Quote:
Originally Posted by SteveEisenberg
In democracies, you can’t stop a library, or an individual you don’t like, from buying a paper copy.
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You can't
publicly loan, rent or show a copy of book, music, dvd etc that's legitimately bought in most countries. The rights holder can (and will) sue you (it's a civil contract violation in most countries. You need a licence from the rights holder. If it's a physical copy you can privately loan it (but not for hire) or resell it. You can't use it for public performance either without paying a licence fee in most countries.
Some countries it's a criminal rather than civil offence. Note in most countries the tariff for a criminal offence is fixed or has a cap. There is no cap on civil suits (damages may be assessed by a jury or judge etc). So in Ireland while Theft of Service is a criminal offence (and a limit of about €6000 or maybe 6 months jail) the Satellite Pay TV and Cable companies decline to agree to prosecutions and sue those providing gear, typically about €100,000. The customer of the piracy enabler is always offered a deal of simply paying (assumed) arrears of subscription since they last had one or moved in. Pubs and other public places pay a public performance licence AND a commercial subscription, so they are typically sued for a lot more than assumed arrears and not offered a deal.
Disney has sued (of course) schools for showing their movies at public days (fundraisers, parents' days etc).
Retail DVDs can't be used by video libraries in most countries.