The legal side of playing movies

[southsider2k5]

Yeah, I'm backing off on my unequivocal stance that school classrooms are not public per se and therefore it's not a public performance.

 

http://www.movlic.com/copyrightcompliance.html

 

I do still think that many administrations crack down more to keep teachers from getting lazy than because they fear a knock on the door from the MPAA.

 

It would make sense to me too. It happens way too often.

[longshot7]

i thought that too, but they aren't charging for the view.

 

then, i also found this...

 

Rented or Purchased Movies May Be Played By Teachers Without a License

 

Section 110(1) of Title 17 of the United States Code grants a specific exemption from the copyright laws for:

performance or display of a work by instructors or pupils in the course of face-to-face teaching activities of a nonprofit educational institution, in a classroom or similar place devoted to instruction, unless, in the case of a motion picture or other audiovisual work, the performance, or the display of individual images, is given by means of a copy that was not lawfully made under this title, and that the person responsible for the performance knew or had reason to believe was not lawfully made ....

 

This means that no license from the copyright holder is required when a teacher at a public school or non-profit educational institution uses a lawfully purchased or rented copy of a movie in classroom instruction. It doesn't matter who purchased or rented the film, so long as it was legally obtained. The exemption is granted for "face-to-face" teaching activities only. This means that the teacher (or a substitute teacher) must be present. The exemption covers a "classroom or similar place devoted to instruction". This gives teachers some flexibility. For example, it is likely that a gymnasium used for large educational presentations in which several classes are convened together would be covered so long as a teacher presented the film. Note that remotely accessing a film from a central memory storage facility is probably not permitted. See 17 U.S.C. § 1201(a).

 

This is accurate. How else do colleges and universities get away with screening whole films for Film classes?

[southsider2k5]

This is accurate. How else do colleges and universities get away with screening whole films for Film classes?

 

It is for a specific educational purpose, which is the big exception.

[jasonxctf]

So could a history teacher show Apollo 13?

[southsider2k5]

So could a history teacher show Apollo 13?

 

Technically they should be doing something in history about the lunar landings, or moon exploration etc, if they were going to do so.

[iamshack]

Again, the key is this:

 

According to these organizations, the showing of copyrighted motion pictures (videos and DVD's) outside of a classroom educational setting (including such uses as after school programs, student rewards, rainy days, lunch hour movies, summer camps, clubs, assemblies, staffing emergencies and idle periods between state testing) constitutes copyright infringement.

 

So you can show copyrighted films, but it has to be in a classroom educational setting.

 

So watching Apollo 13 when discussing the space race with the Russians is probably fair game. Watching the Polar Express around Christmas time because you forgot to do a lesson plan, is not.