RE: Contract between a consumer and the owner of a movie theatre

Greetings--

In the U.S. that is not the relationship in most cases. The exhibitor is generally a non-exclusive licensee of a copyrighted work who grants the moviegoer a license to enter its real property for the limited purpose of watching the film. The exhibitor has no ownership rights in the intellectual property.

Cheers
Chris

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-cni-copyright[_at_]cni.org [mailto:owner-cni-copyright[_at_]cni.org] On Behalf Of ALRAGUENEA[_at_]aol.com
Sent: Monday, January 06, 2003 1:55 PM
To: Multiple recipients of list
Subject: Contract between a consumer and the owner of a movie theatre

Hi all,

I am currently writing a doctorate thesis regarding the applicable law to the contract of making available a work to the public on the Internet
(Comparative law analysis, U.S., European and French law).

Within this job research, I am trying to figure out what may be a possible analogy between the act of making a work available on the Internet and the act of communicating a work in the real world.

In particular, I am trying to analyze the legal relationship between the owner of a movie theatre and a consumer buying a ticket to see a movie.
(I assume that the owner of the movie theatre has the exclusive right to
perform the work and is the person selling the ticket to the consumer - please correct if I am wrong).

Would it be possible to consider that there is a contract between the owner of the movie theatre and the consumer and if so, how would you characterize this agreement (contract of services, sale of goods, license, etc.) under U.S. contract law, and in particular the law of the State of California?

I thank you in advance for your answers and suggestions.

Alan Ragueneau

PS: I am aware my question may look odd but the preliminary step under European International private law is the precise characterizion of matter at bar to determine what is the applicable law to any issue arising out of this matter. Received on Tue Jan 07 2003 - 21:20:56 GMT