Psykedout

I have a relative, who has a friend that owns a video store. The store owner, of course, gets movies prior to their public release date. Is it legal for the store owner to lend (not rent) these out to friends and family?
Thx
Psykedout

chemosh6969

no good sir

cultshock

Hmmmm, looking at the two issues separately, breaking street date itself is not illegal, it just involves a store breaking an agreement they have with studios and distributors, not breaking the law. And secondly, lending a video (not a copy) to a friend or family member is allowed by the doctrine of first sale (the part of the law that also allows a video store to rent videos that it has purchased). So, I would say that the situation described is not illegal but would be frowned on by studios or distributors (I'm sure it's a very common situation though)

rich-y

...but, the video store did not purchase the movie in the first place. So the Doctrine of First Sale wouldn't apply.

On the other hand though, a screener is sent to the store owner so he can decide whether or not to purchase the movie for his store. What better way to decide than to let some close friends, family members, or employees watch it and then provide feedback? Sounds like it could be justified to me.

Psykedout

Thank you for your feedback gents.

Qui Gon Jim

I don't think he's talking about screeners. I think he's saying they get the shipment of new discs in before the street date, as most stores do.

dvd-fanman

When I worked at Blockbuster during college, we were allowed to take out all new releases free of charge from the time we got them in the store until street date. We could only have them overnight. Then once street date hit, we could not rent them in our weekly 5 free rental allowance until 30 days after release.

Groucho

If he's watching the movie, then resealing it and selling it as new, then yes...that's illegal.

mbs

The employees of the Blockbuster that I frequented in my previous locale (Madison, WI) would routinely view the discs early. I'd often get recommendations from them, as they had usually seen them all by street date.

cultshock

I believe the OP was talking about movies that the store purchased for rental, not screeners. Stores usually get the titles delivered to them around a few days to one week before street date (depending on title, distributor, etc). Therefore, I stand by my original post.