Legal Question in Entertainment Law in Illinois

Re: music royalty law

Interesting question. Renting DVDs is legal under the copyright laws if the DVDs are licensed for that purpose. When one buys a copy of a movie on DVD they are in effect buying a license to watch that movie for private home use only. When video rental stores purchase copies of movies for rental, they purchase a special "rental" license, which means they pay more for a particular copy of a movie. For example, instead of paying $14.95 for a copy of a movie like we would pay, they are charged $79.95.

So, it would seem that CDs would be covered under the same scenario as above. You couldn't start renting out the CDs in your collection because those CDs are not licensed for that purpose. If you wanted to start renting out CDs, you would first have to obtain rental licenses for each CD and pay the necessary fees for that purpose.

Thanks,

DS