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Copyright at Kalamazoo College

Videos/DVDs and Copyright - Public Performance Rights

Films are copyrighted just as text and music are. Showing a film to a group may require obtaining public performance rights.

Do I Need To Obtain Performance Rights?

Yes No

The screening is open to the public, such as showing a foreign-language film to the community for cultural enrichment

The screening is in a public space where access is not restricted, such as an instructor showing a film to a class for curriculum-related purposes in a public or unrestricted-access location

People attending are outside the normal circle of family and acquaintances, such as showing a film to a club or organization, or showing a film for class but inviting others to attend

Privately viewing the film in your room with friends

A instructor is showing the film to officially registered students in a classroom, where content of film directly relates to course. (The Copyright Law, 28 U.S. C. 17 § 110(1) http://www.copyright.gov/title17/92chap1.html#110, provides an exemption for certain educational uses of videorecordings. Specifically, it allows for "performance or display of a work by instructors or pupils in the course of face-to-face teaching activities of a nonprofit educational institution, in a classroom or similar place devoted to instruction.")

Public Performance Rights for Films

Some library films are purchased with performance rights. Find out if the library has performance rights to the film you want to show by:

If we don't have performance rights, you must contact the copyright holder to obtain them. Individuals and organizations are responsible for obtaining performance rights for library-owned films.

Tips on Finding Copyright Holders:
  1. Determine who the copyright holder is.
  2. Google the copyright holder, or use a directory like Switchboard, to find current contact information.
  3. Document your contacts and keep records of all related correspondence.

Copyright Licensing Agents

Swank Motion Pictures, Inc., founded in 1937, is the major non-theatrical movie distributor and public performance licensing agent in venues where feature movies are shown publicly.