Criminal Law Blog
September 11, 2005
A Criminal Attorney Blogs: Using Your Cell Phone In Movie Theater Could Be A Felony
If you’ve seen a movie at the theaters in the last 10 years, you’ve no doubt seen the ordinarily polite request that you not use your cell phone during the show.
The legislators finished asking politely as of August 31, 2005. On September 1, 2005, the gloves came off.
Senate Bill 481 criminalizes recording a movie, or any portion of a movie, while in a movie theater without the theater owner’s permission. The wording is so broad that
it could include using a cell phone camera.
The 1st offense is a Class A Misdemeanor, the 2nd a State Jail Felony, and the 3rd a 3rd Degree Felony.
When I was a prosecutor I learned that one of the biggest mistakes I could make was to write an indictment so that it charged the defendant with more than what he could be fairly accused with. That is called “over-charging.” Maybe the legislature is writing legislation so that suspects can be charged with more than common sense says should be illegal. Perhaps we can call that “over-legislating.”
If you are really interested, you can read Senate Bill 481 for yourself. The link below will help you search for it. Just click on the link and type “SB481” in and hit enter.
http://www.capitol.state.tx.us/tlo/legislation/bill_status.htm
Be sure the session shown is the 79th Regular Session, not some other Session of the 79th Legislature.
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