Lyndahere (@lyndahere) provided
the following advice on her Twitter to another person about taking pictures in the
movies.
@liltexasgal How do I take a
screen shot from the movie theatre without bothering people around
me? 17 January 2013
@lyndahere Sit at the back, keep
it low, turn off the flash, turn off sound on the camera. Test ahead
of time to be sure it is all off. 17 January 2013.
I have been reflecting on these tweets
on Twitter from these two people. I am wondering why they would want
to take pictures in the movies. There is the spender of all that is a
movie, the popcorn and soda, the company of good friends or children
or being on your own in your own space doing what exactly
what you want to. As Russell Crowe said in Gladiator “Are you not
entertained?”
Why would people with all the
information on the Internet out there be interested in
taking images in the movies? I will use Les Miserables as an example
because both these women are Russell Crowe fans and have attended his
concerts in New York. A film full of talented people, beautiful
imagery, costumes, a great story and moving music and nominated for
Academy Awards and a range of other awards. Russell Crowe’s tweet stream
on Twitter is full of people experiencing such a range of emotions, marvelling at its beauty and splender to disappointment at individual cast performances.
These people are mature middle age women (one with a family) taking pictures at the movies not teenagers. The pictures taken surely would not be of a higher quality than those of the studio. A search of Google images will bring up a range of beautiful images released from the studio and other sources. There are official clips on YouTube to be watched and a whole range of official pages on social media sending out information on a daily basis to be viewed and read. Then there are all the other sites that promote movies and entertainment, more information than anyone could want.
These people are mature middle age women (one with a family) taking pictures at the movies not teenagers. The pictures taken surely would not be of a higher quality than those of the studio. A search of Google images will bring up a range of beautiful images released from the studio and other sources. There are official clips on YouTube to be watched and a whole range of official pages on social media sending out information on a daily basis to be viewed and read. Then there are all the other sites that promote movies and entertainment, more information than anyone could want.
In my part of the world taking
pictures at the movies would be rude and annoying to people around
them wanting to enjoy the experience, as is using a mobile phone. But
it is America after all, and acceptable conduct at the movies may be
different than everywhere else. Taking pictures of a movie projected
in a theatre is also illegal under the copyright act. In my opinion a patron in a
movie theatre cannot reproduce a movie, distribute a work, perform
the content elsewhere, display a copy of the movies or make
derivative works. A derivative work is defined by Copyright Kids as
“a work that is based up one or more pre-existing works.
One of the exclusive rights of a copyright owner is to make derivative
works. The United States Copyright Act gives many examples of what is
a derivative work. One example is a motion picture based upon a book.
If you create a derivative work with the permission of the owner of
the underlying work, you as the author of the derivative work can
obtain a copyright covering the original material you contributed”.
A picture taken at a movie theatre would be a derivative work. There
are a whole range of works that are protected under copyright that
include musicals, motion pictures and other audio visual sounds and
sound recordings.
There are some circumstances in which people can reproduce others work without permission. Copyright Kids describes fair usage “The exclusive rights of the copyright owner are not unlimited. The copyright law establishes some limitations on these rights. One of the most important limitations on the exclusive rights is the doctrine of "Fair Use." The "Fair Use" doctrine allows limited copying of copyrighted works for educational and research purposes. The copyright law provides that reproduction "for purposes such as criticism, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research" is not an infringement of copyright. The law lists the following factors, which courts must consider together in determining whether a particular use of a copyrighted work is a permitted "Fair Use," or is instead an infringement of the copyright”.
It
was difficult to find information about taking pictures of movies in
a theatre. There is plenty of information on how to take pictures off
DVDs using a home computer but not in movie theatres. It is also
illegal to copy pictures from DVDs.
So why should we
care? Copyright Kids provides an excellent answer…
“As the
creator of your work, you should have the right to control what
people can and cannot do with your work. In the United States - one
of the world's biggest sources of creative works like movies,
television shows, books, computer games, etc. -- this right to
control your work has actually turned into big business, but that's
what allows all the creative people around us to get paid for coming
up with all the wonderful songs, shows, books, painting, movies and
other great works that we enjoy. Just think of all the cool songs
your favorite band wrote, the great books you loved reading, the
plays, movies and television shows you love to watch again and again.
These talented musicians, authors, illustrators and screenwriters
deserve our respect and appreciation - and they deserve to make a
living from the hard work they put into their creative works --
otherwise most of them wouldn't be able to produce as many (or any)
of the songs, books, plays, movies and TV shows that you like. That's
what copyright is all about. It reflects our appreciation for all the
hard work that goes into creating "original works of authorship"
and respect for the right of the creator of that work to control what
people can and cannot do with it.”
References
Pictures Universal Studios
Motion Picture
Association of America
Childnet
International
Copyright Kids
