Private screening (film)

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A Private screening is when a commercially made film is shown to a group of people in somewhere other than one of their homes, the legality's can be complex, as the rules and regulation vary from country to country.

[edit] United Kingdom

Showing a DVD or video to a group of people outside of the home is legally regarded as a public showing, and is therefore in breach of copyright for DVDs/videos that have been purchased or hired for domestic use. To organise a group screening, permission from the copyright owner of the title in question will need to be obtained. Obtaining such rights clearances can be a complex procedure.

For certain types of screening ("non-theatrical" screening), it is possible to hire a copy of a film from its distributor with the rights already cleared. The primary non-theatrical distributors of feature films on DVD, video and 16mm in Britain are the BFI and Filmbank Distributors.^[1]

Another option is to buy a blanket licence for the year known as a 'Public Video Screening Licence' which may work out cheaper if showing film is to be a regular event.^[2]