1. This case study could represent a possible copyright violation of Section 106(4), which states that the owner of the copyright has the exclusive right to publicly display the work. This section of the Copyright Law includes motion pictures. Here, the school did not seek or receive permission to publicly show the movies. Additionally, the movies were not being shown for educational purposes, which would have been covered by Section 107 (The Fair Use Doctrine) which states that a copyrighted work can be used for "...criticism, comment, new reporting, teaching, scholarship, or research."
2. In this situation, the pro for the school was attracting people to their fall festival. However, the con was being caught in a copyright violation by using the movies without sufficient permission by the copyright owners. The pro for the movie copyright owners is to make a profit off of their movie sales. The con is the risk of people using those movies without permission, and therefore negatively affecting the profit.
3. From a business perspective there is definitely a copyright violation in this instance. The violation is the fact that the movies were not being shown for educational purposes, and also that the entirety of the movie was shown rather than just a portion. Additionally, by showing the movies in this way, the school is affecting the market value of those movies. Although cease-and-desist letters can be used as a scare tactic, in this case the copyright holder was correct; their rights had been compromised.
4. If this instance had occurred in an educational setting, and for an educational purpose, then it would have been covered by the Fair Use Doctrine. If the school had sought permission to show these movies for a purely pleasurable experience, then that would have been acceptable. However, the movies were shown just for fun, and therefore a violation occurred.
5. From my personal perspective, I am so thankful for the Fair Use Doctrine! In my field experiences I have witnessed multiple usages of movies for an educational purpose, and I saw how movies can be effective for teaching certain concepts. Also, in the ECLC where I have worked for the past four years, we often watch educational videos. We also watch non-educational videos but for an educational purpose. For example, last week we watched Nemo, but it had an educational purpose. Our weekly theme was the ocean, and so by watching Nemo, the students were able to get excited and curious about learning ocean concepts.
Yes, well thought through.
ReplyDelete