Movie Trailer Site

Hey,

I am making a website where I am going to put movie trailers. But I is it allowed to put Movie Trailers on a website? If not, how can I make it that I am allowed to do so? (cuz I've seen other trailer sites too).

Thanks,
Sedoc94

 

As with any content you put on your site, get permission from the copyright holder.

 

Bingo mjewel. Links or embedding movie content may be fine (if the host providing the embed has permission.)

 

Thanks, but before the trailer starts it says:

So that means that I can use it?

 

Sounds like it - you can probably copy and duplicate and sell copies of the movie too with that kind of message.

 

No, that has nothing to do with granting permission to use it.

 

Agreed. The disclaimer at the beginning doesn't say anything about permission, that is a standard notice at the beginning of most every trailer.
Movie trailers are normally distributed freely, just like game trailers. Just make sure that you are using the actual publicity for the movie and not some bootleg, unauthorized clips.
The easiest way to know is just to ask the movie companies, or go to the official sites, they may even have an embed code on them.

 

Could you (OP) take 30 seconds to read it? If you use Google it will further explain the obvious, moreso that it grants you no right whatsoever.

 

I just posted a thread on this in the General Marketing section of DP.

You can use this disclaimer on your site, and it should give you some legal basis for using trailers.

Disclaimer - Section 107 of Copyright Act 1976, Allowance made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, new reporting, teaching... Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing"

This says that the content that your using on your site, while normally would be infringing content, is actually covered under the "fair use". This means the main reason for having it on your site is to comment and criticize the material.

 

it is perfectly acceptable to use movie trailers as they are a marketing piece. however, just like any other content with copyrights and trademarks they can ask you to take down the trailers. for example if you have a trailer for a kids movie surrounded by adult ads the movie studio will most likely disapprove of that.

on a side not you can use www.slashtrailers.com to help promote your trailers. (signup required)

 

wisdomtool you are really over thinking this and are making it sound like he is stealing from the movie industry.

lets examine the situation
guy 1: "hey this kid is advertising our terribly over priced and horribly acted movie on the internets for free"
guy 2: hurray!

 

Wisdomtool is correct. Fair use isn't going to be much of a defense if the site is taking in any income (running ads, etc). There are sites that have exclusive deals to show trailers - and they pay for that right. In most cases, the movie copyright holder probably isn't going to care - however, if they can ask you to take it down, they can sue you. They can report you to adsense and cause you to lose your account. They can file a DMCA with your host if it is located in the US. Get permission, or take a risk - it's pretty simple. The OP asked how he could do it [legally] and the only correct answer is to make sure you have permission.

 

I honestly do not believe that the copyright holding company to the trailer is going to
get mad or upset that you placed a movie trailer on your site. They would consider it as
free advertising for them more than anything.

Having the full movie, or even parts that was not OFFICIAL is a different story.

You can go to YouTube and look at some of the OFFICIAL movie trailer releases and if its
embeddable then this is on them, and they want you to embed it, or else it would be
disabled for embed.

But nothing wrong with contacting them.

 

just my opinion.. it is like a website that features funny TV commercials.. I think your site will be fine.. you are showing the ad for the movie .. they should not have a problem.. most likely they would love it as it gives them more exposure..

fact is.. I never heard of copyright infringement claim on trailer and like...

 

The US has fair use policies. That's what gets wikipedia access to all those photos and the like.
If you use stuff for commentary, news, or teaching, it is fair game. That's why all the
news sites have the stuff, quote books, etc.

As far as movie trailers go, get them off of youtube. No problem then. Every major
movie has a youtube account, complete with teasers and trailers. If there is an embed
code, embed it! If the embed code is not there, you're out of luck.

Stephen C

 

My exprience when make the video blog site, I get warning from my owner hosting because have video issues copyright. To remove them, you must get the DMCA, so that the video be a copyright on your blog. Just pay $99.95 one time fee fro get the DMCA.

 

You keep posting a lot of bad information in the legal section. Wikipedia and legitimate news sites are NOT the same as a commercial site showing moving trailers. A "Fair use" claim does not prevent you from being sued and I'll wager that it does NOT apply to the vast majority of people who are on DP. Google has been sued in court over its "fair use" claims for its image thumbnails - A case where Google lost and were ordered to pay damages. Unless you have six figures to throw away in a legal court dispute, you do not want to go to court with a fair use defense. Even if you win, you lose.

And to clarify, it's fine to use an embed code for a youtube video provided it was uploaded by the copyright holder or their authorized agent. Technically you can still be held liable if you embed a youtube video that was not upload by the owner.

 

Mjewel is right for the most part. Most of you don't know what you are talking about. Fair use isn't because you think its probably fair. Chances are your site will fly brlow the radar and be fine but you may get takedown notices and the mpaa members are notorious for policing their content. Placing an entire clip is surely not 'fair' because you are using the whole clip and this is not a news reporting group either. Fair use is what a court says it is and you can look up the four elements yourself.