• Home
  • Latest
  • Fortune 500
  • Finance
  • Tech
  • Leadership
  • Lifestyle
  • Rankings
  • Multimedia
Tech

This Happened When a Guy Streamed a Movie to Facebook Live

Jeff John Roberts
By
Jeff John Roberts
Jeff John Roberts
Editor, Finance and Crypto
Down Arrow Button Icon
Jeff John Roberts
By
Jeff John Roberts
Jeff John Roberts
Editor, Finance and Crypto
Down Arrow Button Icon
June 3, 2016, 3:23 PM ET
Bruce Willis Sees Future in China as Cinema Boom Lures Hollywood
Seats in a theater display the Imax Corp. logo at a cinema in Beijing, China, on Thursday, Aug. 18, 2011. Box office receipts in China grew 64 percent last year to 10.2 billion yuan ($1.6 billion), according to the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television. Photographer: Nelson Ching/Bloomberg via Getty ImagesPhotograph by Nelson Ching — Bloomberg via Getty Images

It was just a matter of time until this happened. A student watching a rom-com at an Illinois cinema decided to use his phone to live-stream the film to his Facebook feed, leading the theater to claim (falsely) he had been “arrested” by police.

This is just the latest misadventure involving Facebook Live (FB), an app feature that lets anyone on the social network broadcast what they’re doing to their friends. Prior to the movie incident, the tool has been used to stream suicide, rape, and even murder.

Streaming a movie on the sly is, of course, hardly in the same category. But given Hollywood’s successful push to make the use of cameras in theaters a federal crime, it’s no surprise a studio would try to crack down on a Facebook stream.

 

 

Reports on an arrest came via BlueSky Cinemas, a theater that specializes in Indian movies. According to the cinema’s website, an unnamed student from Valparaiso University was arrested after he began streaming scenes from a romantic movie called A Aa.

As it turned out, the cinema had arranged for a remote team in India to monitor for illicit filming activity:

Antipiracy team in Hyderabad realized this and has taken immediate action by removing the links. Our Antipiracy team informed to theater management and theater management called cops. Student was caught red-handed with content. All the content immediately deleted from his device

But according to Commander Gregory Nazuka of the Rosemont, Illinois, police department, the cinema never called the cops and no arrest was made. Instead, the theater owner simply filed a police report online.

Get Data Sheet, Fortune’s technology newsletter.

The whole episode, first reported by TorrentFreak, is an example of heavy-handed tactics by the movie industry. But it also points to a potentially large problem for companies that charge for access to entertainment venues like theaters, sports games, and concerts.

The problem for these venues is that nearly everyone who attends an event now carries a live broadcasting device in their pockets. While tools such as Twitter’s Periscope (TWTR) have been around for a while, they are not nearly as mainstream as Facebook Live.

Studios and sports leagues, which are hyper-vigilant about protecting their intellectual property, will now have to decide how to go about policing the use of cell phones at their events—especially because the vast majority of people will be using them for entirely legal purposes.

One possible outcome is that sports venues and cinemas will lean on Facebook and other social media companies to cut off illegal streams. After a recent boxing match, for instance, Hollywood got into a widely-publicized confrontation with Twitter over the latter allowing live streams of the match.

About the Author
Jeff John Roberts
By Jeff John RobertsEditor, Finance and Crypto
LinkedIn iconTwitter icon

Jeff John Roberts is the Finance and Crypto editor at Fortune, overseeing coverage of the blockchain and how technology is changing finance.

See full bioRight Arrow Button Icon

Latest in Tech

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025

Most Popular

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Rankings
  • 100 Best Companies
  • Fortune 500
  • Global 500
  • Fortune 500 Europe
  • Most Powerful Women
  • Future 50
  • World’s Most Admired Companies
  • See All Rankings
Sections
  • Finance
  • Leadership
  • Success
  • Tech
  • Asia
  • Europe
  • Environment
  • Fortune Crypto
  • Health
  • Retail
  • Lifestyle
  • Politics
  • Newsletters
  • Magazine
  • Features
  • Commentary
  • Mpw
  • CEO Initiative
  • Conferences
  • Personal Finance
  • Education
Customer Support
  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Customer Service Portal
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms Of Use
  • Single Issues For Purchase
  • International Print
Commercial Services
  • Advertising
  • Fortune Brand Studio
  • Fortune Analytics
  • Fortune Conferences
  • Business Development
About Us
  • About Us
  • Editorial Calendar
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Diversity And Inclusion
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • Facebook icon
  • Twitter icon
  • LinkedIn icon
  • Instagram icon
  • Pinterest icon

Most Popular

placeholder alt text
North America
'I meant what I said in Davos': Carney says he really is planning a Canada split with the U.S. along with 12 new trade deals
By Rob Gillies and The Associated PressJanuary 28, 2026
2 days ago
placeholder alt text
Politics
The American taxpayer spent nearly half a billion dollars deploying federal troops to U.S. cities in 2025, CBO finds
By Nick LichtenbergJanuary 28, 2026
2 days ago
placeholder alt text
C-Suite
Jeff Bezos capped his Amazon salary at $80,000: ‘How could I possibly need more incentive?’
By Sydney LakeJanuary 28, 2026
2 days ago
placeholder alt text
C-Suite
Fortune 500 CEOs are no longer giving employees an A for effort. Now they want proof of impact
By Claire ZillmanJanuary 28, 2026
2 days ago
placeholder alt text
Investing
Jerome Powell got a direct question about the U.S. ‘losing credibility’ and the soaring price of gold and silver. He punted
By Eva RoytburgJanuary 29, 2026
23 hours ago
placeholder alt text
Personal Finance
Current price of silver as of Thursday, January 29, 2026
By Joseph HostetlerJanuary 29, 2026
23 hours ago

© 2026 Fortune Media IP Limited. All Rights Reserved. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy | CA Notice at Collection and Privacy Notice | Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information
FORTUNE is a trademark of Fortune Media IP Limited, registered in the U.S. and other countries. FORTUNE may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice.


Latest in Tech

taxi
Commentaryregulation
America’s AI regulatory patchwork is crushing startups and helping China
By James Richardson and Eric TanenblattJanuary 30, 2026
1 hour ago
Photo of Elon Musk
NewslettersTerm Sheet
$100 million-plus funding rounds used to be incredibly rare. Now, 40% of seed and Series A rounds are clearing that bar
By Allie GarfinkleJanuary 30, 2026
2 hours ago
NewslettersFortune Tech
Apple delivers blowout earnings; gets bupkis
By Alexei OreskovicJanuary 30, 2026
2 hours ago
AICollaboration
Are you a cyborg, a centaur, or a self-automator? Why businesses need the right kind of ‘humans in the loop’ in AI
By François Candelon, Katherine Kellogg, Hila Lifshitz and Steven RandazzoJanuary 30, 2026
3 hours ago
HealthScience
As billionaires chase immortality, this startup cofounded by a Harvard genetics professor gets FDA approval for the first partial de-aging human trial
By Marco Quiroz-GutierrezJanuary 30, 2026
4 hours ago
A man works on two computers while a coworker looks on in the background.
AIGen Z
Gen Z believes using AI is making their colleagues dumb and lazy, but may paradoxically see it as key to their own promotion, Wharton says
By Sasha RogelbergJanuary 30, 2026
5 hours ago