random quotes ... to amuse, inspire, enrage:
  As early as the revivals of the Second Great Awakening, evangelists have been important producers and consumers of popular culture. Voluntary organizations such as the American Bible Society and the American Tract Society helped to usher in the mass media. Ira Sankey married secular tunes with evangelical lyrics. Then came what historians now refer to as the 'Great Reversal.' As liberal Protestants and Catholics embraced the Social Gospel, evangelicals narrowed the scope of Christian activism to converting individuals. They also began to turn against popular culture. Following the embarrassments of the Scopes trial of 1925, evangelicals followed their fundamentalist kin into a conservative Christian cocoon of their own making. No longer committed to Christianizing American culture, they decided to withdraw from it. This Great Reversal began to reverse itself after World War II, and by the late sixties a new creature had emerged from the old cocoon. The 'Neo-Evangelical,' as this creature was called, was more open to social action and to popular culture (including mass media). His resurgence, notably in the person of President Jimmy Carter, prompted Time and Newsweek to anoint 1976 'The Year of the Evangelical' and prepared the way for the powerful entry in the 1980s of born-again Christians into the public square. It also set the stage for Jesus rock.

tagged: religion, US popular history of Christianity, popular media
  —Stephen Prothero, American Jesus: How the Son of God Became a National Icon by Stephen Prothero (2003); Part One, Chapter 4 'Superstar', pp. 137-138..

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arrested for 20-second recording

Thursday, August 2nd, 2007 3:09 pm

Some poor kid took a short clip of the Transformers movie, and was hauled out and arrested. The theater (Regal Cinemas Ballston Common 12, in Arlington, Virginia) is pressing charges that could land this 19yo in prison for a year for the 20-second film clip. She recorded the clip to show her little brother, because she thought it would get him excited to go see the movie, too.

I think the only good outcome of this is that the theater has lost years of revenue from this young woman because in addition to trying to put her in prison for a year, they have banned her from their theater for life. Hopefully her friends will boycott the theater on her behalf too.

If you have any thoughts about the ludicrous nature of this prosecution, feel free to share them with the theater at (703) 527-9730; Regal Cinemas at 877-TELLREGAL (1-877-835-5734); or the Arlington, VA, Office of the Commonwealth’s Attorney at (703) 228-4410.

Her trial date is set for August 21. She’s being prosecuted under a new Virginia statute that criminalizes using cameras in movie theaters.

Further reading:

  • Washington Post 8/2
  • USA9.com
  • excess copyright
  • Two commenters on slashfilm note that “Regal offers employees, most of whom make minimum wage, $10,000 for catching a ‘pirate’. I’ve never heard of anyone getting it.”1 and “the MPAA gives a cash reward (Around $500 last time I checked) to whoever reports someone for using any kind of recording device in a move theater”2

cross-posted at sivacracy

update 8/9:

  • free culture NYU calls for a boycott.
  • a commenter posted the email address for the VP of investor relations: ddelaria at regalcinemas.com
  • a commenter at sivacracy suggests that people at arlington do a mass protest and everybody record 20-second video clips.

algorithmically similar posts:

» press the piracy button now, please, 2007-06-02 (score:26)
» … and the criminalization of copyright law continues, 2005-03-11 (score:15)
» moby on filesharing, 2004-12-08 (score:14)
» alabama – imprisoning pregnant women like it’s 2020 in Gilead, 2008-04-17 (score:13)

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 2nd, 2007 at 3:09 pm and is tagged copyright follies , , , , , , . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site. 707 views.

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