Every evening rush hour, hustlers lugging bags full of bootlegged movies walk the subway train aisles, calling "two for five dollars!" as brazenly as if they were selling hot dogs at Yankee Stadium. At those prices, the DVDs, often of current Hollywood blockbusters, sell well, despite laughable sound and picture quality. Few customers seem to care the copies were made illegally.
Bootleggers apparently have little to fear. Under state law, people caught videotaping inside a movie theater face a maximum fine of $250.
A bill pushed by the Motion Picture Association of America would make operating recording equipment inside a theater a criminal misdemeanor, raising the maximum punishment to a $1,000 fine and a year in jail. Making the crime a misdemeanor also would empower police to arrest violators on the spot, rather than simply issuing a summons.
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