“Twilight: New Moon” Taping Charges Dropped

Judge dismisses felony charges

22-year-old Samantha Tumpach can relax. There won't be any vampires, werewolves, or lawyers coming after her.

A Cook County judge dismissed the charges against the Chicago woman, who was accused of illegally videotaping the movie Twilight: New Moon.

Tumpach was arrested November 28 after a Muvico Theater usher caught her using a handheld video recorder at the movie showing. She was charged with criminal use of a motion picture exhibition facility, a Class 4 felony.

While Tumpach admitted that two short segments of the film were caught on her camera, her intention was not to record the movie. Instead, she said she was taping the events of her sister's birthday party.

Twilight director Chris Weitz came to the young woman's defense, telling the Sun-Times, "There is, needless to say, a difference between trying to protect copyright of a film and making an unfair example of someone who clearly seems not to have any intentions towards video piracy."

If found guilty, Tumpach would have faced up to three years in prison.

And that would've sucked.

Matt Bartosik is a Chicago native and a social media sovereign.

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