TV or Movie Photography

[ashish]

Hi,

I just wanted to know if taking pictures of a TV show or a movie constitutes copyright infringement?

Hope to hear from you folks.

Thanks,
Ashish

[Shadowman]

It is if you plan to sell or distribute the images as your own.

[ashish]

How about for posts on forums such as this?

[revi]

To get a reliable answer to that one, you'd have to get a lawyer, I'm afraid (too many differences in the rules between countries for starters). I'm not a lawyer.

That said, at least in Europe, taking the pictures for your own use should be ok, the problems start when you diffuse/publish them. Editorial use (e.g. showing a pic here to illustrate a technical problem) would probably be ok as well.

Remco

[Shadowman]

To get a reliable answer to that one, you'd have to get a lawyer, I'm afraid (too many differences in the rules between countries for starters). I'm not a lawyer.

That said, at least in Europe, taking the pictures for your own use should be ok, the problems start when you diffuse/publish them. Editorial use (e.g. showing a pic here to illustrate a technical problem) would probably be ok as well.

Remco

If you look at the warning on every movie there is a statement that says "international agreements and national laws protect copyrighted motion pictures, videotapes, and sound recordings. Unauthorized reproduction, exhibition or distribution of copyrighted motion pictures can reulst in severe...The International Criminal Police Organization-INTERPOL has expressed its concern about motion picture and sound recording piracy, ...."

The laws of copyright are designed to protect the owner, will interpol bust down your door and arrest you? Only if they want you for something else and this is all they have on you. Physically, you can record anything you want, it's what you do with it afterwards that causes problems. Do people record photographs of television shows? Did they get permission to do so, if they are presenting those photos on sites such as International Movie Data Base (imdb.com) then yes they asked for permission.

[rpcrowe]

I don't think that the copyright police will come after you for occasional use of snippets of video. If so, many of the people who post snippets on Youtube would be looking out from behind bars. It may be illegal from the standpoint of international law but, it probably would not be worth hunting you down.

However, the owners of motion pictures are dead serious about people pirating their films - whether the pirates sell them or just give the pirated copies away.

[MiniChris]

40 seconds of any recorded music or video is acceptable. Anything after that constitutes copyright infringement and is punishable in court...most people never sue, but some do...like many recording artists and especially anything to do with Disney or colleges.

If it is posted not to take or use pictures without written consent, any use for any amount of time is strictly and enforcably prohibited.

[ashish]

Thanks for your opinions folks.

My query actually was not about recording a movie or a TV show. It was about taking a still image using a camera as the show runs.

I guess it's not worth the risk as the laws vary from country to country and it's better to be safe than sorry.