After watching this week’s lectures on copyright and fair use, I was most surprised to learn that copyright extends to non-published works! I would have thought that use of non-published works was an ethical issue not a legal one.
It was also interesting to learn that showing a movie for a class reward is a violation of copyright while doing so as part of teaching is acceptable. This distinction in purpose for use is notable and is a good example of how tricky an issue copyright can be. As I’m currently an elementary librarian, I now have questions about how to go about obtaining a license for my school like those that Dr. Kimmel mentioned in her Fair Use lecture.
June 8, 2020 at 5:15 pm
Hi Gray, if you google video licensing K-12 you should find several vendors who will secure licensing for select videos. This became an issue years ago when many schools started hosting after school care and wanted to show videos purely for entertainment. Schools often use videos to entertain students following testing, as rewards, at the end of the year, and during parent nights (as babysitting) while parents meet. These uses often violate copyright. Some vendors of videos will allow you to purchase performance rights for individual videos for an extra fee.
June 9, 2020 at 1:27 pm
Thanks so much, Dr. Kimmel! I will look into this ASAP!