Mayor Shows Pirated Copy of “Inside Out 2” on Town Square Big Screen in Brazil

The mayor of a small municipality in Brazil recently hosted a public screening of the blockbuster hit "Inside Out 2". The open-air town square event was a great success, but not without critique. Watermarks on the meters-high screen showed that the public was watching a pirated copy of the film. When the press got wind of it, the major countered that "everyone was happy", which is hard to argue with, especially since there are no official cinemas nearby.

Every day, millions of people break the law; by posting copyrighted images, music, and videos on social media, for example.

For most of these people, copyright is merely an afterthought, not a real concern. Especially when snippets of copyrighted content are posted to a small audience, the chances of being noticed are small.

The legal consequences of mass online piracy are more problematic. That said, there are still examples of apparent ‘inadvertent’ mass-piracy projects. For example, when a Utah town approved a pirate IPTV scheme for use by its citizens.

Mayor Proudly Pirates ‘Inside Out 2’ on Town Square

In Brazil, there was a similarly unbelievable display of public piracy last week that went on to make national headlines. The mayor of the municipality Acopiara, in the north-east of the country, invited citizens of the small town Trussu to join a screening of the blockbuster “Inside Out 2” at the local town square.

With little more than a thousand inhabitants, many of whom have limited means, this appeared to be a kind gesture. The mayor, Anthony Almeida Neto, could use some positive marks too; he was removed from office three times on suspicion of being involved in corruption schemes, and was most recently reinstated in March.

The mayor officially announced the public screening of ‘Inside Out 2’ via Instagram and Facebook, inviting people to join him. That worked well as a sizable crowd showed up, allowing the controversial major to proudly boast the event’s popularity in public through his social media channels.

The announcement
 

Needless to say, public figures such as mayors have a vested interest in being liked by the public. Whether this screening was politically motivated or not isn’t clear but from a legal perspective, the plan backfired.

Pirate Screening

Taking place in an outside theater created just for this occasion, the screening was a unique opportunity for the small town’s residents. There are no official movie theaters nearby, so locals would normally have to travel for several hours to see a film that’s still in cinemas.

Thanks to the mayor, people could see ‘Inside Out 2’ in their hometown instead.

The mayor was pleased with the turnout too and proudly broadcasted it through a livestream on Instagram. Amidst all this joy, however, people started to notice a watermark on the film that was clearly associated with piracy. In addition, it was apparent that the copy had been sourced from pirate streaming site, Obaflix.

Town square screening
 

All signs indicate that the public event wasn’t authorized or licensed. Instead, it appeared to be an improvised screening of a low-quality TS release of the film, which is widely available through pirate sites.

When this ‘revelation’ was picked up in the Brazilian press, mayor Anthony Almeida was quick to respond with assurances that he only had honest intentions.

Mayor Responds

According to the mayor, the City Counsel regularly hosts these types of events to entertain elderly people and children in the rural region. There was absolutely no political motivation, he stressed.

“There were only children, everyone was happy, there was no political speech, there were no politicians, the only one was me, but I didn’t even speak, it had nothing to do with politics, the film is not about politics either,” Almeida told PontoPoder.

While the public pirate screening was widely reported in the press, a key fact was omitted; one that should also grab the attention of political figureheads, including the mayor.

According to recent data, only 7% of municipalities in Brazil have a movie theater. That means a visit to an official theater requires a full-day commitment, assuming that some people can afford it.

This availability problem isn’t only limited to rural areas. In Brazil, there are cities with hundreds of thousands of inhabitants that don’t have an official movie theater. This would be unthinkable in the United States and many other countries.

No copyright infringement intended

As far as we know, there are no legal consequences for the mayor. It’s also unknown whether he’s aware of the legal complications that could arise. While that may seem obvious, not everyone is well versed in copyright nuances.

The mayor is not alone in this. Many schools and sport clubs also entertain people by showing copyrighted content. Even when that’s from a paid Netflix or Disney+ subscription, semi-public broadcasting is still not allowed.

Even those who seem to be aware of copyright infringement may actually have no idea what’s allowed and what’s not. In recent years, we have seen thousands of social media posts with the tagline “no copyright infringement intended“, stating that “all rights are reserved to the owner.”

While this is rather honest, the posters are basically admitting that they knowingly post copyright-infringing material online, without obtaining any permission. That’s actually much worse than not adding the tagline at all.

But, apparently, some people simply don’t know any better.

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Note: With thanks to the Brazilian reader who helped with the research.

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