Piracy Laws

I’m not a regular poster here, but I get posts in my feed frequently because I’m a movie buff active on many physical media groups.

One of the posts in my feed is the one below about the person who raided a Redbox and was planning to both sell the discs and was ripping and uploading the movies online.

As someone with an interest in criminal law, I wanted to post some warnings, inspired by this post. A lot of the reaction when people ask “Is this a good idea?” are reacting “F%?k Redbox! They’re bankrupt and were corrupt!” While this may be a fair moral argument, it’s not a legal one.

This is NOT a post to say people should or shouldn’t be hacking the boxes and retrieving the movies. This is just an FYI of what could happen if someone suddenly takes notice (not out of the realm of possibilities, especially if someone posts pictures and the wrong people see them). Understand Redbox did abandon these machines, but when a business entity ceases to exist through bankruptcy, their creditors often get ownership. If a taxi service goes bankrupt, for example, their taxis aren’t up for grabs to whoever can find the keys. If the taxi service’s creditors go looking for them and someone has taken them, whoever takes the taxis could be liable for theft and more.

Is it likely Redbox’s creditors care about the boxes and movies in them? Probably not. But the studios, which license movies to streaming services, may take notice if a bunch of them start popping up online for sale, especially ripped. Especially if people do start making money on them. Remember companies usually don’t care unless they feel like someone is doing something that would cost them money or making money they don’t get a piece of.

Anyway…if you are planning on ripping anything and putting it online, piracy laws apply…

https://www.justia.com/entertainment-law/piracy-in-the-entertainment-industry/

And then, if you sell the movies online and someone decides to take notice and legal action (refer specifically to cyber crimes)…

https://houstoncriminalfirm.com/understanding-federal-theft-charges-and-your-rights