Make it a federal crime to record movies

Rep Lamar Smith wants to make it a federal crime to record movies during a cinema performance.

His HR 2517, the so-called Piracy Deterrence and Education Act of 2003, is meant to, "enhance the government's resources for prosecuting intellectual property crimes, and involve the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Department of Justice in educating and warning the public regarding internet based copyright infringement".

Backing Smith when he sponsored it to the House Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet, and Intellectual Property (CIIP) on July 17 were, of course, fellow RIAA/MPAA enthusiasts Hollywood Howard Berman and John Conyers.

Rep Rick Boucher doesn't like it. Not at all. But the entertainment industry at large and the FBI, love it and now Smith wants an amendment in "the Nature of a Substitute" to make it a federal crime to, "record a copyrighted motion picture as it is being performed or displayed in a theater".

But, says Smith in a statement, his substitution doesn't include, "a corresponding penalty" so to put that right, "The Subcommittee intends to work with the Department of Justice, and the affected private parties on an appropriate penalty," he states. [Our emphasis.]

Involve "affected private parties,' hmm?

Smith was inspired, perhaps, by Michael Speck, a music industry 'enforcer' who did his best to have himself inserted into a sentencing procedure in Australia.

At the moment, it's merely a misdemeanor to record a movie in a theatre.