Arlington County’s top prosecutor, Richard E. Trodden, tells THREAT LEVEL he was pressured by Regal Entertainment Group, the world’s largest movie exhibitor, to prosecute a 19-year-old Virginia woman for filming 20 seconds of Transformers.

"What they were saying, ‘Could you get her to admit that it wasn’t right.’ They wanted to make sure the message gets out," Trodden said in a telephone interview Wednesday. "This was kind of trying to address the concerns of the theater people, and the fact that it was not an outrageous crime."

Trodden, pictured at right, said he spoke with Randy Smith, Regal’s general counsel. Messages left for Smith at the company’s Knoxville, Tennessee headquarters were not immediately returned.

Jhannet Sejas, 19, pleaded guilty last week in Arlington County General District Court to one misdemeanor count of filming a motion picture in a movie house owned by Regal Cinemas. The statute, like the 37 others nationwide sponsored by the motion picture industry, deems filmgoers guilty for filming a "portion" or a "portion thereof" of a movie.

"I totally forgot that I was not allowed to do that," Sejas said Wednesday. "I did it without thinking clearly.

Her attorney, Sandra Hughes, said she "wished the case hadn’t gotten this far as it did."

"I know that Regal Cinemas has a zero-tolerance policy," she added.

Sejas, who paid a $71 fine and faced a maximum year in jail and $2,500 penalty, was arrested at Arlington County Regal Cinema theater last month. She said her only intention behind her crime, committed with a Canon Powershot camera, was to show her little brother a snippet of the show.

Trodden, the county’s top prosecutor, conceded Sejas’ crime was minimal.

"The statute is clear: you’re not allowed to photograph any part," Trodden said. "It was not an egregious case. That’s why we came to this moderate disposition."

Trodden said Sejas, as part of the plea deal, will have the conviction removed from her record in a year if she stays out of trouble.

"What it boils down to, she said ‘I shouldn’t have done this.’ If she keeps her nose clean, this will go away and there will be no record."

Regal Cinemas, part of the Regal Entertainment Group, says it’s the world’s largest motion picture exhibitor. The group comprises of Regal Cinemas, United Artists Theatres and Edwards Theatres. The group says it operates 6,386 screens in 539 locations in 40 states and the District of Columbia.

UPDATE: Some enraged readers at BoingBoing suggest people film 20-second snippets of the movie in question and string them together into a film and send it to Regal. As Jon M points out, such a move would be a "kick in the pants." Threat Level does not encourage piracy, but is amused nevertheless by the suggestion. Threat level readers have written in to say they will boycott Regal.

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