Public Lan Party Copyright

[J-Dogg]

Can we do frequent LAN parties in a public area without breaking any copyright laws? it will be the same building that is owned us. just a bunch of people bringing their devices playing games. Does this require any additional licenses?

will clarify that this will be free entry and attendance.

 

Note: we are in Australia not too sure if that makes a difference as we will be most likely using steam games anyway...

[You_are_a_cunt]

Unless you need some sort of license for a private party, no.

Since the building is private property (as in not owned and used by the city as a public place) what you do inside is your own business (assuming, of course, the lease owner or owner is aware of what is going on and has approved the event).

It's like a comic store organizing an in-house event (like Friday Night Magic and such)

[J-Dogg]

excellent was hoping it would be as simple as that.

 

 Cheers,

[BubblyCharizard]

you might run into max occupancy, noise or power draw limits....but yeah, check with your building coordinator 

 

Besides the fact that every instance of the game(s) need their own license

[vanished]

All games are potentially different, but it seems like GTA V would be one that's off the table for playing in a "public area", as you said.

 

[BubblyCharizard]

1 minute ago, Ryan_Vickers said:

All games are potentially different, but it seems like GTA V would be one that's off the table for playing in a "public area", as you said.

 

if the public performance thing was enforced.....YT would have to take down so many videos and streams

 

 

[J-Dogg]

i was thinking the same thing. However i think i will need to come up with a list of potential games and asses there rules individually to prevent any problems. Just to be sure

 

[vanished]

5 minutes ago, BubblyCharizard said:

if the public performance thing was enforced.....YT would have to take down so many videos and streams

 

 

I have no idea how that's supposed to be interpreted.  For all we know, the videos are fine but like gaming outside in a park with an audience wouldn't be... idk, that wouldn't make any sense to me but like I said, no idea how it's supposed to be interpreted.  Regardless though I doubt they'd list things they don't enforce since that would just weaken their ability to enforce on anything else.

[Tsuki]

4 minutes ago, Ryan_Vickers said:

I have no idea how that's supposed to be interpreted.  For all we know, the videos are fine but like gaming outside in a park with an audience wouldn't be... idk, that wouldn't make any sense to me but like I said, no idea how it's supposed to be interpreted.  Regardless though I doubt they'd list things they don't enforce since that would just weaken their ability to enforce on anything else.

im not sure if a private lan party could be considered a public performance, even if it is in a public area. twitch though...

 

@OP  talk to the building owner and make sure its okay first, that should be the only thing you need to do. if he says its okay, then any complaint you might get, falls on him, not you.

[J-Dogg]

the company i work for wants to have a LAN party every so often. they own the building they want it in however as im in the IT department its my job to make sure everything will work first including all this licencing copyright bullshit that i know nothing about. so unfortunately if we play a game that has some weird rule about public areas and they get in trouble for it it may backfire on me.

[LogicalDrm]

12 hours ago, J-Dogg said:

... so unfortunately if we play a game that has some weird rule about public areas and they get in trouble for it it may backfire on me.

Public area means something owned by city/town/nation where entry can't be blocked without special permission. If you can lock doors and only allow entrance from certain people, its private. If you sell tickets, you make private area/event public. I can only see any licensing coming to play if you happen to stream and gain revenue from streaming. Since you are gaining money from content of developer/publisher. Though most are fine with that.