[Videolib] Preview copies

Jessica Rosner (jrosner@kino.com)
Mon, 16 Aug 2004 16:05:54 -0400

We seem to be getting to the silly stuff again. Jed is so off the wall I am
not sure it is worth responding to but if you are the recipient of a tape
that says something like "for preview only, not for sale or rental " etc you
would have to be brain dead not to realize it is not supposed to go in a
public collection. Most likely these days the tape even contains a
disclaimer at the front and the occcaisional pop up warning so do say
you just happened to get this tape but did not agree to such conditions is
absurd. Kind of like getting stolen property and saying " but I did not
steal so I am not liable". Keep in mind the originating question involved
EMMY SCREENERS and putting these in a collection could easily lead to legal
action as they are both marked and restricted.

As for the question of reviewers etc, that is something you really need to
clarify in advance with the distributor. My guess is most would not object
to donating the tape in exchange for review but it may depend on the
title. Frankly Kino stuff is relatively cheap and we do not bother with
putting on warnings for Home Video review copies. I did however take action
against one critic who put the stuff on eBay A MONTH BEFORE they were to go
on sale. We send out relatively few review copies and do our best to avoid
the infamous "screener whores" ( Bob's film website).

However as mentioned in an earlier post , the key issue here is not
copyright or contracts but TRUST. If distributors , especially small
independent ones have to worry that screeners we send will end up
in circulating collections ( resulting in a loss of revenue) without our
knowledge than something is seriously wrong. I don't believe this is the
case at all but it is important that people understand the concern

Jessica

Jessica Rosner
Kino International
333 W 39th St. 503
NY NY 10018
jrosner@kino.com
212-629-6880