Ask HN: Is my startup legal? MovieByHeart.com

[GregShelton]

I’m an immigrant and I have a fear of speaking in English. This fear of performing in another language, also known as Foreign Language Anxiety, affects more than 50% of people.

I’ve searched everywhere for a solution to this problem and found nothing. That is why I’ve created MovieByHeart.com. This website will help people overcome the fear of speaking in English.

At MovieByHeart we transform movie into educational games, following the Fair Use copyright guidelines. However, I think that The Gatekeepers will consider it as copyright infringement.

I want to make this project legal, I’d love to pay license fees, but at this stage no one knows what to do, because we are in uncharted territory. Such companies as Amazon, iTunes, YouTube are not able to license movies they want. And I’m just a teacher, who can’t afford a lawyer. What should I do?

Your opinion and advise will be greatly appreciated. If you would like to test website, use email: moviebyheart at gmail, password: test1234

[micks56]

That is copyright infringement, and would not constitute fair use.

Around ycnews it is often said to not worry about that. No one will sue you until you get big, and then you can negotiate. I have no opinion on that advice.

Studios are unlikely to license you big name movies and TV shows.

Can you contact independent filmmakers instead? They may be giving their work away for free already. You could create a market for it. Your customers pay to use your service, and then you give a cut to the filmmaker. Filmmaker makes money where he wouldn't have before, and also gets greater exposure for his work.

[GregShelton]

I would not agree that it's copyright infringement. We've transformed the content of copyrighted work and is using it for a transformative (educational) purpose.

"since the defendant has engaged in both types of transformation, we would expect a court generally to find that the defendant’s use is transformative and that the transformativeness factor weighs in favor of the defendant’s fair use claim (though how strongly it does so may vary depending on how transformative the defendant’s use is)" http://www.utexas.edu/law/faculty/treese/fair_use_transforma...

[micks56]

Transformation and educational purpose do not mean what you think they mean.

1. Transformation is more than adding your own translation on top of the movie. You need to change the meaning or expression of the work. The meaning of your version is exactly the same as the original by definition (you are making a word for word translation).

2. Your "educational purpose" argument is diminished when you affect the market for the work. The movie studio will argue your students should rent/buy the movie and watch with subtitles. Your website is taking away sales. Also, if you try to earn money from this you are no longer seeking any educational purpose.

3. You are broadcasting the original movie without permission. That is copyright infringement.

4. Regarding your quote, you should read the Blanch v. Koons case and look at Blanch's original work versus Koon's alleged infringing work to see what transformation requires.

[GregShelton]

What I mean by transformation is that we transform movies into games (Voice Over videos) by muting some dialog lines. That changes the meaning of the work. It's not entertainment anymore. No one will watch movie with half dialog lines muted.

The only thing students can do with DVD is to watch it (passive entertainment).

In our case students learn dialog lines and than perform them with the help of Voice Over videos (active learning).

I think that we create a new market for people with a specific need. When people pay for access to Voice Over videos they will pay because they want to overcome Anxiety, not because they want to see movie for entertainment.

Thats how I see it. May be I wrong

[micks56]

That changes nothing. Still copyright infringement. See above.

[GregShelton]

Thank you for your comments. It seems I have to follow your advice and contact indie moviemakers or use public domain movies

[GregShelton]

I'd love to work with independent filmmakers. Unfortunately the main market is outside US and for overcoming Foreign Language Anxiety it's important to use movies people already know and love.

[rick888]

I've been learning mandarin as a second language for the past couple of years and I came across subtitle translations of English movies to mandarin (so, you could burn a DVD with these subtitle files and be able to see the Mandarin). This has helped me in the learning process.

Many of the subtitle sites have been taken down by the MPAA. I love the idea of your site, but I think if it gets big enough, they will eventually take you to court.

[GregShelton]

Thank you for your reply. I think they can close this project down without taking me to court

[rick888]

You might be able to get permission or license it. I think it would probably be much cheaper than actually licensing the content. Have you tried contacting anyone in the industry?

[GregShelton]

I wasn't be able to find any educational license that could be suitable for this project. And I don't know who should I contact in the industry

[GregShelton]

Clicable http://moviebyheart.com