Again, if the film were streamed into a classroom, it's no different than
the faculty member swinging by the library, checking out the video and
showing it in his/her classroom. I just don't see why this would cut into
sales; the institution still has to buy the original copy that it's going
to stream. Maybe I'm giving away my position at a very small institution
in this response, though, and you're really thinking of large universities?
Susan at Wabash
At 04:20 PM 2/21/2006 -0500, you wrote:
>I too appreciate the discussion but do think it is more than a stretch
>and potentially dangerous to suggest that fair use would allow the streaming
>an an entire dramatic film WITHOUT the copyright holders permission. I think
>this goes against decades of accepted copyright and assumes that if you only
>violate ONE element of the 4 factors listed for Fair Use it is OK. Taken to
>its extreme it would also allow to digitize and stream whole books under
>copyright without permission etc. I don't think the idea of 3 minutes or no
>more than 10 percent of a work was developed out of thin air. What I always
>like to respond in these cases is that if you feel this IS legal and covered
>than you should have the courage of your convictions and contact the
>copyright holder be it Kino or Disney and tell them that this is your
>understanding of the law and you are going to do it. While I am not a big
>fan of how Disney and over major studios handle stuff , the truth is small
>companies like Kino don't have the resources for much legal action ( though
>we have taken some none at this point has been against an academic
>institution).
>As for what a company would "lose" if its films are streamed into a
>classroom, the simple answer is the revenue we need to survive. The average
>Kino film costs $30 and most are bought by wholesalers at a steep discount
>If Kino sells a copy of Metropolis for $17 to a school that buys it from
>Ingram or Amazon etc and then streams it to classes all over its entire
>system we simply can't survive. We expect for instance different campuses of
>an institution to buy their own copy ( though can always interlibrary loan)
>and on very popular films a school might buy a few copies. What if the
>school just borrowed a legal copy from the local rental store and digitized
>that for streaming? I assume you can see the problem. Now I think we are
>more than open to working with schools on streaming when we have rights and
>can have some limits on the terms. There was an old joke by Goddard that
>eventually Hollywood would just make one film a year and everyone would
>watch that, well my fear of the slippery slope of thinking that you can
>digitize whole films under "Fair Use" is that some day everyone will want to
>digitize it from the SAME copy.
>
>For the record I personally take a liberal view of these things and have
>allowed several schools that have closed circuit campus systems to use our
>films AT NO EXTRA charge if it is just being sent to a single class but this
>is a lot different from giving unlimited access to both classes and students
>in those classes.
>
>It is already difficult and getting harder by the day to put out ANY small
>film on DVD. There are so many wonderful foreign & classic films we COULD
>put out if only we knew enough people would buy them. While streaming should
>theoretically be some kind of additional revenue stream under your scenario
>it would almost certainly be the death of putting any of these films out.
>As it stands I doubt we will ever put out another African film and I can't
>get Kino to release the 3 silent films by women directors that I produced on
>video on ONE DVD for $30 because their is not enough of a market. I
>understand we really all want to work together so that everyone gets what
>They need but suggesting that schools can digitize whole films without
>compensation to rights holders is almost guaranteed to make fewer and fewer
>small films legally available
>
>OK long rant sorry still jet lagged
>Because of lack of market
Susan Albrecht
Acquisitions Coordinator
Wabash College Lilly Library
Crawfordsville, IN
x6216
albrechs@wabash.edu
*********************************************************************************
"If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice."--Neil Peart
*********************************************************************************
_______________________________________________
Videolib mailing list
Videolib@library.berkeley.edu
http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/mailman/listinfo/videolib