

Ask HN: Is my startup legal? MovieByHeart.com - GregShelton

I’m an immigrant and I have a fear of speaking in English.
This fear of performing in another language, also known as Foreign Language Anxiety, affects more than 50% of people.<p>I’ve searched everywhere for a solution to this problem and found nothing. That is why I’ve created MovieByHeart.com. This website will help people overcome the fear of speaking in English.<p>At MovieByHeart we transform movie into educational games, following the Fair Use copyright guidelines. However, I think that The Gatekeepers will consider it as copyright infringement.<p>I want to make this project legal, I’d love to pay license fees, but at this stage no one knows what to do, because we are in uncharted territory. Such companies as Amazon, iTunes, YouTube are not able to license movies they want. And I’m just a teacher, who can’t afford a lawyer. 
What should I do?<p>Your opinion and advise will be greatly appreciated.  
If you would like to test website, use email: moviebyheart at gmail, password: test1234
======
micks56
That is copyright infringement, and would not constitute fair use.

Around ycnews it is often said to not worry about that. No one will sue you
until you get big, and then you can negotiate. I have no opinion on that
advice.

Studios are unlikely to license you big name movies and TV shows.

Can you contact independent filmmakers instead? They may be giving their work
away for free already. You could create a market for it. Your customers pay to
use your service, and then you give a cut to the filmmaker. Filmmaker makes
money where he wouldn't have before, and also gets greater exposure for his
work.

~~~
GregShelton
I would not agree that it's copyright infringement. We've transformed the
content of copyrighted work and is using it for a transformative (educational)
purpose.

"since the defendant has engaged in both types of transformation, we would
expect a court generally to find that the defendant’s use is transformative
and that the transformativeness factor weighs in favor of the defendant’s fair
use claim (though how strongly it does so may vary depending on how
transformative the defendant’s use is)"
[http://www.utexas.edu/law/faculty/treese/fair_use_transforma...](http://www.utexas.edu/law/faculty/treese/fair_use_transformativeness.pdf)

~~~
micks56
Transformation and educational purpose do not mean what you think they mean.

1\. Transformation is more than adding your own translation on top of the
movie. You need to change the meaning or expression of the work. The meaning
of your version is exactly the same as the original by definition (you are
making a word for word translation).

2\. Your "educational purpose" argument is diminished when you affect the
market for the work. The movie studio will argue your students should rent/buy
the movie and watch with subtitles. Your website is taking away sales. Also,
if you try to earn money from this you are no longer seeking any educational
purpose.

3\. You are broadcasting the original movie without permission. That is
copyright infringement.

4\. Regarding your quote, you should read the Blanch v. Koons case and look at
Blanch's original work versus Koon's alleged infringing work to see what
transformation requires.

~~~
GregShelton
What I mean by transformation is that we transform movies into games (Voice
Over videos) by muting some dialog lines. That changes the meaning of the
work. It's not entertainment anymore. No one will watch movie with half dialog
lines muted.

The only thing students can do with DVD is to watch it (passive
entertainment).

In our case students learn dialog lines and than perform them with the help of
Voice Over videos (active learning).

I think that we create a new market for people with a specific need. When
people pay for access to Voice Over videos they will pay because they want to
overcome Anxiety, not because they want to see movie for entertainment.

Thats how I see it. May be I wrong

~~~
micks56
That changes nothing. Still copyright infringement. See above.

~~~
GregShelton
Thank you for your comments. It seems I have to follow your advice and contact
indie moviemakers or use public domain movies

~~~
micks56
I have an idea for you. This might work. You REALLY need to read up on
Copyright Law, though. To be honest, you might not be the best person for
this. You may want to speak with an experienced copyright person. Anyway...

This might work: Stop broadcasting the video. You make an audio only CD where
you and friends play the parts in the movies. The customer is instructed on
when to start the audio CD so that it syncs with the movie. You can also
distribute a book that tells the person when to start and stop the movie/audio
and then do your thing with your company.

So all you are selling is an audio CD, which you performed, and a companion
workbook.

This MAY work because what you are doing is making a "cover song" of the movie
audio. You will need a mechanical license, if it is even available.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mechanical_license>

I have never heard of this for movies, but it might work. A mechanical license
will be cheaper and easier than negotiating with a movie studio.

This is how it works in the music world:
<http://www.harryfox.com/public/FAQ.jsp>

No idea if you can do this in the movie world, but you should check it out.

~~~
prodigal_erik
Rifftrax.com (some of the MST3K stars) has been putting out very good
voiceover tracks for current movies. You might ask them what kind of licensing
they needed to go through.

~~~
micks56
They probably don't need any license. What rifftrax is doing is selling you an
mp3 with their own comedy on it. It is a completely new work. The customer
buys/rents the companion DVD and then syncs.

That is slightly different than OP because OP wants to broadcast the movie, or
at least the exact words. The exact words are what he needs to license, even
if he does perform them himself.

If OP can figure out a way to teach people language by making his own rifftrax
mp3 then he is in business. Good call prodigal_erik.

~~~
GregShelton
Rifftrax guys gave me an idea - what if I setup Amazon shop and will sell
legal DVDs. People who buy DVD get access to the same movie on my website
(invitation code). Will it work?

~~~
micks56
No, it wouldn't work.

The reason why is at the very heart of copyright law. You need to learn this
area.

Owning copyright to a work gives the owner EXCLUSIVE rights to distribution of
that work.

Therefore, just because you sold a legal copy to a user via Amazon you do not
have the right to broadcast the work on your website. Only the copyright owner
can do that, because he has exclusive distribution rights. Your broadcast
isn't authorized even though you selling DVDs is authorized.

Be careful with this stuff. In my opinion you are playing with fire here. The
RIAA has no problems with burying people who distribute songs illegally. MPAA
has done less of this, but you don't want to be the example.

~~~
GregShelton
I think I will start with public domain movies and than follow your advice re:
indie filmmakers and mechanical license

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rick888
I've been learning mandarin as a second language for the past couple of years
and I came across subtitle translations of English movies to mandarin (so, you
could burn a DVD with these subtitle files and be able to see the Mandarin).
This has helped me in the learning process.

Many of the subtitle sites have been taken down by the MPAA. I love the idea
of your site, but I think if it gets big enough, they will eventually take you
to court.

~~~
GregShelton
Thank you for your reply. I think they can close this project down without
taking me to court

~~~
rick888
You might be able to get permission or license it. I think it would probably
be much cheaper than actually licensing the content. Have you tried contacting
anyone in the industry?

~~~
GregShelton
I wasn't be able to find any educational license that could be suitable for
this project. And I don't know who should I contact in the industry

------
GregShelton
Clicable <http://moviebyheart.com>

