We purchased the license to show Fireproof at our church, and that was such a hit that we want to start having an occasional movie night. We have the CVLI License (Total Producers Package), and I have begun the task of going through every movie so I can label them with a red sticker for "Home Use Only" or a green sticker for "Public Use OK" , but I am having a problem finding a movie that we can show at the church. We have a large number of movies in our Church Library, including Come What May, Faith Like Potatoes, The List, The Last Sin Eater, The Redemption of Sarah Cain, Amazing Grace, The Pilgrim's Progress, Love Comes Softly Series, etc,.however, by following the information that I learned at the last library conference, none of these will be able to be shown. I am a little disappointed because about all I have found so far are the Billy Graham, World Wide Pictures and Big Idea. . At our training session, we were told to go to www.imbd.com and enter the title of the movie, then scroll down to Company and click on that and also view the producers. Only the producers with USA theatrical rights can be shown. I am not having much success so far. Does anyone else have more information? Or do I just need to call CVLI and ask them? We are always learning something new!!

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  •  The current url for CVLI is https://us.cvli.com/. The imbd.com link does not work. Be watching for more updates on the copyright information.

     

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  • This is a serious problem for all of us. None of us want to break a law and we try to be so careful. I just go online and check out the producers and companies and get their e-mail and make a request. For the most part we simply state that they are for home viewing only. Even that becomes a problem because if they invite guests to watch the movie it then becomes a public viewing. If they drop by and the movie is being shown it is okay to continue the viewing. There just seems to be a better way to "loan" videos/DVD.

    Eva Nell Hunter has a lot of information in this area.

    Rita Kirkland
  • Lisa, there are now 400 producers in the total packet from CVLI. I suggest that you check that list to see if a DVD or video is listed. It's great to have a movie night at your church and Fireproof and the other previous two by that producer do require the special license as you mentioned. Even though a movie is listed by CVLI giving permission to show it only at the location mentioned when the license was purchased, you do not have permission to advertise what movie is being shown. This information is given on the CVLI website. It could be exciting to go to church for a movie night and not know what is going to be shown!

    Eva Nell Hunter
    • Copyright is such a maze to wade through isn't it! From the imdb site, must it read "theatrical" or can it read "dvd"? What is the difference in these notations and why is that important? Also, do you find it confusing when there are different names for a parent company? For example: 20th Century Fox Film Corp. also has Fox2000, Fox Faith, etc. or Sony Classics vs. Sony Pictures. Do they need to be listed exactly as they appear on the imdb website on the CVLI list?
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