8mm Forum: Eastin-Phelan Corp. v. Hal Roach Studios, Inc. (1972)

This is topic Eastin-Phelan Corp. v. Hal Roach Studios, Inc. (1972) in forum General Yak at 8mm Forum.

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Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on February 01, 2014, 07:36 PM:

Here's an interesting one. Apparently back in the day our friends at Blackhawk were selling prints to a chain of restaurants, who were in turn advertizing the movies to draw in paying customers.

Fairly often here we talk about licensing and what constitutes "Non Theatrical".

Here's how its' defined in this case:

quote:
"It is understood that the rights granted hereunder are limited to home and nontheatrical use. . . . "`Nontheatrical' as used herein is defined as exhibitions on substandard dimension motion picture film only and outside of regularly established motion picture theatres, and not in commercial competition therewith. It is understood that showings in schools, churches, clubs, lodges, supermarkets, night clubs, restaurants, taverns, hospitals, homes, orphanages and such institutions as well as by industry are considered noncompetitive with established theatres."

So I'd say the next time I go to show a film to the Scouts or the Sunday School, I'll be OK.

Roach Vs. Blackhawk (Film at 11!!!...or maybe NOT!!)

[ February 01, 2014, 09:31 PM: Message edited by: Steve Klare ]

Posted by Maurice Leakey (Member # 916) on February 01, 2014, 11:27 PM:

In my Film Society days non-theatrical was defined as an exhibition where an admission fee was not charged.

If the audience paid to see the film it was a public exhibition and a completely different set of rules applied.

"Free Loan" films from the libraries of Shell Petroleum, British Transport Films and the National Coal Board (among many others) could only be supplied for exhibition to a non fee paying audience.

Posted by Marshall Crist (Member # 1312) on February 02, 2014, 12:34 AM:

Good old Shakey's. They were still running 16mm prints of Little Rascals shorts in their restaurants well into the late '70s.

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on February 02, 2014, 12:55 AM:

When I went to one running 16mm, they had Three Stooges on the screen. What bugged me though was that it was rear screen projection and the image was backwards. Not such a big deal when the show was playing, but the titles and anything with text on it was a huge distraction. Cool pizza place though.

Posted by David Ollerearnshaw (Member # 3296) on February 02, 2014, 05:59 AM:

I take it Blackhawk won

Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on February 02, 2014, 08:19 AM:

I'm not completely sure!

Somewhere in all the lawyereese I'm getting that Roach was trying to force Blackhawk to stop the pizzeria from showing the films, so Blackhawk petitioned the court to issue an injunction against Roach so they would stop stopping Blackhawk from allowing the pizzeria to show the Blackhawk prints of the Roach films. The court failed to find a basis to issue an injunction so basically they didn't do anything.

All of which doesn't mean they didn't work the whole thing out over coffee later on that week.

Apparently the big issues for Roach were that the exhibitions were public and advertised.

Even though there was no direct admission charge, they were doing it to drum up food sales, so it wasn't exactly "non commercial" either.

Posted by Douglas Meltzer (Member # 28) on February 02, 2014, 03:07 PM:

There was a McDonald's in NY that ran super 8 in the late 1970's. I remember seeing Columbia's "Battle with Talos" in B&W.

Doug

Posted by Paul Mason (Member # 4015) on February 03, 2014, 03:22 AM:

Here in the UK distributors of DVDs prefer to limit the use of their products to home use apparently meaning small audiences of family and friends where no admission charge is made. This excludes oil rigs, prisons, hospitals etc. I suspect this is not strictly enforced because the movie companies concentrate on internet downloads and copying.

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