Update On Transformers Movie Piracy Case

That'll teach little girls to record 20 seconds of a movie on their cell phones!

I'm glad to see the justice system has it's priorities straight. Why bother with drug dealers, organised crime, counterfeiting, smuggling, murder and robbery when little girls are recording literally DOZENS of seconds of a movie! That's where all the man-power should go!

This should deter people from illegal copying movies... wait, no it won't.

All that hullaballoo for 20 seconds? ... yikes. While I'm not a fan of piracy that just screams "overkill" to me...

Skowl wrote:I'm glad to see the justice system has it's priorities straight. Why bother with drug dealers, organised crime, counterfeiting, smuggling, murder and robbery when little girls are recording literally DOZENS of seconds of a movie! That's where all the man-power should go!

Well bloody said.

Well, maybe the girl was cute?

Or hell, the way society is, this could all be a marketing ploy for the cell phone she was using.

Or if it wasn't, cell phone companies have a new marketing strategy.

Oh now I gotta get a bootleg!

ALL of that just for 20 sec of footage. Watta a waste of my tax dollors.

This is sad. There are murderers, drug dealers, and rapists out there and they waste the efforts of cops and the courts on some 19 year old chick who recorded a clip on her phone. Just goes to show you that all people care about is the all mighty dollar. Some times it sickens me that i live in the "great" USA.

While I agree is't kinda lame, don't rag on the justice system. If Movie company X says "this person is committing a crime against my company" it's not really up to judges/prosecutors to tell Movie company X "we don't care, so you have no recourse"

What she did was still illegal. Want to blame someone about tax dollars? blame her.

Megatron_Wolf wrote:This is sad. There are murderers, drug dealers, and rapists out there and they waste the efforts of cops and the courts on some 19 year old chick who recorded a clip on her phone. Just goes to show you that all people care about is the all mighty dollar. Some times it sickens me that i live in the "great" USA.

Do you think we should let people who commit non-violent crimes run free? I don't! A crime is a crime. It came down to a petty crime in the end for only $71 but nonetheless it is what it is. You do realize that there are people in the crime force that's sole speciality is handling cases like this, right?

Vile MK III wrote:ALL of that just for 20 sec of footage. Watta a waste of my tax dollors.

Make sure you direct your frustration at HER and not our justice system. Thanks.

Glad to know that they did not try to make an example of her.
Still they would have been much better off just fining her on the spot, rather than drag it through the courts.

Seibertron wrote:

Megatron_Wolf wrote:This is sad. There are murderers, drug dealers, and rapists out there and they waste the efforts of cops and the courts on some 19 year old chick who recorded a clip on her phone. Just goes to show you that all people care about is the all mighty dollar. Some times it sickens me that i live in the "great" USA.

Do you think we should let people who commit non-violent crimes run free? I don't! A crime is a crime. It came down to a petty crime in the end for only $71 but nonetheless it is what it is. You do realize that there are people in the crime force that's sole speciality is handling cases like this, right?

I understand your point, and your right, but what gets me is that this is supposed to be the first time someone has gone to court over movie piracy issues, and they best they could find was a little girl who recorded 20 seconds of the film (which, if you go by the Supreme Court of Canada's ruling on distribution of music, is not technically illegal since she did not make a recording a over 10% of the film, which is the legal limit in Canada for copying of books and music, with a good lawyer, one could make the case for the same thing to be applied to film.)

Face it, small claims court or not, everytime a case opens, it costs tax payers money. They could have saved more than that 71$ fine was worth by just telling the girl not to do it again, and just move on to the bigger fish who are pirating... you know, complete movies.

Skowl wrote:

Seibertron wrote:

Megatron_Wolf wrote:This is sad. There are murderers, drug dealers, and rapists out there and they waste the efforts of cops and the courts on some 19 year old chick who recorded a clip on her phone. Just goes to show you that all people care about is the all mighty dollar. Some times it sickens me that i live in the "great" USA.

Do you think we should let people who commit non-violent crimes run free? I don't! A crime is a crime. It came down to a petty crime in the end for only $71 but nonetheless it is what it is. You do realize that there are people in the crime force that's sole speciality is handling cases like this, right?

I understand your point, and your right, but what gets me is that this is supposed to be the first time someone has gone to court over movie piracy issues, and they best they could find was a little girl who recorded 20 seconds of the film (which, if you go by the Supreme Court of Canada's ruling on distribution of music, is not technically illegal since she did not make a recording a over 10% of the film, which is the legal limit in Canada for copying of books and music, with a good lawyer, one could make the case for the same thing to be applied to film.)

Face it, small claims court or not, everytime a case opens, it costs tax payers money. They could have saved more than that 71$ fine was worth by just telling the girl not to do it again, and just move on to the bigger fish who are pirating... you know, complete movies.

Fair enough. Let's just not turn this into a trash-the-justice system thread, cool? She only had to pay a $71 fine so someone in the Justice system that's getting criticized in this thread also realized that this was rather petty. It's not like she only recorded 20 seconds and then went to jail for a year.

serves her right

thats horrible.....if we dont fight these big movie companies they'll just trample all over us. I for one am glad I own bootleg copies of movies. I had my TF bootleg by the third week. Take that Paramount!

Megatron_Wolf wrote:This is sad. There are murderers, drug dealers, and rapists out there and they waste the efforts of cops and the courts on some 19 year old chick who recorded a clip on her phone. Just goes to show you that all people care about is the all mighty dollar. Some times it sickens me that i live in the "great" USA.

Look at the issues in the rest of the world.

Think about that statement.

And if you still feel the same way, LEAVE!

Toyotus Superion wrote:thats horrible.....if we dont fight these big movie companies they'll just trample all over us. I for one am glad I own bootleg copies of movies. I had my TF bootleg by the third week. Take that Paramount!

Now that you have proclaimed how proud you are, do you mind if we forward this to paramounts lawyers so that you can fight the system and show us how it should be done? I love it when people are proud of "breaking the law".


Show us how to fight the good fight.

iconscons wrote:While I agree is't kinda lame, don't rag on the justice system. If Movie company X says "this person is committing a crime against my company" it's not really up to judges/prosecutors to tell Movie company X "we don't care, so you have no recourse"

True, the article ends with the fact that she admitted to what she did, and they just slapped a small fine in stead of the full extent of the law.

I'm not a fan of politics, and I beleive most cops are just legalized criminal facist(sorry Tony), but raging on a system that was CALLED IN to a situation is wrong.

Blame the people who placed that call, cause with the actual outcome of this situation, a minor fine to enforce an issue is realy nothing.

Do I believe the people who made the call over reacted, YES, do I think thats the courts fault, NO!

Skowl wrote:That'll teach little girls to record 20 seconds of a movie on their cell phones!

I'm glad to see the justice system has it's priorities straight. Why bother with drug dealers, organised crime, counterfeiting, smuggling, murder and robbery when little girls are recording literally DOZENS of seconds of a movie! That's where all the man-power should go!

This should deter people from illegal copying movies... wait, no it won't.

Vile MK III wrote:ALL of that just for 20 sec of footage. Watta a waste of my tax dollors.

I agree with both of these statements. If they were gonna make an example of her, they shoulda gave her the max fine and jail time. Instead, they slap her on the wrist. Yeah, it's a petty crime. No, it won't stop pirating in the least. A huge over reaction, a huge waste of time and money. $71 doesn't even cover court costs, she should been made to pay the max if they were gonna drag it out this way.

Seibertron wrote:

Skowl wrote:

Seibertron wrote:

Megatron_Wolf wrote:This is sad. There are murderers, drug dealers, and rapists out there and they waste the efforts of cops and the courts on some 19 year old chick who recorded a clip on her phone. Just goes to show you that all people care about is the all mighty dollar. Some times it sickens me that i live in the "great" USA.

Do you think we should let people who commit non-violent crimes run free? I don't! A crime is a crime. It came down to a petty crime in the end for only $71 but nonetheless it is what it is. You do realize that there are people in the crime force that's sole speciality is handling cases like this, right?

I understand your point, and your right, but what gets me is that this is supposed to be the first time someone has gone to court over movie piracy issues, and they best they could find was a little girl who recorded 20 seconds of the film (which, if you go by the Supreme Court of Canada's ruling on distribution of music, is not technically illegal since she did not make a recording a over 10% of the film, which is the legal limit in Canada for copying of books and music, with a good lawyer, one could make the case for the same thing to be applied to film.)

Face it, small claims court or not, everytime a case opens, it costs tax payers money. They could have saved more than that 71$ fine was worth by just telling the girl not to do it again, and just move on to the bigger fish who are pirating... you know, complete movies.

Fair enough. Let's just not turn this into a trash-the-justice system thread, cool? She only had to pay a $71 fine so someone in the Justice system that's getting criticized in this thread also realized that this was rather petty. It's not like she only recorded 20 seconds and then went to jail for a year.

But how much money was spent in prosecuting her?

How much money could have been diverted to other parts of law enforcement to go after criminals that are SERIOUSLY hurting others?

That's what people are angry with. There's so many murders, rapes, and a host of other crimes that seriously screw up the lives of people that deserve more attention.

I'm not defending what she did, nor am I condemning the justice system, it just seems like a big waste of money for 20 seconds of footage.

Now the guy in Sydney who recorded an entire movie, THAT is worth prosecuting.

D-340 wrote:

Skowl wrote:That'll teach little girls to record 20 seconds of a movie on their cell phones!

I'm glad to see the justice system has it's priorities straight. Why bother with drug dealers, organised crime, counterfeiting, smuggling, murder and robbery when little girls are recording literally DOZENS of seconds of a movie! That's where all the man-power should go!

This should deter people from illegal copying movies... wait, no it won't.

Vile MK III wrote:ALL of that just for 20 sec of footage. Watta a waste of my tax dollors.

I agree with both of these statements. If they were gonna make an example of her, they shoulda gave her the max fine and jail time. Instead, they slap her on the wrist. Yeah, it's a petty crime. No, it won't stop pirating in the least. A huge over reaction, a huge waste of time and money. $71 doesn't even cover court costs, she should been made to pay the max if they were gonna drag it out this way.

But also keep in mind, we're probably the only people dragging this out. I bet it won't even make her local paper.

As for the $71 fine, thats about what I get charges for parking on the left side of the street on Monday!

As for it being a waste of tax payers money, I agree.

As for inforcing the maximum extent of the law and giving her a year jail time to make it worth the tax payers while

Do you have any idea how much it costs the tax payers to incarcerate someone for a year!?!

Go look it up and you'll see it costs a hell of alot more than an hour in court. If you went to public school, that my friend seems a bigger waste of tax payer money, and I intend on sueing you for a refund!

Burn wrote:Now the guy in Sydney who recorded an entire movie, THAT is worth prosecuting.

Add on the fact that he also uploaded the entire movie to be downloaded. The girl was only using it for personal use.

I guess the whole media industry is desperate for money(yeah right)
if there going after some poor girl who had 20 freakin' seconds of video, on a cell phone for crying out loud not the greatest quality
they should have thrown the case out!

Understand, when courts give fines like this, it's just to show they aren't completely lax, and even more so, it's to shut a load mouth up.

I've been a little bastard in my life, and I've stood before judges for alot worse than this. I've also brought people before judges for alot worse than this.

I know how the system works, and although I've learned my lessons, I still love "sticking it to the man", and I know the costs of those actions.

On that same note, so does the system, if it's a pointless offense, more often than not they do not want to be bothered with it as there are more important matters at hand.

As for a slap on the wrist, it is just that, a gesture that will hopefully not cause the situation to be repeated.

Now as for what Seibertron said about laws being laws, well this is a not for profit site, but there are countless images from this site being copied forpersonal use, should those downloaders be brought to court?

And on that same note, this site openly displays copywriten images with the sites name engraved on it.

So I ask, would you feel the same way if any of these companies, Hasbro, Takara, SunBow, Marvel, DreamWave, IDW, Paramount, or any of the others turned the same type of grevance upon here?

I've a pretty hard time seeing this as attempted piracy. How are you going to get a workable copy of a movie with just a cameraphone? On the other hand, I'm sure with the advance of technology that day won't be far off, but in this case they're just being heavy-handed. I bet she didn't even realise she was breaking the law.

well i don;t pirate movies its not good for the buisness; but i do not criticize anyone for downloading pirated movies or anything of that sort.

Wow..20 seconds? Personally, I don't get it. Who records 20 seconds worth of movie? Stupid people....

When I saw TF for the 5th time a boy was recording the whole movie near the end I finally saw what he was doing so I told the manager who took up his phone the boy came back crying..I think he was 12 years old from the look of it.

Liege Evilmus wrote:

D-340 wrote:

Skowl wrote:That'll teach little girls to record 20 seconds of a movie on their cell phones!

I'm glad to see the justice system has it's priorities straight. Why bother with drug dealers, organised crime, counterfeiting, smuggling, murder and robbery when little girls are recording literally DOZENS of seconds of a movie! That's where all the man-power should go!

This should deter people from illegal copying movies... wait, no it won't.

Vile MK III wrote:ALL of that just for 20 sec of footage. Watta a waste of my tax dollors.

I agree with both of these statements. If they were gonna make an example of her, they shoulda gave her the max fine and jail time. Instead, they slap her on the wrist. Yeah, it's a petty crime. No, it won't stop pirating in the least. A huge over reaction, a huge waste of time and money. $71 doesn't even cover court costs, she should been made to pay the max if they were gonna drag it out this way.

But also keep in mind, we're probably the only people dragging this out. I bet it won't even make her local paper.

As for the $71 fine, thats about what I get charges for parking on the left side of the street on Monday!

As for it being a waste of tax payers money, I agree.

As for inforcing the maximum extent of the law and giving her a year jail time to make it worth the tax payers while

Do you have any idea how much it costs the tax payers to incarcerate someone for a year!?!

Go look it up and you'll see it costs a hell of alot more than an hour in court. If you went to public school, that my friend seems a bigger waste of tax payer money, and I intend on sueing you for a refund!

Yes I do know, as a matter of fact, and I know this is a waste of time and money on all parts. I'm nowhere near condoning what she did, but if you gonna make an example, you may as well do it right. Hearing that this punishment was so light considering all they had to do to get to this point enrages me that much more. This wasn't an example or a deterrent, if anything, it shows the pirates that all they're gonna get is a slap on the wrist if they're caught.

And yeah, I went to public school. That last bit was needlessly harsh, don't you think?

D-340 wrote:

Liege Evilmus wrote:

D-340 wrote:

Skowl wrote:That'll teach little girls to record 20 seconds of a movie on their cell phones!

I'm glad to see the justice system has it's priorities straight. Why bother with drug dealers, organised crime, counterfeiting, smuggling, murder and robbery when little girls are recording literally DOZENS of seconds of a movie! That's where all the man-power should go!

This should deter people from illegal copying movies... wait, no it won't.

Vile MK III wrote:ALL of that just for 20 sec of footage. Watta a waste of my tax dollors.

I agree with both of these statements. If they were gonna make an example of her, they shoulda gave her the max fine and jail time. Instead, they slap her on the wrist. Yeah, it's a petty crime. No, it won't stop pirating in the least. A huge over reaction, a huge waste of time and money. $71 doesn't even cover court costs, she should been made to pay the max if they were gonna drag it out this way.

But also keep in mind, we're probably the only people dragging this out. I bet it won't even make her local paper.

As for the $71 fine, thats about what I get charges for parking on the left side of the street on Monday!

As for it being a waste of tax payers money, I agree.

As for inforcing the maximum extent of the law and giving her a year jail time to make it worth the tax payers while

Do you have any idea how much it costs the tax payers to incarcerate someone for a year!?!

Go look it up and you'll see it costs a hell of alot more than an hour in court. If you went to public school, that my friend seems a bigger waste of tax payer money, and I intend on sueing you for a refund!

Yes I do know, as a matter of fact, and I know this is a waste of time and money on all parts. I'm nowhere near condoning what she did, but if you gonna make an example, you may as well do it right. Hearing that this punishment was so light considering all they had to do to get to this point enrages me that much more. This wasn't an example or a deterrent, if anything, it shows the pirates that all they're gonna get is a slap on the wrist if they're caught.

And yeah, I went to public school. That last bit was needlessly harsh, don't you think?

I agree, piracy is illegal and just wrong in most cases, but if your gonna go through the trouble of making an example of someone, why not tap the shoulder of the guy sneeking in the video camera. If the usher is afraid of a fight, call a cop, they have guns!

To me this whole thing is pointless, simply asking the girl to put the phone away or leave would have been just as effective as a deterent in her case. But as I've also stated, we're probably the only people who care about this situation!

As for that last bit, lighten up!

I know that there are much bigger fish to fry than 20 seconds of piracy, but they still can't allow it since it's illegal! They stop murderers when the can, AND they stop piracy when they can.

But something I don't get is that they went and took this girl to court for THIS when I've see policemen go right by kids (and look right at them, while the kids have the cigarettes out.) smoking.
WHY? They could do something,but they don't, and that is wrong.

They did something for the girl about this but not for these kids, and with all the stuff about stopping (underaged) drug use and abuse, they should do something. This is a fault in our government where (in my opinion) although this would be from taxes, there should be (semi[coming form our taxes]) free rehab for those who need it.

And you may be thinking "This would just make us pay more in taxes!", but they're probably spending this on their own shit anyways. And if they wheren't then it could be the ones who are at risk of needing it (As in,little Tommy [11] was caught smoking weed, so now the parents must pay for this incase the Tommy needs to go to rehab.), or a kind citizen who donates so that people with financial difficulties can be relieved of some of the stress of the extra taxes.

Sorry for going kinda off topic with my crazy ideas...

I wonder what 20 sec. of footage she recorded...

what about the guys with the recorder recording the WHOLE movie... 20 secs... damn what a waste

Yeah, great. A $71 fine for a case that cost the taxpayer THOUSANDS in labor hours for the DA, judge, stenographer, etc.

So worth it. That'll teach her.

Meanwhile, people will still be able to download first run movies the weekend they come out. You cannot put the toothpate back in the tube. The MPAA is fighting an impossible battle.

Liege Evilmus wrote:As for that last bit, lighten up!

Sorry, didn't know you were joking. But then again, I can never tell if anyone is in the movie forum these days.

Everyone knows that this is totally a case of "Look where I'm at and you ain't here" moment!

Them charging her a "$71" fine after pleading no contest shows how lame they are.

What's next? No camera-phones allowed at NFL games or NASCAR races?

Try to live somewhere in Asia. You'll find that her actions are just "right". Many people in Asia have been trying to copy the whole movie, and they could sell it in the black market "legally".

But, since copying is illegal in the US and the EU, then it is still illegal for those living in those countries. Even a second will be illegal. The girl got what she deserved.

Burn wrote:

Skowl wrote:I'm glad to see the justice system has it's priorities straight. Why bother with drug dealers, organised crime, counterfeiting, smuggling, murder and robbery when little girls are recording literally DOZENS of seconds of a movie! That's where all the man-power should go!

Well bloody said.

wow... i concur.

prowl24 wrote:Try to live somewhere in Asia. You'll find that her actions are just "right". Many people in Asia have been trying to copy the whole movie, and they could sell it in the black market "legally".

But, since copying is illegal in the US and the EU, then it is still illegal for those living in those countries. Even a second will be illegal. The girl got what she deserved.

what about half a second

Recording 20 secs is not piracy.

You have to see what the intention is. You can't sell 20 secs to anybody. Not even 5 minutes.