Rhonda Coryell has a set of 4 DVDs about Argentium that can be
rented for a very reasonable price at Smartflix,com. It’s a great
alternative to purchase. View one for a month, then move on to the
next in the series.
Michele
I appreciate the plug for my DVD set. But, didn’t know anyone was
selling rentals of them! My question is: How can anyone can legally
rent my DVD set out to people? I own them and wonder how they could
arrange something like this when I have all rights. It is why you put
the big, in-your-face warning at the beginning of each video.
Probably not much one can do about it unless you have the money for
attorneys is there? I feel the is important and needs to
be out there, but I have spent a small fortune making them and hope
to someday get a return on my investment.
Ronda Coryell
Jewelry Studies Intl
Hello Ronda,
but I have spent a small fortune making them and hope to someday get a return on my investment.
It whould be very nice when you get something in return and I wish
that it happends BUT the reality is very often different. One needs to
start with figuring out howmuch need there is for the of
a product, howmuch you can sell and howmuch it needs to cost in order
to make it worthwhile doing it. Hoping for is a very noble mind,
being sure of what you do is more reliable for your finances and
sometimes you need to have some luck.
This is not an advice I give, I’m only writting my point of view.
Wishing you the very best for all your effort you spend in your
product (even when I don’t know what it is) from my behalf.
Have fun and enjoy
Pedro
Then you might want to have your attorney contact SmartFlix to see
about those lost royalties. I assumed they had your permission to
rent out the videos and were giving you a royalty. After all,
Netflix and Blockbuster give royalties when they rent out movies, I
assume, you should be entitled to the same. It might be worth an
attorneys time for something like this.
Michele
I appreciate the plug for my DVD set. But, didn't know anyone was selling rentals of them!
Do you actually sell the DVDs, or just a license to use them? If you
sell them outright, you probably don’t have any control over
lending. Like paper books, you can’t stop a library from lending
them, but e-books are licensed, so distribution is limited.
Al Balmer
Pine City, NY
How can anyone can legally rent my DVD set out to people? I own them and wonder how they could arrange something like this when I have all rights. It is why you put the big, in-your-face warning at the beginning of each video.
Ronda, unless you are only selling the individual rights to use your
CDs, and retain actual ownership of the physical CD, then I think
this works much like with printed books. You own the copyright and
duplication rights, and probably things like broadcast rights, etc.
But when you buy a book, while you cannot copy the book, nothing
legally prevents you from loaning the book to your neighbor, or
renting it to your neighbor. Libraries buy books outright, and with
that, so far as I know, they get the rights to loan out the
individual books without this violating any provision of copyright
law. I expect that renting the books or CDs is no different, legally,
from loaning them… In short, I’d expect that unless you took
specific steps to sell your CDs only on the condition that they not
be shared, rented, or loaned out to other than purchasers (and I’m,
not sure if you could even do this unless you yourself are only
renting out your CDs to purchasers), that it’s legal for your
customers to do whatever they wish with the CD;s they buy from you.
You might want to investigate things like what Amazon or others do
with “on demand” movie rentals. People can buy a download of a movie,
which can then be viewed a specific number of times, or only during a
specific time period. There, what is being sold is the right to watch
the material, not an actual CD. The same is true with rentals, where
you’d retain ownership of the CD, and only be selling the right to
use it. But this might be quite hard to set up, and harder still to
enforce, unless you got a specific signed contract agreeing to
limitations on use from each of your customers…
Peter
I expect that renting the books or CDs is no different, legally, from loaning them... In short, I'd expect that unless you took specific steps to sell your CDs only on the condition that they not be shared, rented, or loaned out to other than purchasers.......
This is just a guess, but computer software used to be rented. There
were stores dedicated to software rental. After a while software
publishers included ‘shrink wrapped’ terms, and by breaking the
package seal the buyer was obligated to following them. One of the
terms is that the software cannot be rented out. The software rental
stores closed.
For future production I don’t see how it could hurt to include some
shrink-wrapped terms of usage. Video production is no small
undertaking and the market for jewelry instruction is not large. You
should get a return on your efforts, not have rental companies cut
you out.
Best wishes,
Neil A.
Your video DVDs cannot be rented out without your permission. Video
and music are recorded performance and the copyright holder has the
right to set terms for their commercial use. Play a movie DVD and
pause on the FBI warning. Read the part there about unauthorized
commercial use. That’s the part of copyright law that covers all
recorded performance. It’s why radio stations pay royalties to the
record labels. It’s why anytime anyone sings "Happy Birthday to You"
on TV the estate of the composers gets a royalty. It’s why any
restaurant with live music needs a contract with ASCAP.
The difficulty for the small, independent producer, of course, is
the cost of legal action weighed against the possible gains.
Printed books are much less closely controlled. There have been
occassions where pubishers have tried to dun libraries for giving
public readings, but AFAIK those attempts have always fallen through.
In the U.S. the ready dissemination of the printed word is considered
to be a public good generally. First Amendment and all that. It’s why
you don’t need a vendor’s license to sell books on the street.
As a Librarian, I can tell you that the copyright law includes a
provision called “fair use.” In order to use a form of media without
paying the copyright owner, it must be used for an educational
(non-profit) use. This is why it’s legal for Libraries to loan the
material, but not legal for stores to rent it. Of course, it all
depends on the license given by the publisher (usually the
rights-holder of the item.)
In my Library we have many jewelry-making DVDs that we lend to our
students. My Bead and Jewelry Society also purchases DVDs to lend to
members.
Katherine S. Margolis
But Katherine, SmartFlix is charging for renting them. That hardly
seems fair to Rhonda.
Michele
Therefore, SmartFlix is breaking the law by making a profit without
paying the rights-holder. Unfortunately for creators, only large
companies can afford to sue, and they only sue firms with “deep
pockets.”
It’s a lousy, imprecise law that should be gutted and started over.
IMHO, of course.
Katie
Katherine S. Margolis
I bought one of your DVD’s and paid quite a lot for it…£ 35.00 plus postage…only to discover I could watch all the sections for free on YouTube. So I returned the DVD. I use and IPad Pro so need to watch DVDs on the TV. Much easier to go onto YouTube or Rio Grande’s website and watch.
Good luck,
Inverdon
Rhonda I just read most of this thread. One thing you can do in the future is sell it via a download only. it can be downloaded onto one devise, but that is it. Then that devise would have to be rented out which won’t happen. You get my drift. Part of what you pay for on those DVD’s of movies when you get the blu ray version with the downloaded able extra is to cover that one time download. You should hear my guys (both Computer uber geeks) discuss this problem as they see it. On the other hand i defend it. You have put your time effort and money into making those DVD’s. You should make a profit off of it. Just like the jewelry we make. We put our time effort and money into making those pieces, and we expect to make a profit.
Aggie