Re: classroom use of feature length film

Well said Rob! Unlike Section 110 of the US Copyright Law, the Canadian statute specifically omits free use of a feature film, or indeed of any film or video work in the classroom. Other media are permitted freely, such as musical or spoken word sound recordings, and watching a program on TV or listening to a radio show, at the time they are being broadcast.

I suppose it's a tribute to the lobbying power of the producers and the distributors of film and video works in Canada that this disparity exists in our law. I might add, that it is not for lack of trying over the past 30 years (in my own personal experience) that we haven't been able to budge the government of the day, regardless of its political stripe.

In the most recent attempts, I pointed out that special consideration for "cinematographic" works (as they are called in our act) once had a good, or at least a rational premise. Rights holders obtained their revenue streams almost exclusively from ticket sales in theatres and licences for public 'performance' of these works. However, from the time of the rise of sales and commercial distribution of copies on VHS or Beta (and now in DVD format), these works can no longer claim any distinction in this regard from books or audio recordings. In fact, many "cinematographic" works never make it to screen or TV and are released directly into the VHS/DVD sales and rental market. So what's the rationale for treating them any differently?

I never got an answer from the government's copyright minions to that, they simply ignored the question and left the special treatment exactly where it was - meanwhile, producers and distributors are no doubt still laughing all the way to the bank. The cost of a licence for a single showing of a feature film in a classroom in a face-to-face teaching situation, for example, runs from $100 to $200 and up! Extended licences cost many times that amount, and usually have a life of only 5 years before they have to be renewed at further cost.

In my opinion, in terms of the educational aspects of the Canadian Act, this is one of the most disgraceful examples of pandering to one segment of rights holders and ignoring completely the concept of 'balancing' the competing interests of concumers.

Bernard Katz, former head, Special Collections and Library Development

                            McLaughlin Library, University of Guelph     author, descriptive bibliog. of L.M. Montgomery's books (in progress)     and chair, Ontario Library Association Copyright Task Force

On Fri, 10 Mar 2006, Rob Tiessen wrote:

> My understanding is that section 110 of the US Copyright Law will allow
> that:
>
> § 110. Limitations on exclusive rights: Exemption of certain performances
> and displays
> Notwithstanding the provisions of section 106, the following are not
> infringements of copyright:
>
> (1) performance or display of a work by instructors or pupils in the course
> of face-to-face teaching activities of a nonprofit educational institution,
> in a classroom or similar place devoted to instruction, unless, in the case
> of a motion picture or other audiovisual work, the performance, or the
> display of individual images, is given by means of a copy that was not
> lawfully made under this title, and that the person responsible for the
> performance knew or had reason to believe was not lawfully made;
>
> http://www.copyright.gov/title17/92chap1.html#107
>
> If only Canadian copyright law allowed the same thing.
>
> Rob Tiessen
> Head, Access Services
> University of Calgary Library
> tiessen[_at_]ucalgary.ca
> 403-220-6043
Received on Mon Mar 13 2006 - 23:40:31 GMT