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Arleen Zimmerle, Media & Reference Librarian (BMC)

Sections:

Video in the Classroom
Programming with Video
Making Video Clips / Projects
Taping Television Programs
Distance Education and the Teach Act
Copyright for Film Professors
Copyright for Documentary Filmmakers
Video on Copyright

Databases A-Z:

Other:

Copyright & Video

Video in the Classroom:

Want to show a video in class?

Videos without public performance rights (i.e., "home video") may be shown in the classroom if:

The performance is by instructors or by pupils in connection with face-to-face teaching actitivities in a non-profit education institution.

The performance is for students officially enrolled in the course.

The performance takes place in a classroom or similar place devoted to instruction.

The person responsible for the performance has no reason to believe that the videotape was unlawfully made.

In the case of digital transmissions, technological measures are applied that reasonably prevent unauthorized dissemination (i.e., using video in password protected sites like Blackboard.)

The "Face to Face Teaching Exemption"

The text of the "Face to Face Teaching Exemption", Title 17, Chapter 1, section 110 of the Copyright Law

Programming with Video:

Want to show a video in a public forum outside of class? You'll need to obtain public performance rights.

The library owns selected videos with public performance rights (mainly documentaries.) Contact Media Librarian Arleen Zimmerle to see if the library already owns or may be able to obtain your video with public performance rights.

BMC Student Activities - Showing a Film on Campus

Guidelines for student organizations that wish to show a video on campus.

Swank Motion Pictures

Swank is frequently used to purchase public performance rights for feature films.

Making Video Clips / Projects:

Want to make a multimedia project with video clips?

The Multimedia Fair Use Guidelines suggest that up to 10% or 3 minutes, whichever is less, in the aggregate of a copyright motion media work may be reproduced.

Fair Use Guidelines for Educational Multimedia

The "Copyright Crash Course" webpage summarizes the Fair Use Guidelines.

Consortium of College and University Media Centers

The Consortium of College and Univeristy Media Centers (CCUMC) was a major force behind the creation of the Fair Use Guidelines. This is their webpage on Copyright and Intellectual Property Issues.

Taping Television Programs:

The Kastenmeir Guidelines allow educators to tape a radio or television broadcast for use in the classroom.

Guidelines for Off-Air Recording of Broadcast Programming for Educational Purposes

See page 22 for the Kastenmeir Guidelines.

Distance Education and the Teach Act:

ALA Fact Sheet on The Teach Act

Overview of the Teach Act from the American Library Association.

Copyright for Film Professors:

Circumvention of Technological Measures that Control Access to Copyrighted Works

In November 2006 the Library of Congress announced that film studies faculty could legally circumvent the copy-protection technology on film DVDs in order to obtain film clips for teaching purposes.

See Laura Blankenship's comments in the ETC Blog.

Statement of Best Practices for Fair Use in Teaching for Film and Media Educators

The Society for Cinema and Media Studies (SCMS, the professional organization for Film and Media Studies faculty), created this Statement of Best Practices for its membership to give their views on permissible use of media for teaching.

Copyright for Documentary Filmmakers:

American University's Center for Social Media - Links for Documentary Filmmakers

Includes the Documentary Filmmakers' Statement of Best Practices in Fair Use.

Video on Copyright:

A Fair(y) Use Tale

Film History professor Eric Faden of Bucknell University reviews of copyright principles through clips of animated Disney characters. A MUST SEE! Disney was a major player in the Copyright Term Extension Act.

Stories Untold

This short video summarizes the results of a Center for Social Media study exploring the issues surrounding copyright law and documentary film.

"The Artwork in the Age of its Mechanical Reproducibility by Walter Benjamin as told to Keith Sanborn" Video. 1996

An attempt to problematize ownership and authorship in the age of digital reproduction. Inspired by the Walter Benjamin essay of the same name and the activities of the Situationists.