Movie Day

Case Study 4 Movies All Day

In this case study a school was planning a special event day which included playing movies. The people planning the event advertised the movies that would be playing, but never advertised specific times. The movies were going to be played as they needed to be switched out. This was a free event people to come and watch the movies whenever they wanted to. The school received a cease and desist letter claiming that the copyright holders’ rights were being compromised. When looking at this case the fair use act must be considered.

One point for the fair use act is that the school is not making profit from this event. This event is a free showing, so they are not trying to make a profit from showing these movies. The showing of these movies was to create an event for the community to all gather together. It was not to make any type of profit, so it does not hurt the copyright holder’s profit for business.

Another point for fair use is that the planners of the event purchased the movies. They did not obtain these movies from an illegal sight, they purchased the movies. After they purchase the movie they have the right to show the movie. They are not making copies of the movie for everyone to take home with them, but legally they are allowed to show a movie that they have purchased as long as they are not charging for the event.

A point against saying that is fair use act is that any showing of the movie in a large public place should bring a profit for the copyright holder. The copyright holder can claim creative commons and state that anyone who shows their movie must make contributions to the holder. That could mean that the school must charge for the movie showing in order to pay the copyright holder for the rights to show the movies.

Schools who show movies are not changing the purpose of the original purpose of the movie. The movie was created for entertainment purposes, so when the school puts on events like this and wants to show a movie they are doing so for entertainment purposes. Schools must have a license in order to show movies to the public.