Chubby Nickel Audio Vlog

So some 22 year old woman maliciously recorded 3 minutes of Twilight: New Moon during her sisters birthday party. Apparently the surprise party planned for her sister was just a facade to cover up her real intentions to record the movie and sell it on the street. She had no prior convictions of pirating movies, but that doesn’t disprove her intent…

Seriously though, here are the facts:

• She was 22 years old
• This was a surprise party for her sister
• She was recording her sister’s birthday
• Approximately three minutes of the film was recorded on the digital camera
• She was arrested and held for two days
• She may face three years in prison

Let’s examine this from a few different angles: She is completely innocent and the film getting recorded was not intentional, she decided to record a little bit of the movie and lastly that she intentionally recorded the movie to later sell for cheap on the street.

It is normal for people now days to record things like birthday parties, someone not as paranoid as I wouldn’t think that a little bit of footage of a film getting recorded would be cause for such an extreme punishment. So she likely would not be paying much attention to where the camera was pointed. This shouldn’t result in any kind of punishment at all.

Now, given the same previous situation, but instead she intentionally pointed the camera at the movie to record a little bit of it… maybe her favourite part. Recording three minutes of a 2 hour and ten minute movie is nothing major. Hell it should be covered under fair use of the DMCA. This should not have resulted in any kind of punishment other than maybe taking the recording.

Now let’s say she was intentionally recording the movie and was going to record the whole movie to sell on the streets. There is no evidence of her intent even if it was her intent. In order to prove that someone intends to sell the movie there would need to be DVD copies made, copied to a computer in a distributable format or saying that she will sell it or her selling it. Because there is no reason for anyone to think that she was going to sell it, so this should not have resulted in any kind of punishment.

Now let’s say there is a law that says you can’t record things like movies. What the fuck is wrong with that? Are we going to ban all recording devices like DVRs? No, the consumer has rights as well. This may not always be the case any more, but I still believe that people are innocent until proven guilty, so if there is a law that says you cannot record something because you may pirate it later goes against this ideal. There’s a little thing that I agree with called the Bill of Rights and specifically the fifth amendment where it states that “nor [shall any person] be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law” which I hope would still apply. Now what was the reason that she was detained? Was she a threat to any one? Was she a flight risk? No and no, so in short, this is unconstitutional and I really hope that the judge of this case just throws it out and the woman sues the fucking shit out of the movie theater company for unreasonable imprisonment.

Bill of Rights

CNN Story