[Infowarrior] - Movie theater nuttiness

[Richard Forno]

Charged With Felony After Taping 4 Minutes Of "New Moon"
By Meg Marco on December 3, 2009 1:05 PM 53961 views

http://consumerist.com/2009/12/charged-with-felony-after-taping-4-minutes-of-new-moon.html
The Sun-Times is reporting that a 22-year-old Chicago woman has been  
arrested and charged with a felony after taping 4 minutes of "New  
Moon" during her sister's surprise 29th birthday party.

Managers saw the woman taping and called the police, who examined the  
camera (a digital still camera that also takes short video segments)  
and say they found “two very short segments” that totaled no more than  
4 minutes.

The alleged felony movie-taper says she was taking pictures of her  
family before the film and that nobody warned her.

 From the Sun-Times:

““We sang ‘Happy Birthday’ to her in the theater,” Tumpach said.
She also took pictures of family members in the theater before the  
film began, but an usher who saw the photo session never issued them a  
warning, Tumpach said.

As ads and previews ran on the big screen, she fiddled with the camera  
— which she got in July and is still learning how to work — and was  
surprised to see it took clear videos of the screen.

The footage she shot also includes the pre-film commercials, as well  
as her talking about the camera and the movie.

“You can hear me talking the whole time,” Tumpach said.

She plans to fight in court the felony filed against her because she  
said she did nothing wrong — and certainly didn’t try to secretly tape  
the movie.

“It was never my intention to record the movie,” she said.

”
The theater managers decided to press charges, so the woman spent two  
nights in jail and faces up to three years in prison.