Re: Use of Pre-Recorded Videos in Interactive Television Courses

Jessica Litman <litman[_at_]mindspring.com> wrote:
>
> On 11/3/97, Glen McKay <gmckay[_at_]nmjc.cc.nm.us> wrote:
> >
> > For the copyright holder? My question is *who in their right mind is
> > going to (illegally) copy and disseminate a commercial video that's a
> > quarter screen size and surrounded by all sorts of graphics, text and
> > icons that closely identify the product with the sending institution?*
> > How can the market possibly be harmed?
> >
>
> For the copyright holder, the license fees it might have charged to
> permit the distant-ed version to be made may add up to a considerable
> loss,

All due respects I have to chuckle at this so-called "issue" of license fees. I am responsible for recommending the purchase of audio-visual materials for instructional purposes at New Mexico Junior College (http://www.nmjc.cc.nm.us). So far, of the 30 some odd titles I've put into the "to buy" queue,

The average cost per videotape is $124.61. The highest individual item is $305.70. The lowest individual item is $29.95.
The standard deviation for all of these tapes is 71.38. With that low a deviation, most of the tapes are going to be well over the $29.95 low figure. The vast majority of these tapes are only 30-40 minutes long.

I'll go one further: I produced a videotape for a major industrial association. I know for certain it cost the association peanuts because I carried out my duties as a college employee on salary-- there was no special stipend for producing the videotape, a 30-minute program. I'm not complaining; I enjoyed the experience and would do it again in a heartbeat. The association is charging a list price of $220.00 per videotape.

I guarantee you if the consumer market had to face these types of charges there wouldn't *be* a consumer market, period. Seems to me education has already "paid" a license, and this for only face-to-face instruction. My response to this consists of but one word.

Whoa!

-- 
Glen (McKay) Gummess
AV Services Coordinator
New Mexico Junior College
5317 Lovington Highway
Hobbs, NM  88240
(505) 392-5468 (voice)
gmckay[_at_]nmjc.cc.nm.us