Public Film Screenings Question

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wintertriangles's Avatar
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It's all painted cold
10-08-13
My basic question is this: If a dvd has no FBI warning before or after the film, does that mean it qualifies for public screening?

Elaborated: I'm trying to screen a few films for the French club at my school, I've done it before a few times, but now I've been told it's a major problem. I was told that it's illegal to show films to a small group of people (I mean like 12 people) on a university campus because it violates piracy laws. Somehow. I'm told I have to secure rights to do this legally, which costs upwards of $1000. Regardless of the fact that teachers do this all the time with whatever movie, I don't want to cite them as an excuse to the fools in charge there because I don't want to get them in trouble, so I'm just trying to find a legal loophole.

I emailed Criterion because they have no FBI warnings on any of their french films that I own, but no response yet.



Mmmm Donuts's Avatar
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A Real Human Bean
10-08-13
That's quite ridiculous, really. One of my former teachers used movies for about 80% of his lessons. This was high school though, so I guess it could be stricter for places like universities, but it still sounds stupid to me.

Laws like these only push the need for piracy, not hinders it.
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Thursday Next's Avatar
I never could get the hang of Thursdays.
10-09-13
Isn't there a license the school can purchase which allows them to show films as long they don't charge for admission? I always understood that was how it worked, although different countries have different laws, obviously.



Pronstar's Avatar
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10-09-13
Originally Posted by Thursday Next
Isn't there a license the school can purchase which allows them to show films as long they don't charge for admission? I always understood that was how it worked, although different countries have different laws, obviously.
That is the way it's usually working. Don't know about different countries, though.



The Rodent's Avatar
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I Am Rick Cottontree
10-09-13
I know what WT is saying about the warnings etc, but I have a copy of Highlander that also has no warnings and stuff before or after the film...

But on the box there is "The Copyright Proprietor has Licensed this DVD, including its soundtrack, for Private Home use only. Unless otherwise expressly licensed by the Copyright Proprietor, all other rights are reserved. Any unauthorised copying, editing exhibition, renting, lending, public performance, diffusion and/or broadcast of this DVD or any part thereof is strictly prohibited."

Basically studios keep all rights reserved whether they choose to show this on the actual film or not.
I think the only way around it would probably be to carry the disc in a sleeve and pretend you lost the box in a bid to be ignorant of the rules, but even then you'd probably still get in trouble.