A woman accused of using the video recording feature on a digital camera to record several clips of 'Twilight Saga: New Moon' during a screening last November will sue the movie theater she was in before being arrested.
Samntha Tumpach, 22, filed the $50,000 civil suit in Illinois' Cook County Circuit Court against Muvico Theaters. Two recorded videos on the camcorder had 114-second and 85-second video clips, along with pictures taken during a birthday party hosted at the theater.
Tumpach reportedly was testing a new digital camera and recorded the movie in an effort to see one of the characters take his shirt off.
The theater's manager, working under monetary incentives by the Motion Picture Association of America, demanded Tumpach be arrested, with emotional distress noted in the lawsuit. After being escorted out of the theater, she was arrested, and spent two days in jail related to the case.
"Samantha, in the open theater area and in plain view of others, was subsequently placed under arrest, handcuffed and was walked through the theater and out to the officers' vehicle where she was placed in the rear seat of the squad car, while numerous theater guests witnessed, pointed and gasped as Samantha cried with fright, humiliation and shame," according to the lawsuit.
Tumpach originally faced three years jail sentence, but felony charges were dropped one month after her arrest.
Many of the pirated camcorder movies shared on P2P networks are from movie screenings outside of the United States, but there has been a recent crackdown on recording-in-theaters piracy. The MPAA has long tried to crack down on camcorder piracy, and has offered financial incentives to theaters and employees who are able to catch pirates. The wider use of 3D content is expected to help reduce camcorder piracy, because traditional video cameras are unable to record the 3D content.
