Question About Movie Content And P2P Networks...

[Lee]

So lets say i have purchased a DVD title from somewhere like WWC, am i able to split that DVD in to 5 minute clips and distribute it over P2P networks?

Actually, while we're on the topic of P2P, where do we stand with purchased DVD content in terms of places like YouTube etc also? Can we upload it to movie sharing sites as long as it has our sites watermark on it too?

I havent really been able to get a solid answer about this from anyone, despite asking a few different people, most seem to think its fine to do, so long as the movie is watermarked with a sites url that *I* own but some say its not okay to do, for reasons that *I* dont actually own the copyrights to the DVD title.

What are your folks thoughts on this?

Regards,

Lee

[JamesXR]

I don't know how specifically on-topic this is, but it has been my opinion that affiliate programs have been the best DRM protection ever. If you go looking for free porn on the web you are misled by one hungry webmaster after another offering you free porn and giving you only teasers until their will is broken and they pay.
By giving webmasters custom watermarked content to distribute over p2p networks, porn companies could saturate the p2p free porn searchers with promo clips, thus making it harder to find free porn.

[Chilihost]

read the licenses that come with the content, it will either explicitly say where it CAN be used or CANT be used.

[Lee]

Luke,

The problem with checking licenses is that a lot of movie (and DVD content) was purchased prior to P2P and filesharing became as large as it did so there are no provisions in the license one way or the other.

Im personally torn on the issue, i can see how it would be a huge benefit to program owners if movie content was allowed to be watermarked and uploaded to these filesharing networks but at the same time, i can also see how the content providers and movie studios would feel about not wanting it to happen, in much the same way that a lot of providers were uneasy about allowing image content to be used on FHGs a few years back when they became popular en mass.

Regards,

Lee

[Drinkinghard]

most content you cannot use on the p2p networks unless you have express written authorization from the content company. HOWEVER I have seen with certain content companies that you can use up to 20% of the content for promotional purposes that can use on the p2p networks.

Hope that helps

DH