Can a person or company create and streamline clips of movies over the internet to video retailers to play for their customers?
Probably not. It is not a fair use to stream such clips over the internet if the purpose is to promote the sale and rental of the videos. Such a use infringes on the copyright owner’s exclusive rights to reproduce, publicly display and distribute their work, and to create derivative works. A court will apply the four factor fair use analysis to the individual facts of such a case to determine whether the use was fair. Courts have found that stream lining movie trailers for the purpose of promoting sales or rentals serves a commercial purpose and is not transformative since the use is not different than the purpose for which it was originally created. However, if the video trailer adds criticism or commentary to the original work, it is more likely that the court will consider it to be a fair use. Courts have also found that even if the movie clip is short and therefore only uses a small portion of the original work, the aggregation of scenes may reflect the themes and tone of the film
