Is there a way to have a watch party on MS teams?
November 4, 2020 5:23 AM

I'm trying to organise some Christmas activities for my company. One idea I had is for us to somehow have a watch party in MS Teams.

Ideally we'd watch a movie like Die Hard or Home Alone during an extended lunch break and chat about it in MS teams. Is this possible from an I.T. point of view and if so what about copyright? What's the best way to do this? We're in the UK if it matters. Thank you.
posted by hazyjane to Media & Arts (3 answers total) 2 users marked this as a favorite
I have successfully shared a Youtube video* via Microsoft Teams. (The trick was to share the screen and enable system audio).

*Copyright was not a concern in this particular instance.
posted by oceano at 6:08 AM on November 4, 2020


Technologically speaking I agree with oceano that it can certainly be done - you can share your screen and audio and everyone can chat on the chat function. It might be better if the person screening could chat on another device if using the same one makes it noisy.

Copyright advice from Filmbank Media says "Under UK copyright law, screenings films to audiences outside of the cinema or home for entertainment purposes requires a licence from the copyright owner or their representatives". I would argue that you will be at home, but I don't know how that stands up from a legal point of view! I'm sure nobody would think twice about e.g. bringing a DVD into the office to watch with colleagues at lunchtime, and this feels broadly similar?
posted by london explorer girl at 6:45 AM on November 4, 2020


nobody would think twice about e.g. bringing a DVD into the office to watch with colleagues

This is absolutely against the copyright agreement, smaller organisations may not care but many large companies will have HR policies explicitly forbidding this. A PPL licence is typically orders of magnitude more expensive than any for normal home use.
posted by Lanark at 7:53 AM on November 4, 2020


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