Film Piracy Now a Misdemeanor in NYC

news.com

As of Tuesday, the toll for film piracy in New York is now a misdemeanor "that carries up to six months in jail and penalties of up to $5,000". Because the illegal videotaping of movies in theaters and bootlegging attribute to 40% of film piracy annually, Mayor Michael Bloomberg responded by enacting more serious consequences for the crime.

Since bootlegging accounts for billions of dollars the movie industry is robbed of on a yearly basis, I'm not sure why it has taken so long for state governments to respond. Home-recorded movies have been around for years, and only now is NY cracking down on the copyright infringers. Moreover, this legislation has come at a time when, in my opinion, the move towards laws prohibiting Internet downloading should be the main focus. Bit Torrent software allows millions of users to get, not only single movies, but also entire seasons of TV shows, and the consequences for people uploading and downloading are lacking. It seems that the approach is to focus on agreements with production companies to sell the rights to use their material, with a fee of course, rather than punishing the illegal file-sharers themselves. Congress has already dropped the ball on controlling in-theater tapings, and policy needs to be enforced sooner than later to prevent that mistake for the illegal distribution of media via the Internet.