Darth Lucas Strikes Again! — Page 2

zombie84 said:

The thing that kinda bugs me is that this was a bar, and they weren't charging admission. As far as I know, you don't need permission for such a thing. If I walk into a video store, there is always a movie playing there, and movie stores, whether big chains like Blockbuster or your local indie, don't seek permission. Bars show television shows, news, sports, and sometimes order pay-per-view events (and sometimes charge cover too) in order to attract business. Restaurants play music sometimes for their customer's convenience. So do coffee shops. Dance clubs base their entire business off playing copyrighted material for free for the pleasure of their patrons, and make big bucks off the drinks and cover that come with it.

Is this really so much different? Stores like HMV even play movies while you shop. When I was a kid, there was a restaurant-store called Sci-Fi World that was basically a comic book, novel, magazine, collectible and RPG store with a sci-fi theme, and they had a hamburger restaurant with a big, giant projector screen that would show movies. The first time I was there, Star Wars was playing, and other times it was Star Trek or Superman and the like. Stores will play shows in their display windows, dentists sometimes have television and videos to entertain the kids.

In a way, stuff like this is industry norms. I've been to bars where they screen movies while you sit and talk and drink, and you can watch the movie or sit further away from the area its playing and have your own space. It's really nothing illegal. You shouldn't need permission every time you display something that is copyrighted.

Technically speaking, it would therefore be illegal for me to bring my Blu-ray over to your house and show you the new Star Wars set. Playing your DVDs at a house party would be illegal public display. But of course it's not, but when you start charging money for it then maybe it would become as such. But is this different from the entire dance club industry, or bars with cover? I'm not sure.

I'm not sure if I comfortable with the idea in society that you have to pay money or get permission every time you want to freely display something that's owned by a company. It didn't use to be that way, and it's still largely not, but I feel like more and more there is this acceptance of it.

Bars pay a special fee for PPVs. I know that WrestleMania in a bar costs the bar $5000 (last year at least). There are different rules for regular TV.

Technically Blockbuster video stores were not allowed to play movies because of copyright issues, but had special liscensed screener tapers.

DJs and dance clubs do need to pay a liscense on the music they play (legally). So technicaly do restaurants, malls, and wedding receptions. Its the ASCAP and BMI.

A house party to watch Star Wars is totally legal (as long as you don't charge admission). Schools, oil rigs, prisons, churches, bars, and restaurants are not considered private home usage. When I worked the front desk at my college dorms, we screened specially licensed movies, because as a public venue we couldn't just show whatever we felt like.

The bar stood to make a sizable profit on drinks and whatever else they serve. It was not a private showing it was public. And it was not for free just because no admission was being charged. This is a simple copyright issues that would be faced with pretty much anything they wanted to show and not get permission. Home video, be it VHS, LD, DVD, or BRD, has always had a disclaimer that it is for private home viewing and any public showing are prohibited. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that any public showing, much less a bar, would get in trouble for this. Lucas isn't the only one to enforce his copyright.

And I know a DJ and they have to have a license (very similar to radio) to play the music.

While a lot of people might get away with violating the public performance aspect of copyright, that doesn't mean it is legal, it just means they didn't get caught.

Now if this had been a private party and not at a bar, I might tend to agree with that Lucas would have gone past being reasonable, but this was a bar, a business, and they really shouldn't be surprised. Admission or no, they were going to make a profit from this.