School Fined for Showing Lion King

[5thGenTexan]

Disney apologizes to school charged for showing ‘Lion King’

Emerson Elementary in Berkeley was billed for “illegally screening” the film at an event that raised $800.

www.kxii.com

 

[DryerLintFan]

Sounds like they did a good job in handling it. These things happen sometimes.

 

[Dead2009]

Actually no they don't. Schools show movies all the time and you don't hear anything about movie companies getting upset. Also how does one "illegally screen" a movie that's out on DVD?

 

[Jon81uk]

Actually no they don't. Schools show movies all the time and you don't hear anything about movie companies getting upset. Also how does one "illegally screen" a movie that's out on DVD?

DVDs are for personal/home use only, there is usually something stating that.

If a school is showing a movie to a class or a small group it usually goes unnoticed. If you charge tickets and take payment for people to come and watch it (even if it is for a charity event) you are basically running a movie theatre and looking to "profit" from the movie so should pay a license fee. In this case Disney did the right thing in waiving the charge for a charity event, but the school should have known upfront to expect to have to pay a fee to screen a film and charge for tickets.

 

[ChesterKiwi]

DVDs are for personal/home use only, there is usually something stating that.

If a school is showing a movie to a class or a small group it usually goes unnoticed. If you charge tickets and take payment for people to come and watch it (even if it is for a charity event) you are basically running a movie theatre and looking to "profit" from the movie so should pay a license fee. In this case Disney did the right thing in waiving the charge for a charity event, but the school should have known upfront to expect to have to pay a fee to screen a film and charge for tickets.

To expand upon this answer here, it's all down to copyright law. Only the original copyright owner retains the right to publicly perform or display the copyrighted work. A non-classroom or non-academic school function like this would fall under public I'm pretty sure. Maybe there could be a Fair Use exemption depending on if it can be considered an educational nonprofit use (which is why movies can be shown in classes @Dead2009 ).

Either way, very well-handled by Disney and Iger.