RE: showing rental videos

["M. Claire Stewart" <claire-stewart@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I agree with the original assessment: as long as viewership is 
limited to students in the course, it is not a public performance. 
The distributors can put whatever they'd like into the scary language 
at the start of the tape, but there is clearly an exemption for 
face-to-face teaching, to say nothing of new exemptions for distance 
instruction under the TEACH act (though in the distance case the fact 
that it's a rental MIGHT be significant).

The amount of the work used is one of four fair use factors; there is 
no rule that says that if you're using the whole thing the use can 
NEVER be considered fair.  One could reasonably say that that 
particular factor might weigh against you, however.

David Nimmer did a very interesting analysis of 60 key fair use cases 
and more or less concluded that it's a crapshoot.
Nimmer, David. "Fairest of them all" and other fairy tales of fair 
use. Law and Contemporary Problems. Winter/Spring 2003.
<http://www.law.duke.edu/shell/cite.pl?66+Law+&+Contemp.+Probs.+263+(WinterSpring+2003)>

Claire

At 2:26 PM -0500 2/25/04, McDonald, David wrote:
> Isn't this begging the question a little?  This isn't a fair use if you're
> planning to show the entire film in class.
>
> I think a lot of people see this situation as gray. The question on the
> surface is: Is it legal to show a rental tape in the classroom? Of course it
> is. For years we been showing rented films, video, etc., from commercial
> distributors like Swank, Canyon, etc., in order to have access to things we
> don't own, or when we can't justify the purchase. Those materials are made
> available by the distributors specifically for this purpose.  The rental fee
> for 'Trainspotting' from a commercial rental house is going to be higher than
> the $3.99 from Blockbuster.  Why? Because it includes a license to show the
> entire film in the classroom. If you intend to show it in another context, say
> a film forum, the license will be for public performance with a still higher
> fee.
>
> The real question here is: 'Is the copyright statement on the rental store
> video or DVD valid when it says 'Not intended for public performance' or 'For
> private home viewing only'? I've always thought so, and I usually recommend
> our faculty avoid using rental store videos for in class viewing.
>
>
> David McDonald, Special Assistant
> Office of the Provost
> Towson University
> 8000 York Rd.
> Towson MD 21252-1000
> PH: 410-704-4488
> FAX: 410-704-3129
>
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--
___________________________________________
M. Claire Stewart
Head, Digital Media Services
Marjorie I. Mitchell Multimedia Center
Northwestern University Library
(847) 467-1437
claire-stewart@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://staffweb.library.northwestern.edu/staff/cstewart/
http://copyrightreadings.blogspot.com