Woman arrested for trying to record 'Twilight' on digital camera

[[A]]

Taping three minutes of “Twilight: New Moon” during a visit to a Rosemont movie theater landed Samantha Tumpach in a jail cell for two nights.

Now, the 22-year-old Chicago woman faces up to three years in prison after being charged with a rarely invoked felony designed to prevent movie patrons from recording hot new movies and selling bootleg copies.

But Tumpach insisted Wednesday that’s not what she was doing — she was actually taping parts of her sister’s surprise birthday party celebrated at the Muvico Theater in Rosemont.

While she acknowledged there are short bits of the movie on her digital camera, there are other images that have nothing to do with the new film — including she and a few other family members singing “Happy Birthday” to her 29-year-old sister at the theater.

“It was a big thing over nothing,” Tumpach said of her Saturday afternoon arrest. “We were just messing around. Everyone is so surprised it got this far.”

She was nabbed when a worker saw her shooting video during the movie, Rosemont police said.

Managers contacted police, who examined the small digital camera, which also records video segments, Cmdr. Frank Siciliano said. Officers found that Tumpach had taped “two very short segments” of the movie — no more than four minutes total, he said.

Tumpach was arrested after theater managers insisted on pressing charges, he said. She was charged with criminal use of a motion picture exhibition. She remained jailed for two nights in Rosemont’s police station until being taken to bond court on Monday, where a Cook County judge ordered her released on a personal recognizance bond that didn’t require her to post any cash.

Rosemont police, though, seemed to sympathize with her situation, she said. “They were so nice to me,” she said.

Tumpach insisted she recorded no more than three minutes while in the theater — and said not all of the video she shot was of the movie. There’s footage of she and her relatives singing to her sister, she said. “We sang ‘Happy Birthday’ to her in the theater,” Tumpach said.

She also took pictures of family members in the theater before the film began, but an usher who saw the photo session never issued them a warning, Tumpach said.

As ads and previews ran on the big screen, she fiddled with the camera — which she got in July and is still learning how to work — and was surprised to see it took clear videos of the screen.

The footage she shot also includes the pre-film commercials, as well as her talking about the camera and the movie.

“You can hear me talking the whole time,” Tumpach said.

She plans to fight in court the felony filed against her because she said she did nothing wrong — and certainly didn’t try to secretly tape the movie.

“It was never my intention to record the movie,” she said.

http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/1916606,twilight-taping-arrest-movie-120209.article

 

[SuperFerret]

That's stupid. Vampires don't show up on video.

 

[Aesop Rocks]

Oh. YOU.

 

[[A]]

Besides, sparkles look terrible in these CAM rips..

 

[VenomVsSpidey]

only two nights for three minutes? man, thats awesome, I'll make sure to record only the last five minutes of Iron Man 2 so I only get 3 days.

 

[Manic]

Ugh. I'm convinced some online journalists are given an x word minimum, and they pad out their articles by doing crap like writing two separate paragraphs that say:

"While she acknowledged there are short bits of the movie on her digital camera, there are other images that have nothing to do with the new film — including she and a few other family members singing “Happy Birthday” to her 29-year-old sister at the theater."
--and--
"There’s footage of she and her relatives singing to her sister, she said. 'We sang Happy Birthday to her in the theater,' Tumpach said."

I mean, way to repeat yourself.

 

[Ghostvirus]

^Oh thank god! I thought I was the only one that noticed that happening!

 

[Casius--J]

^Oh thank god! I thought I was the only one that noticed that happening!

Yeah I was like what the hell didnt I just read this???

Crazy though, I hope she beats the case

 

[Heretic]

Is it true that in the sunlight, your butch cellmate sparkles?

 

[CConn]

She should be taken to gitmo immediately.

 

[PyroChamber]

Funny it happened in Chicago, I see people trying to sell me bootleg movies all the time.

 

[Schlosser85]

Three years in prison?? The most that should happen should be throwing her out of the theater.

New Moon is online at various places online anyway. but you didn't hear that from me

 

[Obi-Ron]

I'm surprised we haven't heard from whoever owns the rights to "Happy Birthday"

 

[[A]]

Ugh. I'm convinced some online journalists are given an x word minimum, and they pad out their articles by doing crap like writing two separate paragraphs that say

It happens a lot when it's breaking news and there's really not much information out there and you can't have a 2 paragraph article. Not that this is ground-breaking news, of course..

 

[Two-Face]

How come nobody tried to tape The Dark Knight? I'm jealous

 

[Schlosser85]

^ They did, because I watched it for months.

 

[The Lizard]

I would think that upon reviewing the video footage and seeing them sing happy birthday, the police would dismiss the case. After all, you can't really bootleg video of your twenty-something relatives humiliating themselves in a theater showing New Moon.

 

[OctaviusINC]

Heh. Rosemont, eh? I go to that theater all the time. What a funny world we live in.

 

[Lunar_Wolf]

I think she should be fined. Not sent to jail for 3 years. If she was recording the whole film, then the fine should be larger. If you robbed a dvd from a store, would you get 3 years?

 

[the_ultimate_evil]

waste of HD space