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I own a coffee house and am thinking about showing Independent films in the upstairs loft area / separate from the tables. I wasn't going to charge for the viewing of the films. I just thought that i could draw people into the coffee house to buy coffee if there was a movie playing where they could sit back and relax. Do i have to pay someone to simply play the movies, or can i just do it because i'm not charging for the movie itself???

As far as a court of law is concerned, you are really charging since there is the obvious expectation of getting something of value in exchange for the moviegoing experience. In any case, you cannot just buy a DVD and think that you have exhibition rights; every DVD contains a warning against ANY public exhibition, and that includes freebies. The copyright and license owners of any title are the ONLY ones that can give you permission, and you had better be sure that you get WRITTEN permission from the person who has the legal authority to give you that, else you will be up the proverbial creek. Do not imagine that you can convince a court that all attending are just your 'extended family'; they will see through that and likely put you in jail along with a huge fine as well as damages to the title's owner! Contact the Copyright Clearance Office of the Library of Congress (www.loc.gov) about any title and they will tell you how to proceed.

Don't expect to make any money on this endeavor without paying hundreds of dollars in fees, if the owners/distributors will even grant you any titles at all. If you know an Indie producer personally, maybe he will slip you a print, but count on a lawsuit if any competitor gets wind of what you are doing!

What Jimor outlines is no different from the issues surrounding the use of background music (I used to own a Muzak-type company). The business playing the music is doing so to help establish an atmosphere that's pleasant enough to motivate repeat or additional word-of-mouth business. Since a value can be inferred, it can also be inferred that the lack of that contribution would make your business less attractive. Someone's effort contributed to your business's good fortune, so an appropriate payment is expected.

While you minimize your expectations from the use of the DVD's, you're clearly hoping that their use will bring business (and money) to your door. That contribution's not free... someone expects to be paid for helping you promote your business.

One of local coffee shops had planned on a evening of free movies for their patrons. Even though they are owned by a church, I informed them about what will come down. They figured that if no admission was charged, that they could play any DVD that they rented from a Video store. Wrong. They have a really nice Dell projector and 12 foot screen, and have been screening episodes of Family Guy, which is still breaking the law. Oh well, maybe the big guy will bail them out!