that would certainly give pause to amateur producers of films created in public theaters with a camcorder. Several states, including California have already passed such legislation, but until now there was no mechanism on the federal level. This bill also speaks to the hot topic of movie industry employees that upload a film to the Internet for distribution prior to release in theaters.
"Online piracy of movies, software and music is a growing problem, which threatens the ability of artists to be compensated for their work," said Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., who sponsored the bill along with Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas. "This bill will help end the most egregious form of copyright piracy."
The practice of using camcorders to record movies in theaters and produce pirated versions has grown increasingly common. A recent Motion Picture Association of America study found that more than 92 percent of the first copies of movies made available on the Internet originated from camcorders.
These new crimes will be processed as felonies and the bill is designed to make the perpetrators easier to prosecute. If you are convicted of making a copy of a film in a theater with a camcorder, you could face as long as three years in prison. Those that pre-release copyrighted material to the Internet in advance of publication shall be confined for up to five years in a federal penitentiary.
A product copied with a camcorder that was taken from the local theater and transferred over the internet or even by DVD, has never graced my computer screen or television set. I have also been fortunate in that I have never even had to set next to one of these burgeoning film entrepreneurs while I was in a movie theater. When I see a movie, I want to have a quality experience and frankly, I just don't see how this would be possible in this format. I would rather pay 3 dollars for a rental, than purchase or even download such an inferior product.
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