Hi all- I have something of a legal question. I run a Drupal-based site for a non-profit outdoors organization, and would like to maintain a library of outdoor-related videos (mostly mainstream, i.e. copyrighted by someone else). I'm pretty sure there wouldn't be anything illegal about simply lending DVDs to members as long as no money changes hands. If that's the case, I don't see any reason why allowing members to stream the same videos off of a media server would be illegal, as long as we restrict it such that only one person can stream a video at a time. Then again, I think most people would agree that US copyright law is almost anything but reasonable :)
Anyone want to take a crack at whether that would be legal, and if so, what sort of modules and software would best support it? Thanks!
Comments
Not gonna happen
I think most DVDs are only allowed to be viewed on a TV set in a private home. Steaming of any kind I'm sure is illegal. Even if the person who made the DVD said it was ok, the distribution company would have something in the license about streaming. I don't think you could even lend them out without a special license; same as if you want to show a DVD to a large group of people - illegal, you'll need a special license for group showings, god knows how much $100s if not $1000s of dollars.
Blame it on the antiquated copyright laws of the US and world, that's why some folks and moving towards creative commons licenses.
Some views from a video/music producer
Don't forget that in addition to the video, streaming to a broad audience can also run into music licensing issues. Its not that the copyright laws are antiquated which of course they are but more fundamentally, its about the producers, artists and studios getting paid for their work. You can argue fairness and I wouldn't necessarily argue back since I would like to see reasonable royalty rules like Harry Fox Agency does for music mechanicals, but the bottom line is that the producers do need to get some fair compensation and streaming videos in most business models will put you at risk unless you have major industry clout and big legal budgets to negotiate deals with the major studios.
The problem that even lending them for free is that you can generate revenue from the videos, advertising, subscriptions, etc. or you take away revenue from someone else. This is especially true if the producers sell the product other places and you make it available for free. You essentially are taking revenue away from the producers and as a producer/distributor ourselves, we just hate to see that happen. Hard to keep a business open when other people keep giving your product away for free. However, either way, you can still be in violation of the Millennium Copyright Act which has very big fines for streaming videos for which you do not have licenses.
Additionally, if you stream without some form of encryption, users can pretty easily copy and keep the video so while you are intending to just stream, the fact is that you are not stopping them from copying the video. You would need to have some form of security like RTMPe or other to prohibit users from easily copying the video.
Just some thought to probably muddle the waters.