About the copyright concerns:
When we first started the movie collection here, we had the great idea
of having a movie night - popcorn, movies, scholarly legal discussion
to follow - each week. However, unless you specifically buy the public
performance rights for the videos, you cannot do that, even if no
money is charged for the performance. The copyright law doesn't
provide for public performance of videos for profit, or to an
unspecified audience (like "all students welcome to attend"). The
educational exceptions, though, do provide for showing videos to
students as part of a course, in class, during instruction by a
professor - so that, while we can't have Wednesday Night at the
Movies, without buying the public performance rights, a professor
can show the video to the class as part of the classroom instruction.
Doing so to a group, for entertainment purposes, doesn't meet
the copyright exception.
***************************************************************
Sally G. Waters, Queen of Reference / "Dignity.
(waters@suvax1.stetson.edu) / Always dignity."
Stetson Univ. College of Law Library /
1401 61st St. S. / --Don Lockwood
St. Petersburg, FL 33707 /
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