A little over a month ago, the United Motorcoach Association negotiated a landmark deal that allows its members to show movies on their coaches for $80 per coach annually.

The licensing arrangement with a company called Motorcoach Movies covers most of Hollywood's major studies - Walt Disney, Touchstone, Universal, Paramont, Columbia, MGM, United Artists, Miramax, DreamWorks and a half-dozen others. Warner Bros., the studio that released this year's Oscar winner for best picture, Million Dollar Baby, is covered by the deal, but 20th Century Fox is not.

Operators signing up for the plan can show copyrighted movies - and all commercial movies are copyrighted -- on their coaches without fear of violating federal copyright law.

That means when a customer brings a movie on board and asks the driver to show it on the video system, the driver can do it and the coach owner doesn't have to worry about breaking any law and being held liable.

It also means coach owners can borrow, rent or buy movies from any legal source and show them as often as they want for the $80 per year per coach fee. An operator who owns 5 coaches would pay $400 for the privilege, and an operator who owns 20 coaches would pay $1,600.

For operators, the arrangement is a great deal. The best any industry has negotiated with Hollywood moguls. Airlines typically pay more than $80 to show one movie on one flight. The UMA deal is a flat $80 for each coach for an entire year.

For operators who have been ignoring the law and not paying any royalty fee, the new arrangement is a good reason to get legal.

Showing a movie on a coach without a license can subject an operator to civil penalties ranging from $750 to $30,000 per movie, or as high as $150,000 per movie if the showing was committed "willfully."

Attorneys for Hollywood studios gleefully try to extract maximum penalties when they go after violators.

Just so you'll know, a "willful violation" can occur after an operator has received a cease-and-desist letter from the Motion Picture Association of America. However, before a cease-and-desist order is issued, the movie association typically sends an operator what is called an informational letter, explaining copyright law as it applies to movies and spelling out the possible penalties for showing movies without a license.
Any coach company getting such a letter should know its operation is in Hollywood's crosshairs. Twenty-five to 30 operators in the U.S. received informational letters last year.

So, to avoid the possibility of costly fines, exorbitant legal fees and embarrassing publicity, now's a good time to contact UMA, or to contact Motorcoach Movies directly if you aren't a member of UMA.