Police Arrest Man Camming ‘The Dark Knight’
Written by enigmax on July 20, 2008A man allegedly seen ‘camming’ the latest Batman movie has been arrested by police. Following guidelines, theater employees called the police after suspicions were aroused. According to the MPAA, many other movies have been recorded at this theater.
It was always going to be a big, big movie and it certainly didn’t disappoint, going to set a one-day box office record of $66.4 million on opening day, according to Warner’s head of distribution, Dan Fellman. No one, not even pirates are allowed to ruin this party.
Hindering piracy of the movie was always high on the list for Warner and it handed out night vision goggles in Australia in an attempt to thwart ‘cammers’ - people who record movies in theaters. In Australia ‘cammers’ are asked to leave if they are caught by theater staff, in the United States things are a little different.
According to reports, on Friday morning Eastglen 16 Theater employees grew suspicious that a man was recording, or ‘camming’ the “Dark Knight” movie. Following movie industry guidelines they called police at around 9:40pm, who arrived shortly after.
Lee’s Summit police confirmed that they found evidence that the 40-year-old man from Grandview, Mo. had recorded the movie so they arrested him. A few hours later the police went to the man’s house and conducted a search where they say they found pirate movies on DVD.
According to the MPAA, several other movies have been recorded at the Eastglen 16 theater, but at this stage it is not known if the man is affiliated with any particular group or was acting alone. Police have not released the name of the suspect.
Inevitably, and despite the best efforts of Warner, Rlslog reports that a copy of the movie has been leaked onto the Internet by a release group called “TradingStandards” who apparently ’stole’ it from a P2P group called ‘DEViSE’ who actually ’stole’ it from 2Bros - quite confusing. But anyway, by most accounts the quality is pretty poor and not worth bothering with at all, so Warner will be happy.
Considering the popularity of the movie, maybe this time it just has to be the big screen.
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128 Responses
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Is it legal for police to search your house just because you camming a movie ?
Well, in the US, you can expect everything today it seems…
They probably treat you like any criminal or terrorist, if you’ve done something illegal, they search if you’ve done that before, in their records and your house…
(I don’t know if it’s really that way, I just heard that once, I’m not american…)
If they can prove “Probable Cause” than no. Freedoms in the United States are going down the shitter.
So videotaping a movie is now a CRIMINAL act, punishable not by civil suit, but by arrest and proesecution by the state? Really?!
“Hindering piracy of the movie was always high on the list for Warner and it handed out night vision goggles in Australia in an attempt to thwart ‘cammers’ - people who record movies in theaters. In Australia ‘cammers’ are asked to leave if they are caught by theater staff, in the United States things are a little different.”
This is precisely the attitude and behavior that explains why I have not seen a movie in a theater since 1998 and why I just downloaded and watched a CAM version of Dark Knight on Saturday night. I have no interest in paying $10 to be treated like a criminal by a bunch of minimum wage monkeys for a pseudo-mafia organization. I would really love to buy the bluray version when it comes out, too… but because of behavior like this - I won’t be.
If you want to kick them out of your theater, fine. However, you have NO right (or should not) to call the police, force them to give their information, send them to jail, etc. Why is this above any number of other crimes? Unless it’s a serious crime, I can’t just call the police and have them do everything for me. I have to get the person’s information on my own. Then I have to get a lawyer. Then I can take them to court.
Hell, there are a lot of very serious crimes which don’t involve arrest. I can’t believe that pointing a video camera at a screen is one that does.
Fuck the Patriot Act.
ANYTHING can be considered “probable cause” in America. Not only that, but our government has judged that it is acceptable for people to invade your house without a proper search warrant… and without ever even letting you know they have done so. And they can tap your phone without going through the courts (see recent behaviors by the whitehouse, etc). Hell, they can even disappear you. How much longer until a theater owner or MPAA lackey can just call the FBI and have you whisked away to a carrier outside of national waters to have you tortured and killed?
Doesn’t seem like it’s far off, does it?
While I hate the RIAA / MPAA (MAFIAA) as much as anybody here, I do disagree that if caught camming the only punishment should be that you are let out of the cinema, try looking at it from their side for a second, on the other hand i totally agree that the punishments are way to harsh, a balance must be found and till it is: its just going to piss of a LOT of people like me, poster #4: No, and others who would actually buy the disk later on but now wont because we feel like we are just feeding the monster and making it stronger while its on its way to eat us.
Personally, I dont think a cam can do this movie justice anyway.
Cheers!
M
http://www.eZee.se
What the hell do people find appealing about cams ?
To me they are simply appalling.
I’m probably not enough of a masochist to do to me something like watching cams, i’d rather wait for proper DVD rips.
Welcome in the worst than nazi police totalitarian state called the fucking u$a
Quasimodo- it’s the spirit that counts
They have always thought it was criminal, as you can see in this familiar example:
http://img403.imageshack.us/my.php?image=fbiwarningxt8.jpg
I thought the cam was watchable.
“Lee’s Summit police confirmed that they found evidence that the 40-year-old man from Grandview, Mo. had recorded the movie so they arrested him. ***A few hours later the police went to the man’s house and conducted a search where they say they found pirate movies on DVD.***”
What the ****? That’s BS! If you get caught drunk driving they don’t search your house for booze!
:mad:
I hope he consented… If not, they would have had to have a warrant, and whoever gave the warrant is an idiot.
Probable cause, my bum, by the way. He wasn’t got in a robbery and they knew he might have been jacking jewelry before, or caught murdering people with weapons so they searched for more…
Hell, even if you get caught with illegal drugs they do not often search your house for them.
Looks like “Camming” is a worse offense than dealing drugs.
WTF?
I think it’s time for an over-the -top advertising campaign that lets everybody see how ridiculous this is getting.
BURNING A CD IS JUST LIKE RAPE!
CAMMING A MOVIE IS WORSE THAN MOLESTING A CHILD!
RAMPANT DOWNLOADING OF COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL IS COMPARABLE TO THE HOLOCAUST!
MP3 IS THE DEVILS COMPRESSION!
AXXO IS THE JEFFEREY DAHMER OF DIGITAL DISMEMBERMENT!
BITTORRENT IS THE AIDS WITH A DASH OF ANAL CANCER!
etc,etc.
Your CAPSLOCK button broken, goof?
Anyways, I hope they charge that guy with the heinous crime of making shitty releases available on BT sites. CAMs are for jackoffs.
This site is getting more retarded by the minute. I just got back from watching the dark knight in Imax. Man was that movie great, anyone who wants to watch a cam of a movie as good as that is a retard.
I download as much movies as the next guy but people who like cams for good movies such as this and don’t wanna support it are just douchebags. You want more good movies? support good movies then and pirate the crap out of bad ones then.
Just spamming “FUCK THE RIAA HAHAHAR LOLZ” on every topic makes you look as a intelligent as a retarded 12 year old. Go back to torrentspy or something where most of you idiots come from (sucks they took it down now, all the idiots come to other sites)
cams arent thaht bad if u want to see it during the hype…
Yep its true, America sucks huge cock when it comes to police. (I should know I live here and I just got f*cked over)
But on the bright side.. it was just a cam.. big whoop. DVDrip is all thats important.
@17 I always watch a movie in the theatres not because the cam is shitty i just like to get out sometimes…I don’t try to support anyone.
I’ll go and see the movie in the cinema £10 for the lazy boy chairs and free refills on coke / popcorn! however I will download it, I dont see why I should have to pay for it once I go to the cinema to see it? maybe they should rethink there approach and maybe give a DVD of the movie once you go and see it in the cinema? That way if you dont go to the cinema you can still purchase it to see it.
@ 17, although I agree with you, it is NOT good to support the movies you like by paying for it in the usual way. Just because you support one movie and not another does nothing to help the change, it only makes there side stronger. I perfectly understand you wanting to see it in imax, and sadly theres no way to see it in imax and support the movie more directly.. you have to give your money over to a greedy piece of shit industry. Its the same kinda thing as downloading a bands music, paying for there concert and buying a tshirt. You supported the artist directly, and the shit heads who didnt do a thing for you (The Music Industry) didnt get any money. Win Win scenario.
Just don’t buy the DVD.
This is amazingly retarded. Until they rewrite the laws (not far off, I’m sure) to say that businesses can establish their policies as criminal code, the BEST parallel they could draw would be to claim that taking their intellectual property = shoplifting.
And even if you buy that, they still fail - because he hadn’t left the premises.
It sickens me how often people in the US confuse company policy with the law. Even cops now, apparently.
Listen for it, and it’s disgusting how often managerial types will tell clerks and/or customers that something is “illegal” when they mean “against company policy.”
I dearly hope this guy sues for false arrest. He has a good case, and hopefully it’ll become news and dissuade similarly-minded “do what the guy in the suit tells you” cops.
i would gladly pay to see this movie, but i cant because they start it 1 month LATER here in germany and i won’t wait that long, sorry
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