Help Protect Your Gundaroo Film Society

I’m sure you have all seen the copyright warning when playing movies at home.

That warning has two purposes:

• to make sure people know the rules, and

• to demonstrate in court that offenders knowingly cheated.  

The Gundaroo Film Society does not have a very expensive commercial licence to show films to the public. So, if we admit members of the public to our screenings, we can be fined thousands of dollars (and your committee members could face criminal charges).

The NSW Federation of Film Societies has negotiated far cheaper Screening license fees for us provided our screenings are viewed:

• only by registered members, and

• by members’ guests “on their way” to becoming members (i.e. briefly they can be tyre kickers).​

Tickets to individual screenings are not permitted under this discount arrangement.

We also pay a Music for Cinemas license fee which covers us for the music played within the films.

To meet our legal responsibilities and to be able to show that we do (or at least try hard to), all members must register their attendance on entry to the hall. Members must also register the names of their guests. This allows us to operate legally and provides an audit trail, should it be required.

A full-year member can invite THREE GUESTS OVER THE ANNUAL PROGRAM. A half-year member can invite ONE guest.

On some occasions we do pay a high commercial screening fee for our opening premiere film so that the general public can come freely and get a sense of what it would be like to attend our screenings. 

​

The Gundaroo Film Society provides a great local social event, and your continued help in avoiding threats to its existence is important.

So, remember:

Register yourself and any guests, including their name, on entry to every screening.

Wayne Kotzur

President