A Zero Tolerance policy means zero tolerance, and unfortunately for one 19 year old girl, that policy could land her in jail for a year. The story goes like this: Jhannet Sejas was out with her boyfriend to celebrate her birthday. They took a video camera along to record memories of their day at the mall, and then headed to the theater to see Transformers. According to Jhannet, she decided to record a small 20–second clip so that she could show it to her younger brother who wanted to see the movie. That resulted in a visit from the police who ultimately arrested her after Regal Cinemas decided to prosecute.
Should Jhannet be considered a “pirate” for her 20 second clip that she had no intention of distributing? She’ll be heading to trial sometime this month when a judge will have to determine if she is a pirater and deserves jail time for her 20 second movie clip.The fact that she brought a video camera into the movie theater and expected to go unnoticed wasn’t a smart-move on her part. However, if she really only recorded the movie for a few seconds and this is proven (her camera was seized), I think the judge will be kind enough to dismiss the charges and warn her that taking a video camera into the theater these days is not a good idea.
Source: Washington Post
She should be let off with a warning. Even if she wanted to distribute that 20 second clip, she couldn’t have done much damage. There’s more footage in a regular TV spot for the movie. And taking into account that she didn’t have intentions of distributing it, there’s no way they should put her in jail for this incident.
My understanding is that it is illegal to take a camera into a theater. I don’t think she should go to jail, but she really should have used much better judgment.
That is just sad! there are gangs, people growing drugs, shootings, and this is all the police does!? pick on some teen who had an innocent cause for having the camera. your not supposed to have it in there, and it should be punished (or at least a warning), but the fact remains. doesnt the police have anything better to do?
I can see why the theater called the police. They had no way of knowing that she had only recorded 20 seconds of footage. After that, however, this whole ordeal seems unreasonable. Once the theater realized how short the clip was, they should not have decided to press charges. Their decision to do so was the only injustice in this case. The police had to arrest her, as the theater was prosecuting. Hopefully, this case will be thrown out before it gets to trial.
You see more than 20 seconds of film in a trailer. How could Regal possibly be concerned about a 20 second non-distributed clip? Sure she shouldn’t have brought a camera in there, but this is ridiculous.
You can probably find more of the video on YouTube! As MetaMan pointed out they didn’t have anyway of knowing how much she had recorded, but once they found out they should have let her go. Of course taking a video camera into a theater is hardly a good sense of judgement.