Streaming Copyrighted Material

Hello everyone,
I would like to startup a streaming service for copyrighted material that will be translated by my (future) company. Before starting it, I would like to know how manage the copyright issue.
Obviously I have to acquire the permission from the copyright holder, but for what exactly?
We will translate them in english, but it is feasible that the site will (hopefully) attract people from all around the globe. Because the material is of ephemeral nature, it will not be shipped and reside only on the internet and ok, also on the servers that could be anywhere because of the cloud.
Now, let's say some material has been licensed in the US by a company and in Spain by another one. Which is the correct way to handle this? Is it ok to go directly to the copyright holder bypassing the companies with only the license in the various country? Licenses cover only the physical goods or all form of it? We will not use any material produced by the other companies in the various countries, only the one created by the author; can this be of any help?

Thank you for your patience and sorry for all this questions ^^
Best regards

You would obtain a license for the use(s) you want to make of the work.

It is not clear why other companies' licenses are in any way relevant to your business plan.

Sorry if I'm wrong, but usually a license doesn't grant you the exclusive rights to sell the goods in the specific country? :o

Thank you for your reply.

UPDATE: Ok, I've read again about licenses and it's the other way around: some kind of licenses have a territory bound and that's all. Can you please confirm that know I've understand it correctly?

If you are trying to obtain licensing of something to which an exclusive license has already been issued, you are not going to get a license that conflicts with that prior contract.

You will have to investigate for yourself what, if any, other contracts exist and their terms. That's not a matter of public record, so it's something you'll discuss when attempting to negotiate licenses.

Ok, let's say some material has been licensed by Alice Corp. with an exclusive license for the US. Could I still obtain a license from the copyright owner for streaming it on the internet even to the US citizens, or Alice Corp. detain the rights to forbid it? In the latter case, is it possible to negotiate with Alice Corp. to grant permissions (some sort of license reselling)?

Depends on how the contract is worded. There's good reason why DVD's have regions encoded in them and many streaming sites require you to identify where you are. Sometimes it's not even as broad as the whole US.

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Quoting flyingron

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Depends on how the contract is worded. There's good reason why DVD's have regions encoded in them and many streaming sites require you to identify where you are. Sometimes it's not even as broad as the whole US.

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That's exactly why I've asked. So, does all depend on the various contracts stipulated between each licensee and licensor?
Is there any organ/site where I can check if there's any licensee for a given material and what kind of contract is it? I hoped I could find out beforehand :/

No it depends on what the licensor is willing to license to YOU. Of course that is dependent on what existing contracts they may have in place, but frankly, just because they've not made licensing agreements (that conflict) with someone else, doesn't mean they'd be inclined to do so for you, especially since you seem to be trying to weasel out of things that would protect their intellecutal property that they would entrust for you.

No there is no such site. It's none of your business what contracts people have.

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Quoting flyingron

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No it depends on what the licensor is willing to license to YOU. Of course that is dependent on what existing contracts they may have in place, but frankly, just because they've not made licensing agreements (that conflict) with someone else, doesn't mean they'd be inclined to do so for you, especially since you seem to be trying to weasel out of things that would protect their intellecutal property that they would entrust for you.

No there is no such site. It's none of your business what contracts people have.

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Please, moderate your tone. We don't want to "weasel out" anything, I'm asking because we care about intellectual property and authors, we want to understand how it applies on internet and act accordingly. Even more, we translate what we really liked and want to spread the good work with other people, hence we don't want to "weasel out" anything from authors but instead to give them the attentions they deserve, therefore it's the exact opposite.

If you move forward with this plan, you will contact the copyright holders, negotiate your licenses consistent with whatever terms they are willing to offer, pay them the money you agree to pay under the licenses, and distribute the works in a manner consistent with your licenses. You should hire a lawyer who is very experienced with the negotiation of this type of licensing agreement.