Add Your Photos and Video to This Story

Rough Justice: Little Girl Pleads Guilty for 20-Second Film Recording

by jordan | August 21, 2007 at 04:16 pm | 581 views | 1 comment

This leaves a bad taste in my mouth... Like a Canon Powershot can even record a full movie! I am deeply uncomfortable with a consortium of distributors driving criminal law in order to defend a business model taht would appear to be nearing its sell-by date.

The teen arrested last month for filming 20 seconds of Transformers in a Virginia theater has pleaded guilty to one count of unlawfully recording a motion picture in violation of state law.

The case is believed to be the first in which somebody was arrested and convicted for filming part of a movie for personal, noncommercial use in the United States.

The guilty plea (.pdf) by Jhannet Sejas, 19, a Marymount University sophomore, spared her a maximum year in jail. Under last week's deal in Arlington County General District Court, Sejas was fined $71 in court costs and could have been on the hook for a maximum $2,500 fine, according to court records.

When arrested on her birthday last month, the Annandale, Virginia, resident said she was taking the short clip with a Canon PowerShot to show her 13-year-old brother. Neither Sejas nor her attorney were immediately available for comment. If Sejas stays out of trouble for a year, the misdemeanor will be expunged from her record.