📢 Important Update: PlayPhrase.me is Evolving
Added 2025-06-09 09:34:57 +0000 UTCDear Supporters,
I want to share some important changes happening at PlayPhrase.me.
Over the years, this project has grown from a simple passion project into the largest collection of short movie and TV show phrases on the web — and it has helped many people around the world learn real language through real conversations.
However, to ensure the long-term sustainability of the platform, PlayPhrase.me is officially transitioning to focus exclusively on educational use.
This means:
🎓 Focus on Language Learning
The platform is now fully dedicated to language learners, educators, and students.
Our goal is to help people improve their language skills by exploring how real phrases are used in movies and TV shows — in a safe, focused, and legally sound way.
No more generalized media use.
No more content creator services for projects like fan videos or media compilations.
📥 Changes to Download Feature
All downloadable clips are now educationally modified — with subtitles, highlighted text, and watermarks — to clearly differentiate them from original content.
This ensures they are used only for personal learning, classroom teaching, or non-commercial sharing on social media.
There is no option to download original unmodified videos anymore.
UPD: I have considered your suggestions and added a checkbox - "Enable Karaoke Subtitles" - unchecking this box will hide the subtitles but show information about the movie and playback time. If you have any more interesting ideas and suggestions, we can discuss them in the comments.
🔎 Changes to Search Features
Based on the new policy direction:
Movie search will not be added to the platform (even though it was previously considered).
Instead, an actor-based search feature is coming soon — allowing you to find phrases by characters and real scenes.
📜 Fair Use Policy
To protect the project, I have published a Fair Use Policy that outlines:
How clips are used for educational and research purposes.
The limits on downloads and usage.
The rights of original content owners.
You can read it here: Fair Use Policy
🚀 Why These Changes?
As PlayPhrase.me grows, it naturally attracts more attention — and with growth comes responsibility.
To make sure the platform remains available for language learners worldwide, it’s critical to:
Respect copyright laws.
Limit the platform to true educational purposes.
Avoid any legal risks that could endanger the future of the project.
I hope you understand that these changes are made to protect PlayPhrase.me — and to ensure it can continue serving the global community for years to come.
🙏 Thank You
Thank you so much for your continued support.
This project would not be possible without you, and I’m excited for the new chapter focused on helping even more people learn languages in an authentic, powerful way.
If you have any questions or feedback, feel free to reach out.
Evgeny Potapenko
Comments
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.
Frank Chi
2025-06-10 15:30:04 +0000 UTCThank you very much!
Evgeny
2025-06-09 17:47:45 +0000 UTCHi Evgeny, hope you are well. I saw this post this morning and went to check the page, I was kinda disappointed... But i have come back just to check what people have said and it's amazing how you understand your users and make little changes so we can have a great website! I guess the opcion of disabling subs is good, sometimes I don't need subs, but the idea of adding info of the movie is the best change you have made. People who work on social media know how important copyrght is, and you have made a great solution to us. I reallly aprecciate it! I was thinking about aadding that movie info manually but know you will save a lot of time! Sorry if i made mistakes, im not native of english
Said Says
2025-06-09 17:12:01 +0000 UTC
