[aisle] Copyright/Streaming Info Needed

[Lester, Kathy]

A similar topic came up in my district.
I wrote to Carrie Russell from the American Library Association for
clarification.
I am including her response below.
Please note her response includes 1) that she cannot give legal advice and
2) that we as school librarians should be contacting lawmakers to try to
update the 'fair use' portion of the copyright law to include streaming
services.

In any case, we need to be reminding teachers that 'fair use' guidelines
include the restriction that showing of the copyrighted films/content has
to be in conjunction with face-to-face instruction (i.e. part of a lesson).

--Kathy Lester
AASL Region 3 Director

Carrie's Response

*You are correct that according to the license agreement these titles
should not be used for streaming in classrooms.  There is no license that
libraries can buy at this time that would allow them to exercise all of the
exceptions to copyright which includes the face to face teaching exception.*



*If you go ahead and use the movie anyway, you would be breaking the
license agreement which is a violation of contract law and not copyright
law.  Penalties are much lower (much lower!!).  I don’t know of anyone who
has been taken to court about this – state or federal. So the risk is low.
It is likely that the rights holders do not care.*



*One option is to ignore the license and go ahead and use the movies
because again you are unable to buy a copy for school use. Of course, that
sets a bad example because technically it is wrong. One thing you could do
is write a letter to Netflix, Disney etc and tell them that you are going
to go ahead and use the movies for classroom use, and that if they don’t
reply you can assume that doing this is fine. (Of course, they won’t reply
to you). This is a way to show you have good faith in negotiating with
them, but since Netflix is the only company who has the movie that you need
and you are unable to buy or pay a permission fee, you are telling them up
front.  Keep a copy of your correspondence.  Remember to tell them that you
are not using the movies for profit purposes.*



*On Home Use videos. The reason why we could say that home use only videos
could be used in the classroom was because no one thought that a label
“home use only” was a license agreement. The video was governed by
copyright law so exceptions applied.  Now we are dealing with
non-negotiated licenses that courts have said are legally binding.*



*My advice to you (and I mean this seriously) is to tell your state
representative or congressional representative that you are having this
problem. Law makers listen to constituents and I believe if constituents
bring this issue to the attention of lawmakers across the country,
something could be done about it – even a legislative fix of some kind.
What is happening now with these streaming services is the elimination of
user rights that Congress included in the copyright law.  Congress knows
libraries and educational institutions need allowances. Here we are in a
situation of “market failure” – we want to pay for the use but the market
does not provide it.  Market failure is an indication that the copyright
law is not working because it is too difficult or impossible to make a
transaction.*



*My dream is to see hundreds of school and academic librarians and
educators as constituents reach out to their legislators. I think it would
be helpful to have a movement!*



*Of course, that does not solve your problem now. If I were in your
position, I would send a letter to the networks as suggested above, and
then go ahead and use the movies.  I cannot give you legal advice, and an
attorney would probably say, “too bad, you cannot use these movies,” and
that would be the end of it. *



Kathy Lester, MLIS, MA
*Advocacy Chair, Past-President 2014*
Michigan Association for Media in Education (MAME)
*Region 3 Director*
American Association of School Librarians (AASL)
*School Library Media Specialist / Technology Coach*
*SL21 Model Library, 2017-2018*
*SL21 Exemplary Ranking - Michigan School Libraries for the 21st Century
2019-2022*
East Middle School, Plymouth-Canton Schools
*ISTE Making IT Happen Award Winner*
*2017 MAME Michigan School Library Program of the Year*
*2012 **State Librarian's Excellence Award Winner*
kathyL at mimame.org
twitter: @LibraryL <https://twitter.com/LibraryL>
810.333.5873


On Wed, Jan 15, 2020 at 2:56 PM Breanna Gober via AISLE <
aisle at list.railslibraries.info> wrote:

> Hello, everyone! We are starting a task force at my school to address
> copyright concerns from our technology department about streaming videos.
> They have blocked streaming services from our teachers, and we are now
> trying to determine what is acceptable use. What experience/information do
> you guys have regarding copyright and streaming that I would be able to
> share with our task force?
>
> Thanks in advance!
>
> Breezy Gober
>
> Library Media Specialist
> Mascoutah High School
>
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