📢 Important Update: PlayPhrase.me is Evolving

Hi Evgeny, Thanks again for all the amazing work on Playphrase. Personally, I use it mainly to get timestamps — I have my own methods for collecting media clips. I completely understand your concerns and support your efforts to keep the platform sustainable. Furthermore, I’d strongly recommend disabling the download feature altogether for the long-term survivability of this project. People who really want to download clips will always find their own ways — better to let them handle that themselves. So the platform survives. A note on Fair Use: Allowing users to download movie clips — even for educational purposes — doesn’t automatically make it Fair Use. Fair Use is a legal defense, not a free pass, and it’s always contextual. Prepackaged, searchable clips from copyrighted works — even with a neutral watermark — can still be seen as redistribution, especially when offered at scale and behind a paywall. As for the broader landscape: • Yarn.co allows downloads, but they don’t charge users or provide precise timestamps, which could help their case if challenged. • 33Quotes from China (https://33.agilestudio.cn/) does offer downloads and charges for premium access, but given their location, copyright enforcement is a different story altogether. That leaves Playphrase — arguably the most technically advanced and polished among all these movie quote search engines. So it makes sense you’re receiving more scrutiny from copyright holders. I’m really glad you’re aware of these risks. No matter what decision you end up making, I remain grateful and deeply impressed by the scope and quality of your work.

Hi Evgeny, I understand now why I can't download files anymore and I totally support your wish to respect author rights. I always quote the films in my vidéos, so people know where the short clip comes from and can look for the full movie. However, I have a question regarding your new policy that I truly want to respect. I'm a teacher, I teach French for foreigner and I was building a product to help students with french pronunciation. I selected a few clips from playphrase.me with sentences that are hard to pronunce or have a special pronunciation. Does selling this product is ok according to your new policy ? It's gonna be an online course, supported by a community, students won't be able to download files, just view it with a small explanation attached.

Hi, Evgeny I am a loyal subscriber of PlaypPhrase. I completely respect your change. May I put in two small suggestions? 1. When the Download menu pops up, can I see the video size as the choice I made last time? For example, I always choose 1920x1080 to download, so can I keep it all the time? 2. I don't need translation. So if I just need a 1920x1080 clip with standard font 38 every time, could it be faster to download it? Could you design an easier download for what I said? I appreciate it if you consider what I suggest, which I think hardly can risk the survival of PP.me

Hi Evgeny, I am sorry but I have just paid my membership as you didn't have these new restrictions. I do not wish to use it with watermarks or subtitles which is a shame as I love what you have done. If this cannot be removed then I wish to cancel my membership and get a refund as I only took it out 5 days ago - cheers Hieth

I'm going to be honest with you Evgeny. Removing the watermark isn't difficult at all. The subtitles are a bit ugly and annoying, but also pretty easy to remove. The issue isn't with these two things, it's how we're stuck with them. If survivability is your biggest concern, i'd look into other ways you can upgrade your tool without compromising it's integrity and the happiness of your users. What are these other competitors doing that you're not? Surely there is something, if you're worried about losing momentum. Create user profiles, allow us to save clips into albums, multi-clip downloads. These are some very basic things people have been asking for. Furthermore, I don't believe that watermarking clips with your brand qualifies as fair use, because now it essentially is selling a clip that is protected by these various producers and distributors. You were able to get away with it under fair use without the watermark, but I believe, and please correct me if I'm wrong, you're now selling the opportunity to download protected works, branded with your company name. I think the DMCA's are going to start rolling in. I work in television, and use your tool as reference a lot when working on storyboards where there's a great line delivery that I want to use as a reference, or for blocking/staging, so these on-screen texts aren't a deal breaker for me, but they certainly are very distracting and annoying. Looking at Reddit and other internet boards, however, I do see that this update is a deal breaker for many people. Hopefully there is a way to rectify this before everyone moves on to other tools.

What a shame. I've always used it for language learning only. Years ago I took up the habit of learning Webster's daily word of the day. I create a note every day in Obsidian and add relevant information about the meaning of the word. It has become a daily habit and sort of a hobby. I guess I am a nerd. Adding a movie clip made it extra fun. I downloaded about 800 clips. Your service was perfect. Original clips, subtitles as file names, huge database. I discovered some great movies! I understand your concerns, but hope there's another way to address them. Forced subtitles and watermarking kind of kills the project for me.

Hey, I’ve really appreciated how incredibly useful this editing tool has been—honestly, one of the best out there. That’s why it’s disappointing to see it lose so much functionality. I'm supporting the Patreon because I believe in the project, and dont believe we should still have watermarks or forced subtitles, especially if we are paying a subscription. I understand there are legal concerns, but, you could argue that the site follows fair use. I hope there's a way to re-navigate those without compromising the tool’s usefulness. Just wanted to share my thoughts—feels like a bit of a letdown.