13 minutes of new film Killers was broadcast on the Internet during it’s premier. It’s no ordinary case of camming though, as the person responsible, the films star Aston Kutcher, is the one behind it.
Film star and Hollywood ‘Punkd master’ Aston Kutcher is in the spotlight again. While some might consider it one of his stunts, this one could land him in jail. At the premier of his latest movie, Killers, Kutcher broadcast the first 13 minutes of the premier online.
This has caused a storm of outrage from many in the industry that say he’s not “treating the issue of piracy seriously”. However, the issue of piracy hurting the industry still has little evidence to back it up. In fact the movie industry is doing better than ever, with the MPAA reporting just 3 months ago, that “global box office receipts reached an all time high of $29.9 billion” in 2009.
Kutcher was unapologetic about the act. “Everybody calls people airing stuff on the web piracy,” he told Access Hollywood, “just because they’re not making money off of it yet. If they (executives) can figure out how to make money off of it, they won’t call it piracy anymore.” He is also adamant that he hasn’t broken any laws.
If only that were so. Under the Family Entertainment and Copyright Act of 2005, he did indeed commit an offense, unless he had the permission of the copyright holders (Kutcher, while a Producer on the film, is almost certainly not the copyright holder), and means that he can be imprisoned for up to 3 years, or fined, or both.
While it’s unlikely that he will be prosecuted, it does underscore the film industry’s determination to stick to the status-quo of the last few decades.
Article from: FreakBits.com Originally published June 4 2010
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