Movie clip website idea

[CharlieB]

Hi,

I've had an idea for a website where you would be able to watch short clips of key scenes in a variety of films. You would be able to search the website by film and then be given a list of all the clips stored on the website. I believe this would be good for customers who want to just watch their favourite bits of films e.g. if there was a memorable scene in a film you liked you would be able to find it and watch it.

My worry is that wether this is illegal or not. I know you cant watch full movies online legally but is it legal to show clips only? There are clips on youtube and im not sure wether these are legal or not. I know that youtube is an obvious place for people to watch clips at the moment, but its fiddly trying to find certain scenes and you cant search by movie as you get other videos coming into your search results.

What do you think of this idea & do you think its viable?

Many thanks

Charlie

[akula]

Hi,

I've had an idea for a website where you would be able to watch short clips of key scenes in a variety of films. You would be able to search the website by film and then be given a list of all the clips stored on the website. I believe this would be good for customers who want to just watch their favourite bits of films e.g. if there was a memorable scene in a film you liked you would be able to find it and watch it.

My worry is that wether this is illegal or not. I know you cant watch full movies online legally but is it legal to show clips only? There are clips on youtube and im not sure wether these are legal or not. I know that youtube is an obvious place for people to watch clips at the moment, but its fiddly trying to find certain scenes and you cant search by movie as you get other videos coming into your search results.

What do you think of this idea & do you think its viable?

Many thanks

Charlie

legally, you'd be ok.
the clips would fall under the "fair use" exemption under copyright law
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_use

commercially, you would be in a bind.
a movie clips website might fail.
although...there is a possibly i'm wrong.

the reason i'd be wrong is because there is a lot information that can be created by using movie clips as data points. for example; "top 10 gun battle scenes" list or "compare original scene to remake".

this new information may define this site as a viable entertainment / research solution.
however, it's unclear how you would implement your solution...where you would get the clips..how you would sort them etc..
if you were to do this manually for "crime" genre 2000-present...it could take you a year to get everything up.
it's a lot of films...

[nathant]

What would the business model be? - what are you charging for? Would it be a free to use service but you sell the advertising space on the site? or are you charging per film view etc?

[CharlieB]

at the moment its just a concept, I thought that it would be a free service with adverts on the site, although market research would establish this. Adverts could even appear after the clip or at the bottom while you watch like youtube.

Thanks for your replies!

[generationy]

Hey, thanks for your question. Yeah I totally agree that you need first rights to that content before you can do anything with it and monetize as well. There are several sites out there that offer a similar service but had to make deals with many people first before. Sounds like a good idea though. Why not do something with user generated content? Youtube like? For that you might find it easier to build something around. Good luck!