Public Performance of Video Recordings

Students often want to show movies or videos in our classrooms and auditoriums for their clubs, organizations, or just for fun. Unless you acquire the tapes with public performance rights you will be breaking the copyright law. You cannot just go to the video store, rent a video or DVD and show it in a public space because these copies are not licensed for public performance. Even if you do not charge an admission for the movie you are still breaking the law.

In order to be legal you have to get the tape or DVD from a vendor that rents you the movie with public performance rights. This can be expensive and may cost hundreds of dollars per tape.

The only exception to this rule is if an instructor shows the video in a classroom and the activity is a teaching activity and not recreation or entertainment. This situation would not be considered a violation of copyright law.

A few places to rent tapes or DVDs with public performance rights. (We usually use Swank):

Swank Motion Pictures, Inc., 1-800-876-5577
Kino International, 1-800-562-3330
New Yorker Films, 1-877-247-6200
Criterion Pictures USA, 1-800-890-9494
Modern Sound Pictures, 1-402-341-8476

Read on for more detailed information:

Copyright is a property right that gives the copyright owner of an original work a bundle of exclusive rights, which include the right to authorize or prohibit reproduction, derivative works, distribution, and public performance or display of that work. You can bet that every videotape you own or rent is copyrighted.

Section 101 of the copyright law says that a performance is public if it is in a public place or if it is in any place if "a substantial number of persons outside of a normal circle of a family and its acquaintances" is gathered there.

Thus, the factors to consider in determining whether a performance is public include whether the place is public and the size and composition of the audience. For example, if the place where the performance takes place is a public place (open to the public), how many and what kind of people attend is not important.

By definition it is a public performance. Virtually every auditorium, classroom, meeting room, and dorm lounge on the campus is to be considered a public place, so screening a video there is considered a public performance. Where the place of performance is not open to the public (Like your dorm room, where the public can be excluded), and every one there was your friend, the performance would most likely not be considered as public and you would be legal.

Even if a proposed performance might be considered a public performance, there may not be an infringement because the copyright law places further limits upon the performance right of copyright owners in Sections 110(1), (2) and (4).4 Section 110(1) says that performances that take place in the face-to-face teaching activities of a nonprofit educational institution are not an infringement of the copyright owner's right.

Following are the elements of each exemption that must be satisfied in order for an otherwise public performance to be exempt:

1. Section 110(1) (Teaching Activities of a Nonprofit Educational Institution):
   • The performance must be performed by the instructor or pupil(s) (not by a performance artist);
   • The instructor and pupil(s) must be in the same place (transmissions by television, etc., do not qualify here although they may qualify under 110(2) below);
     
   • The activity must be a teaching activity and not recreation or entertainment;
     
   • The activity must be put on by a nonprofit educational institution;
     
   • The activity must take place in a classroom or other area used as a classroom for systematic instructional activity; and
     
   • In the case of performance of a videotape or movie, the copy of the work performed must have been lawfully made. For example, one cannot show an archival copy of a videotape since it would not have been made in accordance with the provisions of the copyright law.