Thread: video lending club-thoughts?

So I had an idea and I thought I would see if anyone else has tried it, or has any suggestions.

I have a pretty extensive collection of instructional and performance DVDs. I was thinking about creating a sort of library available to my local community where people could check out my *working copy* of the DVD (not the original, but a copy I have made for personal use from the original DVD or VHS I purchased).

They would be free to borrow for, I'm thinking, a month but I would require people to purchase a "membership", which is why I refer to it as a club. The membership would be around $20 which would cover the cost if you never returned or returned a DVD damaged, plus administrative overhead.

Does this sound fair and legal/ethical? Has anyone tried this before?

thanks in advance!

XOXOXO
amanda

No, the license you get with a DVD is for personal use only. Even though it sounds like a nice idea that would be great for your community, it would violate copyright law.

It's ethical only if you get permission from the dancers whose DVD's you are lending out this way.

Under U.S. copyright, if an item is sold for "personal use" (as most belly dance videos are), then that is what it is intended - playback in your own home (or on your portable machine if traveling) for yours and your family's own use. If you want to make it more widely available, as you are proposing to do, then you need the permission of the copyright owner. In the professional world, a "library" copy of a product typically costs much more than a personal-use copy. As for belly dancers, many will probably give their permission without charging you extra, but you really must ask.

For example, let's look at the documentary Hollywood's Harems at WOMEN MAKE MOVIES | Hollywood Harems . You'll see that the price for an institution such as a lending library to purchase a copy is $250. With a bit of research into the web site, you'll find that it's possible to purchase a copy for home use for $25 - but you MUST agree to use it only for personal viewing in the home, NOT public exhibition or lending.

It's also problematic that you want to retain the original copy of the video while lending a duplicate. It's fine to make a duplicate for your PERSONAL use, but NOT fine to lend that duplicate around to everyone while you keep the original for yourself.

There's a lending library offered by WAMEDA that lends out the ORIGINALS of videos. If a dancer asks them to NOT lend out her videos, they honor that request. I think their web site is Washington Area Middle Eastern Dance Association: Index .

Originally Posted by *Shira*

It's ethical only if you get permission from the dancers whose DVD's you are lending out this way.
...

It's also problematic that you want to retain the original copy of the video while lending a duplicate. It's fine to make a duplicate for your PERSONAL use, but NOT fine to lend that duplicate around to everyone while you keep the original for yourself.

There's a lending library offered by WAMEDA that lends out the ORIGINALS of videos. If a dancer asks them to NOT lend out her videos, they honor that request. I think their web site is Washington Area Middle Eastern Dance Association: Index .

Thanks for the link to WAMEDA, I knew there was an organization that had a lending library, but I couldn't remember what it was.

I am hesitant to lend out my originals for obvious reasons, but it looks like if I decide to pursue the idea and get permission from the dancers/copyright owners, that I may have to go that route. I guess I could always ask if they gave permission to lend the copy and not the original as well.

Originally Posted by steffib

No, the license you get with a DVD is for personal use only. Even though it sounds like a nice idea that would be great for your community, it would violate copyright law.

Um, it can't be completely illegal to lend out DVD/VHS or WAMEDA wouldn't be able to do it, I guess I will likely have to scratch the idea of lending my personal use copy though.

So do video stores like Netflix and Blockbuster have to have a license to not only lend out but profit off of others borrowing their movies? What about smaller mom-n-pop video stores? Are they all paying a license to rent them out? I'd imagine they'd have to.
What about offering a video party? It'd be less unethical to invite dancers over to watch each other's videos rather than just lending them out for each's personal use.

Originally Posted by SummerSahar

So do video stores like Netflix and Blockbuster have to have a license to not only lend but profit off of others borrowing their movies? What about smaller mom-n-pop video stores? Are they all paying a license to rent them out? I'd imagine they'd have to.

In a word, yes.

Originally Posted by SummerSahar

So do video stores like Netflix and Blockbuster have to have a license to not only lend out but profit off of others borrowing their movies? What about smaller mom-n-pop video stores? Are they all paying a license to rent them out? I'd imagine they'd have to.
What about offering a video party? It'd be less unethical to invite dancers over to watch each other's videos rather than just lending them out for each's personal use.

Yes, but I envisioned my operation being more like a library than a video store, so I don't think its really an accurate comparison with Netflix or even a mom-n-pop video store.

I know that I would be asking for a membership fee but my thinking behind that is 1-WAMEDA charges a deposit which I assume you don't get back if you lose or ruin the video; 2-if you lose or ruin something from the public library, you have to pay for it. I would be taking the membership fee in lieu of this sort of thing because, since I would be running it on my own, it would be easier to give someone their money back if they quit than it would be to try to collect money owed from someone who lost or destroyed something.

the video party is a good idea too.

Libraries also pay the higher licensing fees. Which is only fair to the video producers, who -- in our industry -- have such a small market to sell to anyway.

I thought about doing something similar at one time, and I e-mailed several video producers to see how they felt about it. Most of them wrote me back, often at length. A few were fine with it -- mostly those whose videos have been out for a number of years, like Atea.

Others asked me to PLEASE not lend their videos out. They said it was fine with them if I wanted to share snippets of videos in class, or have everyone over for a party, but if everyone made their videos available to students, clubs or groups, the video producers would go bankrupt.

So, I share snippets in class or have people over. Once in a while I'll exchange videos with a student/friend for a few days, of course. But no formal lending library.