No, not corn-squeezin’, white-lightnin’ bootlegging. This is the new bootlegging, and it has to do with bootleg or pirated DVDs.
Movie pirating and bootlegging cost the motion picture industry billions of dollars each year, and so Hollywood – led by the Motion Picture Association of America, the same people that rate movies - has lobbied the federal government and the states to make bootlegging videos and DVDs a crime. The federal government and at least 43 states now recognize bootlegging and pirating motion pictures to be a crime. Mississippi entered the war on bootleg movies in 2005.
Mississippi Code Annotated Section 97-23-92 makes it a crime to “knowingly operate the audiovisual recording function of any device in a motion picture theater while a motion picture is being exhibited without the consent of the theater owner.” A person convicted of this crime can be punished by a fine not to exceed $1000.00 or imprisonment for up to six months in the county jail. In addition, the statute states that the theater owner cannot be liable for “detaining” you if they catch you until law enforcement can get there.
This crime is in the “offenses against trade” section of the Mississippi Code, along with shoplifting, scalping tickets, home repair fraud, etc. It is a theft of intellectual property, and the variations on this type of theft can get complicated very quickly (downloading movies on the internet, peer-to-peer (P2P) sharing, etc.). Because it is complicated, if you are accused of this type of crime, you will need a lawyer who understands at least the basic technology involved.
My advice is to not even try to take a recording device into a movie theater, and to be very careful when buying DVDs, games, and movies, no matter what the format. Also, please know what you are doing when you are purchasing movies for download online. I don’t enjoy paying $8.50 at the movie theater either – and that does not even include the popcorn - but the amount of loss caused by bootlegging and piracy only increases the prices for all of us.
If you are accused of or arrested for any type of bootlegging or intellectual property theft, give me a call. I’ve done these types of cases before, and I’ll be glad to help you if I can.
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