DVD Showings

DVD months before they come out on video (I am
before (or very close to) its cinema release
out and it would be an awful shame if we had to
laws and the terms and conditions of film
should only show them a month or two before
Just as legal or illegal I'd imagine.....

We're not charging for the night - it's a private showing so no problem
being done there I believe.
The disc itself is not illegal ie pirated.
The import of the disc is not prohibited.

Can we be done for the use of a chipped DVD player ? ? If so we scr3wed
already ....

Just my basic thoughts - Jim Smart's the lawyer amongst us he might have a
clearer idea ....




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True. The existance of the disc in the hands of an IFIS member in Egham is
entirely legal.
Apart from the message from the FBI on the disc saying "Not to be shown at
clubs/societies"
There's a similar message on all home videos.
I assumed that since the Union were happy with IFIS showing videos, that
there was an arrangement with someone somewhere. I believe they have been
informed of IFIS' plans in the past, including the intent to show imports,
and have agreed to the events taking place.
No. Definitely not.

I believe that that's an issue between the manufacturers who license the use
of the technology and the film distributors, or some such money-grabbing
weasels. They have agreed not to sell multi-region players, but that's about
the size of it.

Dominic

being done there I believe.
prohibited.

These points, however true, are also irrelevent.

As I understand it, the public showing in this country of video not
certificated by the BBFC is a criminal offence. Now I know you can argue
that this is a 'private' showing, but as far as the BBFC is concerned, I
assure you it isn't.

Secondly, "The import of the disc is not prohibited..." for private use.
Any use of copyrighted material against the copyright owner's explicit
instructions regarding regional availability is a breach of their copyright
and is thus in contravention of international copyright treaties.

The above 2 technicalities also apply to any DVD personally imported from
another country, such as The Matrix, Blair Witch Project, etc. The key word
there is "personally".

Now, in my opinion, this doesn't amount to a hill a beans, but FACT might
not share my opinion. Showing such a high profile film, which is obviously
not available in this country, could draw their attention. I expect it
won't, but it might.

The only other caveat is what funny deals the Student Union as cut. I would
suspect that in court, whatever deals they have done won't cover one or both
of the 2 problems, but if that's a risk that has been taken before...
already ....

Certainly not. There is absolutely no law against the owner of a piece of
property altering that property (as long as it doesn't become dangerous,
etc, etc). A chipped DVD player isn't any more illegal than a VCR that can
play NTSC tapes. There is an arrangement within the DVD Consortium (film
makers and player makers) not to make chipped players. But this has nothing
to do with you, me, or the people that sell chipped players.

---

Matthew Houghton

I'm no legal expert by any means, but I'm certain that if IFIS were to get
hammered for copyright infringement, then the SU itself would be in just as
much trouble. After all, they show videos either in the main hall, or in
Tommy's nearly every week, and there is absolutely no way they can claim
that as private. This is no defence at all, but my point is that perhaps it
would be a good idea to check with the person who organises these to see
what arrangements they have (if any).

If the committee really are worried about drawing attention over this, then
delay showing it for a week or two the time it took to import my lightsabre,
I doubt you could get it before the 29th anyway.

Oh yes, and well done with fresher's fayre. That is an amazing starting
membership.


Andy

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Email: andy@
Website: http://zap.to/leopard

I don't have time to write much now, but there is an NUS agreement with film
distributors allowing the showing of films in union buildings not for any
profit....


in mega rush.....
david

I thought I'd just add in my innane ramblings.

There are essentially two issues here that are getting somewhat blurred into
one. The first is the business of showing films at all at a society
gathering i.e. a video event. Let's forget for a minute what we're showing
as all videos prohibit this form of viewing anyway (normally) so it makes no
odds. A few years back I believe the SU got into a lot of trouble for
showing films illegally theselves. They got hit with a big fine and the next
year's theoric allocations were on the slim side. They then went out and did
what they should have done in the first place which was to buy a license
from the Performing Rights Society. Once purchased this entitles you to
broadcast music, films etc legally as the performers get paid from the
license fee. You can bet that the Union are now well covered. Just to be
sure I approached them last year on this matter. I've run quite a few video
events including showing Dominic's copy of John Carpenters Vampires which
has never been shown in the UK. I emailed the clubs and socs sabbatical
asking him about showing films and he was perfectly happy with it. He was
even tempted to come along. As has been mentioned the event must be non
chargeable. Even this rule is fairly flexible as it is acceptable to charge
for a larger event where showing films is only a small part, such as at a
convention.

OK that covers the general thorny issue of showing films at all. We now come
to the huge rose bush issue of showing US films. As has been mentioned this
is usually ignored but when we're showing films that aren't released over
here it's as well to know the score. At the end of the day I don't think
that we can come up with a definitive answer to this. If we're being
strictly legal about it then no I don't think we can show them but then we
probably couldn't run the event at all due to the lack of a qualified
properly equipped first aider (I'm guessing). It depends how deep you want
to get. The fact of the matter is that the jury is still out on the exact
legality of this one. Yes almost all the UK distributors of Region 1 DVDs
were busted but I don't believe that there's been any kind of a court
hearing and some distributors still operate openly. As for the regulations
set by the publisher, yes again this is probably binding but you'll probably
find that every one of you has sent an email that was illegal in some state
in America due to various regulations on swearing etc. As it is legal to
personally import films I really don't think it's that big an issue - it's
the distribution of them that the publishers don't like. Groups like the
BBFC and FACT are not interested in noddy little groups of students. They
make broad sweeping policy decisions at a high level i.e. aimed at the
publishers, film makers and distributors. These decisions then filter down
to us end viewers. If a loop hole exists (such as personal importation) then
their interest is in plugging that hold at a high level, not in trying to
spot every group of mates showing the film. As I said Vampires has never
been given a certificate over here. We still advertised the fact that we
were showing it on posters that got distributed around the area. I checked
with the Union and they were happy and we didn't hear a thing. I think that
that's your example into how small an issue this really is - it's the
license to show films at all that is the biggie.

As I said I don't think that this is one we can conclusively rule on. The
best we can do is ensure that the Union is happy as it's their neck on the
line not ours. Why not send another email to the Union and get their
response.


Regards,

Richard



-----Original Message-----
From: Adamson D [mailto:D.Adamson@]
Sent: 01 October 1999 19:26
To: 'chat@'
Subject: RE: DVD Showings


I don't have time to write much now, but there is an NUS agreement with film
distributors allowing the showing of films in union buildings not for any
profit....


in mega rush.....
david

being done there I believe.
prohibited.

These points, however true, are also irrelevent.

As I understand it, the public showing in this country of video not
certificated by the BBFC is a criminal offence. Now I know you can argue
that this is a 'private' showing, but as far as the BBFC is concerned, it
isn't.

Secondly, "The import of the disc is not prohibited" ... for private use.
Any use of copyrighted material against the copyright owner's explicit
instructions regarding regional availability is a breach of their copyright
and is thus in contravention of international copyright treaties.

The above 2 technicalities also apply to any DVD personally imported from
another country, such as The Matrix, Blair Witch Project, etc. The key word
there is "personally".

Now, in my opinion, this doesn't amount to a hill a beans, but FACT might
not share my opinion. Showing such a high profile film, which is obviously
not available in this country, could draw their attention. I expect it
won't, but it might.

The only other caveat is what funny deals the Student Union as cut. I would
suspect that in court, whatever deals they have done won't cover one or both
of the 2 problems, but if that's a risk that has been taken before...
already ....

Certainly not. There is absolutely no law against the owner of a piece of
property altering that property (as long as it doesn't become dangerous,
etc, etc). A chipped DVD player isn't any more illegal than a VCR that can
play NTSC tapes. There is an arrangement within the DVD Consortium (film
makers and player makers) not to make chipped players. But this has nothing
to do with you, me, or the people that sell chipped players.

---

Matt.