Legal Question in Entertainment Law in Washington
Movie watching in residence hall lounges
My college would like to allow our residential students to watch movies they have either rented or own in the residence hall lounge. Copywright restricts such viewing to "home", and we would like to be able to define the lounge as a part of the students "home" while they are living in the dorms. Is this justification enough, or is there another way to make such movie viewing legal? Or is it leagal already, and we have missed something?
2 Answers from Attorneys
Re: Movie watching in residence hall lounges
I think that you are OK unless someone gets the bright idea to charge admission, which would clearly constitute a commercial exhibition of the film.
Re: Movie watching in residence hall lounges
Ditto....dorms are home for the students. This is just a bunch of guys renting a flick and watching it at their house. Dormitories are merely on campus housing.
Besides, no logical copyright owner is going to waste time sueing a bunch of college kids even if they did charge admission.
This might even be educational fair use, being that it is part of the college experience, although your question appears to assume it is not.
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