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Show HN: To fight quarantine boredom I build a site to watch movies with friends

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Re: Show HN: To fight quarantine boredom I build a site to watch movies with friends

#171

Post by Kaze404 »

kortilla wrote: post #121
effingwewt wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Still greed if you ask me, how would it be different from me renting a movie at home and having friends over? I dread the day when we have forced ocular/ear implants that allow for the blocking of anything we dont have a license for. Nonetheless I get your point, I just believe it's sad that for all the innovation a free market touts, all I remember are the cool/amazing/interesting things they took from us by stiflin…

> for all the innovation a free market touts, all I remember are the cool/amazing/interesting things they took from us by stifling real innovation. What? The market brought you the personal computer revolution, the mobile phone revolution, the internet revolution, your Xbox, etc and “all you remember” is shared movie viewing?

Wasn't the internet a product of the US government?

Re: Show HN: To fight quarantine boredom I build a site to watch movies with friends

#173

Post by js2 »

dylan604 wrote: post #109
effingwewt wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Still greed if you ask me, how would it be different from me renting a movie at home and having friends over? I dread the day when we have forced ocular/ear implants that allow for the blocking of anything we dont have a license for. Nonetheless I get your point, I just believe it's sad that for all the innovation a free market touts, all I remember are the cool/amazing/interesting things they took from us by stiflin…

Technically, when you rent a movie, you are not allowed to invite friends over to watch it with you. By renting the title, you were granted a temporary private viewing license. Inviting people over constituted a public viewing. Copyright laws are ludicrous.

I’m not sure about the rental license, but copyright law says this:

To perform or display a work “publicly” means—

(1) to perform or display it at a place open to the public or at any place where a substantial number of persons outside of a normal circle of a family and its social acquaintances is gathered; or

(2) to transmit or otherwise communicate a performance or display of the work to a place specified by clause (1) or to the public, by means of any device or process, whether the members of the public capable of receiving the performance or display receive it in the same place or in separate places and at the same time or at different times.

https://www.copyright.gov/title17/92chap1.html

LegalZoom writes:

Most movies are intended for personal, private viewing only. If you're watching a movie in a group with your family and friends in your home, there is no issue under copyright law. Similarly, if you rent out a space for a private party and screen a movie for family and friends, and the party is exclusive to your guests and closed to the general public, there will not be a copyright law violation. However, if your event was open to members of the public outside your small group, the movie showing might be considered a “public performance."

If the showing is considered public, you are restricted by copyright law. Typically, you can't legally show a movie to the public unless you obtain public performance license from the copyright owner. You can obtain a public performance license by either contacting the copyright holder directly or by licensing from entities set up specifically for the purposes of licensing movies, such as Swank Motion Pictures or the Motion Picture Licensing Corporation.

https://info.legalzoom.com/article/copyright-laws-related-us...

Re: Show HN: To fight quarantine boredom I build a site to watch movies with friends

#174

Post by leetcrew »

gliboc wrote: post #149
adrianmonk wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> how would it be different from me renting a movie at home and having friends over? It would be different because Netflix has a contract to pay money for that licensed content, and sooner or later, that contract will need to be renewed. At that point, a Hollywood exec and a Netflix exec will sit across a boardroom table, and the Hollywood exec will say, "Your offer sounds OK, but we need to stop this watch party thi…

Or maybe Netflix could say "no this is a service we are providing to our users" and then the big "Hollywood exec" would be like "ok maybe we will not sit on the million dollars we get from our agreement" and that would be it.

not exactly sure how to parse your wording for the Hollywood exec, but I assume you're saying Netflix has the leverage and the Hollywood person has to shut up and take the money?

that doesn't seem to be the case in reality. Netflix streaming doesn't really have a lot of big Hollywood movies.

Re: Show HN: To fight quarantine boredom I build a site to watch movies with friends

#175

Post by leetcrew »

Kaze404 wrote: post #171
kortilla wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> for all the innovation a free market touts, all I remember are the cool/amazing/interesting things they took from us by stifling real innovation. What? The market brought you the personal computer revolution, the mobile phone revolution, the internet revolution, your Xbox, etc and “all you remember” is shared movie viewing?

Wasn't the internet a product of the US government?

depends on whether you think creating a small research network is a bigger contribution than the billions spent by the private sector to build it into what it is today.

having an idea or even a reasonable prototype is often not the hardest part of building something useful.

Re: Show HN: To fight quarantine boredom I build a site to watch movies with friends

#176

Post by barrkel »

gliboc wrote: post #149
adrianmonk wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> how would it be different from me renting a movie at home and having friends over? It would be different because Netflix has a contract to pay money for that licensed content, and sooner or later, that contract will need to be renewed. At that point, a Hollywood exec and a Netflix exec will sit across a boardroom table, and the Hollywood exec will say, "Your offer sounds OK, but we need to stop this watch party thi…

Or maybe Netflix could say "no this is a service we are providing to our users" and then the big "Hollywood exec" would be like "ok maybe we will not sit on the million dollars we get from our agreement" and that would be it.

Content is king; Netflix, as long as it doesn't have exclusive rights, is just a middleman trying to extract rents. As soon as technically competent competitors popped up (Amazon etc.) Netflix's margin on licensed content is liable to be squeezed.

That's why Netflix borrows so much to spend on creating its own content. It's not viable otherwise.

Re: Show HN: To fight quarantine boredom I build a site to watch movies with friends

#177

Post by mm89 »

JadeNB wrote: post #145
viklove wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He's wrong. No one has, or ever will be prosecuted for renting a movie and watching it with their friends in their living room.

Claiming that something is illegal, and pointing out that no-one has been prosecuted for it, are not contradictory.

It is pretty pointless though!

Re: Show HN: To fight quarantine boredom I build a site to watch movies with friends

#179

Post by ghaff »

40four wrote: post #118
dylan604 wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Technically, when you rent a movie, you are not allowed to invite friends over to watch it with you. By renting the title, you were granted a temporary private viewing license. Inviting people over constituted a public viewing. Copyright laws are ludicrous.

First off, great concept! I would like to try this at least once. But second, is that really true? I’m actually curious. I can’t imagine watching a rented movie in a private residence would be considered a ‘public’ viewing. If that is the case, where do they draw the line? Is it literally only for myself, the one person who purchased the rental? How many other people can be in the room? One, two, five , before the te…

I don't believe it would be considered public. IANAL but "According to the U.S. copyright law (Title 17, United States Code, Section 110), a public performance is any screening of a videocassette, DVD, videodisc or film which occurs outside of the home, or at any place where people are gathered who are not family members, such as in a school, library, auditorium, classroom or meeting room. " https://www.prattlibrary.org/research/tools/index.aspx?cat=1...
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