The issue here isn't (in my book) whether vendors charge differentially
based on institutional market...I can see the economic impetus behind that,
I guess. The issue is the common (intentional in most cases) confusion
spread by vendors about the need for performance rights in educational
contexts. If a vendor offers the same title at both home video pricing and
"institutional" pricing (with performance rights, supposedly), I'm ALWAYS
gonna go for the home video version. The fact is 100% of all transactions
in my Media Center are either for on-site viewing or for face to face
teaching in a classroom--fair use, plain and simple. I simply don't need
and don't want performance rights...period. I really don't mind paying
the higher institutional price (well, I do, but I'm used to it)...it drives
me crazy, however, when a vendor rationalizes this higher price based on
rights that are irrelevant to me. If there's a COMMERCIAL stiplulation
that I pay higher price, I'll pay. Otherwise, home video here I come...
At 01:02 PM 2/11/2002 -0800, you wrote:
>Today I was searching the Facets site and found two versions of the same
>title: a home-use video priced at $40 and an institutional video with public
>performance rights for $90. This trend toward double-pricing has been
>increasingly evident in the market. PBS now offers both home-use and
>institutional video and will sell educational institutions either version.
>Some other companies will not sell the home-use version to colleges at all,
>but only to individuals. This effectively circumvents the classroom use
>exemption for home-use- only videos.
>What do you all think about this? I'm not sure how I feel. On the one
>hand(Arab Film Distribution being a case in point), you have a distributor
>doing important work that should/needs to be subsidized by the higher price.
>On the other, the trend infringes on a very important and traditional
>educational right.
>If I continue to purchase home-use-only videos from PBS, as I mostly do now,
>will I consider that short-sighted a few years down the road?
>Thanks for your input.
>Patty
>_________________________________
>Patricia Hornbeck
>Middlebury College
>Sunderland Language Center
>Middlebury, VT 05753
>
>(802)443-2268 phone
>(802)443-2075 fax
>Email: Hornbeck@middlebury.edu
Gary Handman
Director
Media Resources Center
Moffitt Library
UC Berkeley, CA 94720-6000
510-643-8566
ghandman@library.berkeley.edu