Quote:
Originally posted by Taxi
As long as Wal-Mart isn't breaking street date, there is nothing wrong with showing these movies before street date. It's called advertising, and has been said, I'm sure Fox encourages it.
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If Fox knows about the practice and encourages it, then there's no question it's legal. The copyright holder has given permission, end of story.
The real question is whether it's legal to show the movie without the studio's consent - or even against the studio's wishes - and the answer is: probably not.
First, the street date is irrelevant. The street date is an embargo on the sale of the movie, not its display.
It's also irrelevant that Walmart shows the movie to advertise it. The copyright law doesn't carve out an statutory exception for the in-store promotional performance of movies. Oddly enough, there is just such an exception for music written into the copyright law.
Finally, there's no question that Walmart's practice is a public display or performance of the movie. Watching a movie with friends in your home is the definition of private exhibition; showing that same movie in a huge store filled with strangers and open to anyone with a shirt and shoes is definitely a public performance (even the screening of a movie for the residents of a retirement home is a public display). And a public performance of a copyrighted work without permission is illegal.
The only question is whether the practice could be defended as a fair use. It would help Walmart if the store only showed short excerpts of the movie instead of the whole thing but even then, all things considered, the store would lose.