

A Maryland man was sentenced Tuesday to 21 months behind bars for using a camcorder to pirate movies at a theater.

Michael Dwayne Logan pleaded guilty in July to two felony counts (.pdf) of filming 28 Weeks Later and Enchanted in a District of Columbia theater last year.

Logan was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Richard Roberts of the District of Columbia under the Family Entertainment and Copyright Act, Title 18, United States Code, Section 2319B. The 2005 law makes it a federal felony to record movies at the theater without the copyright owners' consent. Scofflaws face a maximum three-year prison term and $250,000 fine.

Logan was nabbed in November after an investigator from the MPAA and local authorities caught him using a JVC high definition video camera. It was under his coat while in a Regal Cinema last year. "The lens of the recording device was facing the movie screen and was covered by a coat," said Cynthia Pinson, an FBI agent.

Logan, who was prohibited from going to a movie house for one year following his release, admitted (.pdf) that he produced DVDs from his clandestine filming and planned to sell them.

The MPAA, in a statement, said Logan was believed to have filmed as many as 100 movies at the theater.

Prosecutions for camcording or using mobile phones to record movies in a theater are infrequent. Many states also have laws on the books similar to the federal statute.

Last year, a teen pleaded guilty to filming 20 seconds of Transformers in a Virginia theater, in violation of that state's law. In that case, the world's largest movie chain pressured local authorities to prosecute.

Image: MPAA