December 10, 2003
Will You Be Arrested The Next Time You Bring Your Camera Phone To The Movies?
This is so wild, take about the movie industry going overboard. Mike Masnick for Techdirt Wireless reports on Rethink, taking on a new California law (which Hollywood is hoping to go national) which makes it a crime to have any type of video camera in a movie theater.
"As they point out, this is criminalizing the potential tools for a crime (which have plenty of legitimate uses) and not the crime itself. The law will allow people to make citizen's arrests, so if you happen to pull out your camera phone to answer a call in the lobby of a movie theater, prepare to be tackled by random people around you eager to throw you in jail for "stealing from American creativity."
Related articles on Hollywood's camcorder-camphone paranoia:
-- Five Years In Jail For Putting A Movie Online
-- Leave your picture phone outside the movie theater
-- Bag and body searches at screenings
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