# Question about video and copyright law



## the dogman (Jul 8, 2007)

I know this is the music section, but it seems to the most appropriate place to ask a video question.

I'm in the planning stage for a haunted house next year and the building we'll be using has a set of fixed bleachers we would like to utilize as a waiting area. It's set up just right for making a mini theater, and we have considered showing short movie clips with haunt rules/warnings in between. We'll have some seating where they can wait inside, out of the cold, perhaps offer some popcorn and juice, and they can sit through a few scary movie clips before heading through the haunt.
Now, since people are paying to go through this haunt, I'd like to avoid getting hit with copyright violation fines or any other issue related to showing movie bits without special permissions. I know there are some fair use rules regarding short movie clips, but I don't know my way around what is allowed and what isn't.

Do you guys have any knowledge of what is and isn't acceptable for this type of thing?
Or should I play it safe, avoid using movies and instead just play some spooky music with a picture montage and haunt rules/warnings?


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## Dark lord (Jan 8, 2007)

I know of someone that was using Disney dvd's & kind of doing window projections to entertain the wee ones one Halloween & was told by local PD he was infringing on copyrighted material & to stop !! & he wasn't charging anything.......!?!?

Technically it's all copyright infringing.......clips or full scenes / movies without permission, charging or not.....pretty much 95% of Youtube is infringement.....

No-see-no-tell is a general getting lucky,....the most you would probably get is a verbal spanking ( as long as you don't enjoy those....LoL )


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## Frankie's Girl (Aug 27, 2007)

That would be considered usage as a public performance, and any copyrighted videos you show means you need to obtain a performance license fees and a fine if caught (and I've read about some instances where folks that had a "movie night" and charged an admission got busted by cops - can't remember how long ago).

http://www.mpaa.org/contentprotection/public-performance-law



You can avoid paying any fees by using clips of movies in the public domain. That means that for whatever reason (accidentally forgetting to FILE a copyright, aged out of copyright, etc...) the films don't have any licensed ownership and can be shown without any permission to however large a crowd you want. 

There are some real doozys in there, too. 

Night of Living Dead 
(this was an "oops we forgot" situation)

The Brain That Wouldn't Die
(great kitch movie)

Nosferatu - GREAT silent movie with scary visuals
The Cabinet of Dr. Calgari 
Phantom of the Opera
(all of these are silent pics - but they are classics that have amazing visual impact and influenced much of the horror movies to come after)

Check out http://www.horrortheque.com/ for many, many more good (and so bad it's good) movies that are listed in the public domain - and therefore free for you to use. Double check if at all possible (google search the movie title and "public domain" to see if it pulls up anything that says that copyright was restored). There have been a few cases where something was pulled out of public domain and the Horrotheque site isn't up to date on some of them, but in general, you should be safe with the silent movies especially)


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## HalloweenHouseParty (Sep 14, 2010)

I wouldn't worry about a thing. Seriously!

If you were a massive production drawing in hundreds of thousands, than I might think twice.


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## mat (Feb 6, 2012)

As Frankie's Girl pointed out, copyright infringement has NOTHING to do with money changing hands. It's all about "public performance."

For information about fair use, check here: http://www.copyright.gov/fls/fl102.html

But as she has excellently pointed out, you can completely avoid potential problems by using things in public domain.


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## the dogman (Jul 8, 2007)

Thanks for the link Frankie! That's a huge help for our plan.
For silent film clips I can try hooking some generic spooky music that fits the scene, to try and drowned out the other haunt noises.

I know I could try to use whatever and hope folks will look the other way and not report it, but I would prefer to stay inside the lines for this.


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## oaklawn Crematory (Jun 25, 2010)

Dark lord said:


> I know of someone that was using Disney dvd's & kind of doing window projections to entertain the wee ones one Halloween & was told by local PD he was infringing on copyrighted material & to stop !! & he wasn't charging anything.......!?!?
> 
> Technically it's all copyright infringing.......clips or full scenes / movies without permission, charging or not.....pretty much 95% of Youtube is infringement.....
> 
> No-see-no-tell is a general getting lucky,....the most you would probably get is a verbal spanking ( as long as you don't enjoy those....LoL )


LMAO! Local PD cannot enforce federal law...tell 'em to go pack sand!


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## Frankie's Girl (Aug 27, 2007)

Gotta say, I am a graphic designer, and if someone used something I made without permission, it would really bother me. I took copyright classes, and it is pretty straightforward - if you didn't make it yourself and didn't get permission, then you are infringing on the copyright. That goes for an image, music, or video.

Fair use covers educational, parody, critique usages. If it doesn't fall in those areas (and they are VERY strict about what qualifies as educational) means get permission and maybe pay a licensing fee, or you are technically stealing. If it's in the public domain, that's fine as those are free for anyone. But public domain doesn't mean you found it on the internet - it means there is no copyright holder on the art/film/music in question. BIG difference.

Even if there is a copyright holder (the creator of the piece) if they okay using their stuff for personal use (in other words, no commercial/sales useage or charging an entry fee yourself) - then you're golden. 

Everyone should be aware - just because you own the dvd, or found an image on the web, that doesn't mean it is free to use for whatever. 

Getting off my soap box now...
(and definitely appreciate the dogman's attitude.  Keep being awesome!)


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## mat (Feb 6, 2012)

It's easy to think no one is watching or cares, but that's just not true. Coming from a professional theatre background, I can tell you that it is common for smaller theatres who are trying to cut corners on budget by not getting clearances for music, video, scripts, etc, to get completely shut down and/or put out of business when they're discovered. This is just as likely to happen in a big city as it is in the middle of nowhere.

Just avoid troubles in the first place and stick to stuff you've paid for clearance on, is public domain, or is your own original work.


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## Atomic Mystery Monster (Jul 29, 2003)

No offense to Frankie's Girl, but I highly recommend not using horrortheque.com as a resource. They have "The Tingler" listed as a PD film despite the fact that its copyright was properly renewed in 1987! You can even do a search at copyright.gov to see for yourself. I see plenty of other copyrighted works listed there, too. I'm surprised the rightsholders for "The Curse of Frankenstein" and "Freaks" haven't sued yet. I could go into detail about the iffy foreign works and films that could be considered copyrighted due to their status as derivative works (which is the main reason "It's a Wonderful Life" is no longer considered PD, but I'm short on time.

So instead, I'm gonna give you a short 'n sweet guideline to what I like to call "safe" public domain films. Any American work published before January 1, 1923 is in the US public domain. This only applies to an unaltered version of the work, so you have to watch out for people who take copyrighted prints of such films (such as ones with new music, intertitles and color tinting) and act as if they're still PD. Some even go as far as to process the color tinted scenes so they look black and white in order to hide what they do! The only other potential loophole would be films based on foreign works that are still copyrighted in their country of origin (because laws regarding the copyright status of foreign works are subject to change), but the films I'm going to list below don't fall into that category. 

In addition to the films available here, the following PD films should be of interest to you:

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1913) 
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1920) (also has a dream sequence featuring a giant spider) 
The Haunted House 
The Headless Horseman 

I'm also tempted to suggest maybe using the original 1910 version of "Frankenstein." I say maybe because I understand that a guy named Fred Wiebel created a DVD version of the film that could be considered copyrighted (due to the new intertitles and film tinting) and it's possible that the versions of the film available online are actually his work. That said, you might be able to work something out with him by contacting him. Try asking if he thinks the print here is derived from his release and offer to publicize his book about the film in exchange for allowing use of clips.

If you're looking for royalty-free music to replace the copyrighted soundtracks included in some of the above links, I recommend using stuff from Incompetech and MusOpen. You can see their music use FAQs for further details.

DISCLAIMER: I am not a lawyer.


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## Frankie's Girl (Aug 27, 2007)

Atomic Mystery Monster said:


> No offense to Frankie's Girl, but I highly recommend not using horrortheque.com as a resource. They have "The Tingler" listed as a PD film despite the fact that its copyright was properly renewed in 1987! You can even do a search at copyright.gov to see for yourself. I see plenty of other copyrighted works listed there, too. I'm surprised the rightsholders for "The Curse of Frankenstein" and "Freaks" haven't sued yet. I could go into detail about the iffy foreign works and films that could be considered copyrighted due to their status as derivative works (which is the main reason "It's a Wonderful Life" is no longer considered PD, but I'm short on time.


No offense taken.  I just did a quick google to find that site, and I agree that there are several in there that I know had their copyrights reactivated. One of Hitchcock's original films "The Lodger" is listed in there, and I know for a fact that that one got pulled out of PD and should have a copyright on it until 2050 or so...That's why I mentioned doing a further google to confirm if there are any that looked promising - they even state on their site that "as far as they know" and to let them know if someone has the copyright now. 

Never hurts to check and your info is valuable.


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