Recently RSC Wales has received a few queries about the legalities of colleges showing films (usually in the sense of feature films) to groups of students, or the possibility of streaming them over an intranet. Being a complex area, JISC Legal were contacted for guidance – JISC Legal being a JISC-funded service which offers “high quality legal information to further and higher education relating to the use of information and communications technologies” (and therefore worth adding to your bookmarks or Delicious account!)

Since these issues may be of interest to other libraries, it makes sense to summarise some of the answers. I’m very grateful to JISC Legal for their help (much of the wording came from them). JISC Legal asked me to point out that the information provided by them is for information purposes only and does not constitute legal advice.

• “We want to record programmes off the TV to keep in library stock. Do we need a licence?”
• “I was thinking of setting up a lunch time film club in my college. Is this allowed?”
• “We have purchased DVDs and VHS videos in the library stock (as opposed to ones recorded from TV under an ERA licence). Can we make the most heavily used ones available in a streamed format over the college intranet?”

“We want to record programmes off the TV to keep in library stock. Do we need a licence?”

The Educational Recording Agency (ERA) deals with the licensing of content broadcast on television channels like BBC, ITV 2 and ITV3 etc. The ERA have a FAQ about their licence which covers what can and can’t be recorded, what can be done with the recordings, labelling etc. Note that the college may already be paying for an ERA licence – speak to whoever deals with licensing within the college.

It is even possible to stream the recordings on campus, since an ERA licence allows the college to do this, mentioned here:

“How can I store recordings?
Recordings can be made directly onto video or audio tapes, DVDs and CDs. Digital recordings may also be stored on a licensed establishment’s server. Appropriate security systems must be in place to ensure that only authorised students and teachers can access the recordings. Access is limited to within educational establishments unless an ERA Plus Licence is secured to cover agreed off site access (see section on ERA Plus).”

So there is also the ability to take out an ERA Plus licence for further streaming options if you want to provide off-campus access.

Obviously to get the most out of the licence your staff need to know about programmes ahead of broadcast so that they can be recorded. There are many online services with television listings – one that is used in educational institutions is TRILT (Television and Radio Index for Learning and Teaching). There is a basic search for free which only goes back a few weeks, but does let you search for programmes on selected topics in the future, just by typing in keywords. If it is heavily used then it is possible to get access to the full version by joining the BUFVC, though that costs £474 p.a. The main advantages are access to lots of materials which support media courses; custom auto-alert emails for forthcoming programmes up to 10 days in advance; and the ability to get DVD copies of programmes which have already been broadcast but which weren’t recorded by the college. Further details here.

“I was thinking of setting up a lunch time film club in my college. Is this allowed?”

JISC Legal pointed out that Section 34 (2) of the UK Copyright law, the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act (CDPA) deals with the performance, playing or showing of a work in an educational establishment. It provides that:

“the playing or showing of a sound recording, film or broadcast before such an audience for the purposes of instruction is not a playing or showing of the work in public for the purposes of infringement of copyright”.

So, where the playing or showing of the DVD films for students on film courses is only for purposes of instruction, the section above would apply and a licence or permission from the copyright owner is not required. It should be noted that the performance, playing or showing of the film should be accessible only to teachers imparting the instruction and the pupils receiving it. Pupils attending the specific course would therefore be covered by this section and members of the institution would be covered under the phrase ‘before such an audience’.

Otherwise, where films are shown as part of a college lunchtime film club based around interest rather than being tied to instruction, then a licence/permission would be required from either a) the relevant licensing organisation, or b) the copyright owner of the film.

a) The relevant licensing body with regard to performance, playing or showing of movies in public is Filmbank Distributors Ltd. They operate the Public Video Screening Licence (PVSL) to cover the public screening or performance of films by certain studios in the non-theatrical market. Non-theatrical market excludes the cinema and home where films are screened but would include schools, film societies, student unions, institutions, libraries etc. So this licence would cover the use of commercially bought DVDs in a film club. More information on the PVSL licence can be obtained from their website. The Centre for Education & Finance Management Ltd administers the PVSL licence for educational establishments. Further information.

b) Permission from the copyright owners of the film to show the film in the filmclub is another option to consider, and would mean a PVSL licence would not be required. However this could quickly become a time-consuming method if lots of films are being shown.

Note that the argument that filmclubs could be seen as being ‘enrichment’ (i.e. general improvement) and therefore seen as educational, negating the need for a PVSL licence, would be difficult to uphold. It depends on the individual details but in most cases showing films at filmclubs for ‘enrichment’ will not count as instruction. There has to be a strict case for providing instruction to the pupil to avail the exception under section 34 (2).

“We have purchased DVDs and VHS videos in the library stock (as opposed to ones recorded from TV under an ERA licence). Can we make the most heavily used ones available in a streamed format over the college intranet?”

To stream a film there are two issues involved, and two possible sets of permission required:

1. permission to show a film to an audience; and
2. permission to convert the film to a format suitable for streaming.

1. Permission to show a film to an audience

If the film is restricted to students for whom it is part of instruction, then this would be allowed because of the exception under section 34 (2) [discussed above in the question about film clubs]. If the film would be available to all students, then a Public Video Screening Licence may be required.

2. Permission to convert the film to a format suitable for streaming

To stream a film from a server would inevitably require changing the format from DVD to a format suitable for streaming. However a college is NOT allowed to change a film from DVD to another format without first contacting the producer and/or principal director. So unless the college is willing to do that, and actually receives permission, streaming a film over a server is not possible.

Considering the legal and technical issues involved in this, I would be tempted to suggest that it would be more cost-efficient to buy extra copies of some of those DVDs.

However if you are talking about things recorded from TV under an ERA licence, see the notes above.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 3rd, 2008 at 6:39 pm and is filed under copyright and licensing, video. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.