It is likely an infringement of the rights of the copyright owner. Copyright reserves certain rights for the owner of the copyright. For movies, one of these rights is the right to "perform the copyrighted work publicly." It doesn't matter if it's for a profit or not. "....in the case of literary, musical, dramatic, and choreographic works, pantomimes, and motion pictures and other audiovisual works, to perform the copyrighted work publicly;" http://www.pddoc.com/copyright/authors_rights.htm That being said, there are probably other sources that might be able to provide a better answer. It sure seems like there should be a way to be able to do what you are wanting to do, even if it is a copyright issue, such as getting permission to do so from the copyright owner of the movie or working through one of the companies that provides licensing for movies. I know that periodically free movies are shown at a theatre in Little Rock that are sponsored by a law office there. Mike Goad http://www.pddoc.com/copyright/index.html > Our local Civitan group is interested in providing recreation in our > small town. Our idea is to show old movies...youth oriented as well as > adult movies. We have a local "Gem" theater that our city owns. If one > purchases a dvd with old movies on it is it acceptable to show them to a > group....even if no funds are taken for the movie? ARe we violating > copyrights? > > > > Joyce Gaston Reece > > > ==== COPYRIGHT Mailing List ==== > RootsWeb's mailing lists are filtered and attachments are removed. A > virus that is distributed as an attachment will not reach you through a > RootsWeb mailing list. For further information about Viruses, Trojans, > Worms etc., go please to: http://helpdesk.rootsweb.com/virus.html. Think > to keep your Anti-Virus up-to-date! > > ============================== > Search the US Census Collection. Over 140 million records added in the > last 12 months. Largest online collection in the world. Learn more: > http://www.ancestry.com/s13965/rd.ashx

Sometimes a gratis license will be provided to a civic or government group for music, movies, etc., if no profit is going to be made, i.e., free public showings. We did this all the time when I worked in copyright for a large music publisher. So you should contact the stated copyright holder and/or distributor and ask about gratis licensing for community organizations. Kathi Jones-Hudson MD Tombstone Transcription Project Manager http://www.rootsweb.com/~cemetery/maryland/maryland.html __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com