OT: Please Boycott technicalvideorental.com

I quote some earlier maillist correspondence that may be relevant to some here:

I've been meaning to post here on this subject for some time. Especially, video authors should beware of selling your wares to anyone involved with technicalvideorental.com.

Original post was to the clocks mailing list: Hi List,

> Just found this site. Looks like they have several clock repair DVDs and > assorted machining stuff. It works kind of like Netflicks. If someone > tries it, please report back. >
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> Best, > Tom >>

My initial response was:

Reply to
Adam Smith
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I got a link this morning from a Yahoo! group I belong to.

In Australia they'd be toasted. The clause at the beginning of a video that states not for rental, public viewing or copying holds a lot of weight here.

The problem is that most of the companies that produce the original video are small operators and neglect to include the clauses.

Regards Charles

Adam Smith wrote:

Reply to
Chilla

Adam, I don't know all the details here and I don't know how it works in Canada. I'm also no expert.

In the US, I don't think you have to put notices about copying or even a copyright symbol anymore. I think copyright law would cover this (in the US). From your detailed further reply maybe it is different in Canada.

A real shame to have happen regardless.

Their stuff looks familiar; for instance:

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says: * NOW Available in the U.S. exclusively from /anvilfire!/* For all Canadian or International sales: Call or email to order. Visa and M/C accepted. Same day shipment. PAL format now available

Bill Epps' stuff

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I would bet they don't have permission from Rudy's estate (but don't know for sure):

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?main_page=index&cPath=6 If you're interested in putting the word out to authors, here's a start.

Steve Smith

Adam Smith wrote:

Reply to
Steve Smith

Hi, I'm Travis Corcoran, founder and president of Technical Video Rental.

I'd like to address a few issues, and reassure folks here that we're not ripping off Rudy's estate ... or anyone else.

The assertions that have been brought up here include:

  • we're renting out Rudy's videos without the knowledge of the estate
  • we have illegal copies in our inventory
  • it is illegal to rent out videos without paying royalties

Addressing these in order:

John and Patti Rice, the owners of Bay-com, which is the sole distributor of Rudy's work, are fully aware of Technical Video Rental. I talk to John and Patti every time we place another large order for more original copies of Rudy's videos. TVR owns several hundred copies of Rudy's DVDs...all bought directly from the copyright holder.

We do not have a single illegal copy of any video anywhere in our inventory. We've communicated with dozens and dozens of vendors and reassured them of that, and also told them that if they ever want to do an audit of our inventory for illegal copies, we'd be happy to help. We've got over a dozen 3" binders filled with receipts for every purchase we've ever made, and we can document the legal origin of every one of the tens of thousands of DVDs in our inventory. I take copyright violations very seriously, and would NEVER engage in such activity.

As "Siggy" and some others have pointed out on a related thread in the metalworking usenet group, under the First Sale Doctrine, it is perfectly legal to rent out videos, assuming that they were legally purchased. TVR consulted with a lawyer before going into business, and we are a member in good standing of the VSDA - an association of video rental stores. Glenn Ashmore points out that Blockbuster pays a royalty to the studios. This is not exactly correct. As a business decision, Blockbuster decided to negotiate a deal with a few studios, so that instead of buying copies of videos outright (the way that Technical Video Rental and most other video rental stores do), they instead get free copies from the studios and then pay them a small fee for each rental. This is *not* a royalty scheme.

I'd also like to address one particular commenter directly. Adam Smith tells a distressing tale of how Technical Video Rental purchased one copy of his mother's video, and then illegally pirated it.

The truth is quite different.

TVR purchased

3 copies of Bookbinding Intro course 2 copies of Bookbinding Intermediate course 1 copy of Bookbinding Advanced Course 2 copies of Endpapers 3 copies of Bookbinding with Leather 1 copy of Restoration and Repair

as well as other titles.

...thus putting thousands of dollars in the hands of the original vendor.

We have the receipts to document this.

To give an example of our good faith dealings, I'll also point out that we contacted the vendor (cbbag.ca) regarding the fact that their DVD prices were higher than their VHS prices (which the website said was because of high DVD duplication costs), and helpfully suggested some DVD duplicating services that they might have good luck with.

At some point the vendor decided that they wished to prevent would-be bookbinders from having access to videos except through themselves, and they then silently stopped filling orders from TVR.

Since that time we have not added any additional copies of videos from cbbag.ca to our inventory.

We at Technical Video Rental are quite proud with the good relations we have with the vast majority of our vendors, and we're proud of the fact that we make high quality video training much more widely available to the folks who seek it out.

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact me,

Travis J I Corcoran, President Technical Video Rental, Inc.

--

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need to know. We show you how.

Reply to
tjic_google_com

My comments are interspersed below.

These are to the message Travis posted on rec.knives, which is a little bit different than the one posted here. I don't believe that the differences are significant.

I never said that. I have no reason to believe that technicalvideorental has not purchased all of the videos that they are circulating.

I never said that.

I did state that a single copy was purchased of each title, I stand corrected on that point (by your remarks below), that more than one copy was purchased of a few titles. The fact has no bearing on my criticism.

I did say that. I believe that ethical commercial dealings are based on a shared understanding of the terms of a given agreement between the parties. I believe that at least some of your suppliers do not understand that "fair use" allows you to rent their work when you purchase it, and would not sell to you, if they understood your intent. You may choose to disagree, but I, personally, therefore regard your practise as unethical, even though it is legal. The fact that you do your video purchases (or at least some of them, in any case), using your personal name, rather than your business name, shows that you agree that some, perhaps most, of your suppliers would not be willing to sell to an outfit called "technicalvideorental", because they are hoping to remain the sole providers of their work.

Already stipulated that this statement is correct, see above.

With regards to the use of the word "pirate" I quote from my earlier communications: "... Personally I'd rather give my money to the authors than to pirates, (even if legal pirates). I don't mean to imply that they are in violation of any agreement or EULA that CBBAG had on it's published material, they are not. ... " I hope that it is clear from the whole passage that I was not stating that TVR was illegally copying the videos, but I do regret my use of the word "pirate", and apologise for it.

Would you be willing to sell them back to us at the original price? CBBAG will buy them, if you will sell them.

It was never CBBAG's intent to sell the videos to a video rental service. What CBBAG _did_ do, was change the terms of their agreement, so that purchasers explicitly waive their fair use "right to rent".

I really don't doubt that most of technicalvideorentals suppliers are willing. Perhaps you should include in your listings on each video whether the author has objected to your use, explicitly stated that they have agreed to it, whatever the status is.

Reply to
Adam Smith

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