Movie nights may violate copyright laws

[admin]

Part of U.S. copyright law states that movies are not allowed to be shown in public places without purchasing a license beforehand. You may not look at your residence hall lounge as a public place, but according to the law, dorm lounges can fall under that heading.

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It is stated in the Resident Assistant manual that students are not allowed to watch movies in the lounges. The penalties for doing so are fines between $500 and $20,000.

http://media.www.dailycollegian.com/...-2992309.shtml

[Chewy]

http://wiki.videolan.org/History

I guess this would qualify also

[drfsupercenter]

Just put a sign on the door that movie night will be held unless one of the attendees is an FBI agent.

[Chewy]

It's interesting, I work with a business that pays 10's of thousands of dollars in license fees every year to publicly broadcast/play/promote copyrighted material, whatever they want to do is fine, no questions asked. People try to teach dancing at a church or school however are prohibited from playing copyrighted music unless the church or school has paid for these licenses. We took a wrong turn somewhere. It's about time for the US Supreme Court to step up and do their constitutional duty.

rant off

[MilesAhead]

Originally Posted by Chewy

It's interesting, I work with a business that pays 10's of thousands of dollars in license fees every year to publicly broadcast/play/promote copyrighted material, whatever they want to do is fine, no questions asked. People try to teach dancing at a church or school however are prohibited from playing copyrighted music unless the church or school has paid for these licenses. We took a wrong turn somewhere. It's about time for the US Supreme Court to step up and do their constitutional duty.

rant off

Hummmmmmm, next thing we'll be busted for hummin' a tune without payin' the BMI. Makes me think of a comic who did a routine about bein' behind on his utility bills in the age when they charge for air. He's wheezin' as he's spare-changin' to get enough to buy another breath!!! (Maybe I shouldn't tell the joke... is it copyrighted?)