cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

Legal shenanigans for public space VR movie viewing

OK, here's a question for the legal boffins out there. Say for example I was thinking of hosting a Star Trek movie marathon in BigScreen. What are the legal ramifications, if any?

If I was to invite people round to my place for a movie night with beer and potato wedges, no problem. But according to the UK Government website, you need to apply for a non-theatrical film licence for one-off events in 'common areas' and by any reasonable definition, a VR cinema room open to the unwashed masses good people in this forum, would be a common area.

So, would I be breaking the law? would I be responsible, or the developers of BigScreen for providing me with the software and servers or Oculus be responsible for making the whole thing possible in the first place and acting as vendor for said software?

Is the only option to make my BigScreen room private-invite only? so that it's like my living room except bigger... and no potato wedges. Is anyone using BigScreen who shows copyright material being naughty?

4 REPLIES 4

nalex66
MVP
MVP
I think the private invite option would keep you in the clear, as long as you’re not selling the invites. Also, what would be the ramifications and challenges involved in offering virtual potato wedges?

DK2, CV1, Go, Quest, Quest 2, Quest 3.


Try my game: Cyclops Island Demo

Techy111
MVP
MVP
Sod the wedges, what about the popcorn ?
A PC with lots of gadgets inside and a thing to see in 3D that you put on your head.

Shadowmask72
Honored Visionary
In my expert legal opinion. You are infringing on the rights holder under the very clear instruction of no public performance without prior arrangement when you buy or rent the movie. This does actually include VR and any digital means if you read all the small print. You will need permission for this even if the room is private. You do not own the rights to broadcast the content which is owned by Spyglass Entertainment and Bad Robot Productions. Go to jail, go directly to jail, do not pass go, do not collect 200 pounds.

Alternatively, you could ignore all that because frankly unless you were making severe bank no one would give a rats arse. 

 😛 


System Specs: MSI NVIDIA RTX 4090 , i5 13700K CPU, 32GB DDR 4 RAM, Win 11 64 Bit OS.

Is a private VR room different form my living room though? Well, I agree with the rats arse... I mean I agree with Shadow and his rats arse.

I was curious after popping into a Doctor Who showing last night with my Quest... amazed at how good it looked. Someone was streaming an old episode from the 70s from their BritBox so I assume it was stateside as it's not available in the UK yet. Looked better than I remember it from the original on the TV back in the day. It was late so just watched one episode.

Am tempted to do a Star Trek run... or a complete showing of the original Twilight Zone episodes maybe.