Spiderman Brings Out the Flies

A Southern California teen was caught with a digital camcorder at last night’s midnight showing of Spiderman 2 in the Los Angeles community of Chatsworth. Pacific Winnetka’s projectionist,an employee told our reporter: “If there was going to be a showing to catch them, it was that showing.”

Employees at the 21 plex use night vision goggles to scan the audience from the projection booth for signs of illegal recording, audio or video. Spiderman 2, probably this year’s biggest release, was certain to attract would be film pirates. Tonight’s accused was a 16 year old boy, whose name was not released because he is a minor. The employee we spoke with told us that the camera had a 256mb memmory card in it with clear evidence of the illegal recording. He and two other boys were led away from the theatre in handcuffs. No word yet as to how severe their charges will be. Recently, film and music piracy has been deemed a federal offense and the MPAA has enacted a program to reward employees who help to nab the perpetraters with up to $500.