Legal Question in Entertainment Law in California

Re: royalty legal question

You would be violating the copyright if you played the DVD in a public place, and unfortunately you would probably not be able to get permission either easily or inexpensively. If you were to get caught, you could be sued for absurdly large amounts of money.

Recommend you screen the DVD, if at all, in a private place such as someone's living room.

Re: royalty legal question

You must get APPROVAL from the Network and Production Company, plus possibly make payments to the Screen Actor's Guild for the actors who appear in the program you're planning to play.

This will NOT be easy permission to get. Expect to spend quite a bit of money, IF they grant approval.

What you're proposing to do, if done without proper authorizations and approvals amounts to copyright infringement.

AS we've learned from recent cases dealing with music, copyright infringement judgments can go very high.

Statutory damages for copyright infringement range from $750-$150,000 per infringement. The judge/jury decide the actual amount.

I'd advise that you NOT do this.

Re: royalty legal question

1. You must pay royalties to publicly display a copyrighted work (e.g. play a recorded tv show in a public place).

2. Check out the website for the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP). It details when licenses are needed, which licenses are needed, and offers 'one stop shopping' for buying the required licenses. See particular the following link regarding buying licenses from TV networks per-program http://www.ascap.com/licensing/tvcablesatellite/

3. If you do not have a license or permission, you are committing copyright infringement. The owner of the copyrights could sue you for a lot of money.

Hope that helps.

Sarah