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By Rebecca Tushnet

Georgetown's excellent law librarians just dug this up for me: an ad for Maxwell's, the video rental store found liable for violating the public performance right in Columbia Pictures Industries v. Redd Horne, 749 F.2d 154 (3rd Cir. 1984), by renting movies to be viewed in in-store viewing rooms. Text: ?To introduce you to the enjoyment of home video movies, Maxwell?s would like you to try a showcase promotional screening. Come to Maxwell?s and rent any of the 21 private showcase rooms, which hold 2 people comfortably. You pay only for the rental of the showcase room. You have free use of Maxwell?s entire library of video films?. See as much as you like?segments of several films or watch a full length movie?. If you already own a video unit and buy a tape from Maxwell?s your showcase rental fee is deducted from the price of the tape?. Free popcorn and assorted soft drinks are provided for your pleasure while visiting Maxwell?s!?

I just wanted to show this off--another great addition to the Georgetown IP Teaching Resources Database (interested? contact me!). However, if anyone can explain to me why home rental is not also public performance under Nimmer's logic, adopted by the court ("If the same copy of a given work is repeatedly played by different members of the public, albeit at different times, this constitutes a public performance."), I would be quite intrigued.

Full post as published by 43(B)log on December 23, 2009 (boomark / email).