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

Glen McKay <gmckay[_at_]nmjc.cc.nm.us> wrote:
>
> 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!

Unfortunately, unreasonable licence fees are not a defence for copyright infringement... The solution is to look to competing suppliers... put your requirements out to tender... market forces etc... The distance education market is going to be big enough to make it worthwhile for video producers to license material at a reasonable cost, unless of course your proposals kill the market stone dead.

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