hiredgun

My question is simple: how does copyright law apply to a screening of a film (privately-owned on DVD) in a group setting?

To be clear, I'm part of the Residence Life staff at my university, and as part of a welcome-back event for our residents, we were hoping to show a feature film in the inner courtyard of the residence hall (dorm). It is a private space accessible to (and viewable by) only members of the university's student community. However, because this might be a fairly large group (I'd expect no less than fifty and up to a couple hundred residents to stop by), I was worried that legal issues might be involved.

Does anyone have experience with this?

Edit: also, the event is free.

Sage

Dude, my college did this ALL THE TIME only they used to set up a huge screen on the quad and have like, three hundred people at a time watching it. They also used to show free movies in the auditorium every Friday night. I think it's not a problem legally as long as you're not profiting off of showing movies. Didn't they ever show films in class at your high school? And what about all those film classes in college- the ones where the point of the entire class is to watch movies?

Don't sweat it at all- or just ask a professor in the Law building (assuming you guys have a pre-law degree)

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Willravel

"Federal Law provides severe civil and criminal penalties for the unauthorized ... exhibition ... of copywrighted motion pictures, video tapes, DVDs or video discs."

Technically it's illegal, but the odds of being turned in are greatly reduced by you not charging money. You have my seal of approval, but if you really want to play it safe, contact the movie company and get their permission in writing.

Lotronex

You can do it, but only if you get a license for public performance.

http://www.mplc.com/faq.php has details. You could probably get by without one, I don't think anyone's going to go to the MPAA and squeal if you show it w/out one.

n0nsensical

There is actually a specific exemption to the public performance right for classroom showings. For the larger performances, they probably had a license, and hiredgun, your university might have one too that you could be covered by. Somehow I kinda doubt they'll allow it even if they did, but it couldn't hurt to ask.

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"Prohibition will work great injury to the cause of temperance. It is a species of intemperance within itself, for it goes beyond the bounds of reason in that it attempts to control a man's appetite by legislation, and makes a crime out of things that are not crimes. A Prohibition law strikes a blow at the very principles upon which our government was founded." --Abraham Lincoln

The_Jazz

The key point here is that you're not charging an admission fee. There's no "magic number" of people that can watch a movie for free without having to get permission from the studio. Since a university is technically charging you to watch the movie in class (tution), that's the reason the excemption exists. In the scenario you described, you have nothing to worry about. I was a Hall Activities Coordinator in school, and we were always assured that this was not a problem at all.

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"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." - B. Franklin
"There ought to be limits to freedom." - George W. Bush
"We have met the enemy and he is us." - Pogo

hiredgun

Wow, thanks for all the quick responses! The consensus seems to be that it'll be okay for us to proceed without a license. My hall director had the same idea when I spoke to her today, so that seems to settle it.