Movie piracy : 2 years prison for a camcorder

The culprit arrested for flagrantly filming Batman: The Dark Knight in a movie theatre in the United States has now been handed a two year prison sentence.

The MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) charged with defending the interests of the American film industry reports that Robert Henderson has been condemned by a district court in Kansas.

On the 18th of July 2008, Robert Henderson was arrested in his regular movie theatre wearing a long winter coat in the middle of summer (!). This attracted the attention of MPAA investigators who alerted authorities. Once searched by law enforcement officials, a hidden video camera was discovered under Henderson’s coat.

The man pleaded guilty to intellectual property theft for recording "Batman: The Dark Knight". The theatre had been put under surveillance after an illegal copy of "Hancock" had previously been recorded and released to the internet. At Robert Henderson’s home, 1 240 counterfeit DVD’s were discovered.

He was last week condemned to two years prison, with the fine of 24 738 dollars being paid to the MPAA who declared: "This is an appropriate sentence for a very serious crime, and we hope that this will act as a warning to other thieves that they will face severe consequences if they engage in similar activities."

In August 2008 in France, a man was caught blatantly filming "Bangkok Dangerous". The French pirate was condemned to a suspended four month prison sentence earlier this month, in addition to a symbolic fine of 1 Euro being ordered by the Caen court. In his case, it was apparently the first time he had recorded a film.