Copyright and on-campus cable tv

As we read the copyright law relative to videotapes and film, unless explicitly permitted these materials may be used in a non-profit, educational setting only in a "face-to-face" classroom teaching context.

TLHU is a small university affiliated with the Teikyo University Group of Tokyo. Essentially all the students are Japanese nationals who enroll directly out of high school. These non-native English speakers continually struggle to succeed in a curriculum in which the language of instruction is English. Each moment in the English speaking classroom is valuable and we try not to waste any time.

Recently a CCTV system was installed with connections to every room in the residence halls. Four channels were reserved to disseminate educational materials to students in their rooms rather than in class. It was hoped to save valuable face-to-face class time by showing videos and films, both educational and feature films for film classes, over the closed circuit system rather than presenting them in class.

The interpretation we received on copyright law is that this is not permitted. We have sought organizations which could provide umbrella licenses for performance rights (the Motion Picture Licensing Corp. in particular), but have not been successful. Can you suggest a reasonable solution to this dilemma? Any help you can give is appreciated.

Gary Morell
<gmorell[_at_]tlhu.edu> Received on Tue Oct 22 1996 - 15:13:08 GMT