Last night I rented a copy of “Run Lola Run” and my girlfriend pointed out to me, as I was fast forwarding through the piracy warning messages, something interesting.
It said something to the effect of “This movie is for home use only; this does not include hospitals, schools, prisons, oil rigs, …”
I can’t quite fathom why this is, and besides, who would find out if somebody were watching a copy of “Indiana Jones” in an oil rig anyway?
p.s. This was a UK tape; no US FBI stuff and crap like that
Well, some oil rigs are really big. Some of them have over 500 employees on board, and some of them have cinemas. I’m sure the line you are refering to has something to do with that: although the cinema on an oil rig might not technically be a cinema (the boss pays for it, it is outside of teritorial waters, etc.), the producers of the movie still want it to appear that way.
But I don’t think there is any formal inspection on the matter, although it can be argued that an American oil rig is subject to American law wherever it is, just as this is the case with ships (I’m assuming this is all true. It does apply to Dutch oil rigs and ships, however.)
Yeah - it’s clearly aimed at “public” showings. The rig owners would not just be showing to their own employees but a lot of other contractors too. I used to work offshore though and never remember seeing that warning but then probably was not reading the intro stuff too closely given the subject matter of most of the video libary!
BTW I am pretty sure that - apart from drillships - US (or any other flag state) drilling rigs ARE NOT automatically governed by their flag law. Certainly this is not the case in the Dutch sector of north-sea or any other EEZ I am aware of which would all follow local law. What commercial/contract law is applicable in the contractual chaim that brought them to that location in the first place is at the choice of the parties concerned. If a murder took place though it would be local law. In international waters outside any claimed EEZ though it might be different. Rigs are not generally governed by the international marine conventions applicable to ships - not that the US have ratified too many of them anyway!
I am not a lawyer so some of the details here may be wrong but am pretty confident of the broad principles.