Copyright Feedback

[Barb Nelson]

One of our members was contacted by a copyright licensing company.  What do you all use for this?  See email below/

Hi Jim,

My name is Corey Goellner, I am the Copyright Licensing Manager assigned to your school district. I am with Movie Licensing USA, the division of Swank Motion Pictures that handles licensing for K-12 schools. As the new school year approaches, I just wanted to see if you could remind your staff about copyright compliance.  Our goal is to make schools aware of the legal requirement when showing a movie.  If a movie is shown for any entertainment reason - even in the classroom, it is required by law that the school obtains a Public Performance license-http://www.copyright.gov/title17/92chap1.html#110/. 

 

Examples of movies shown for entertainment purposes are such:

• ·         Family Movie Nights / Fundraising Events
• ·         Before/ After Care
• ·         Student Rewards / Incentives
• ·         Indoor Recess / Holidays
• ·         Staffing Emergencies

I don't know how this is monitored on a daily basis within your schools but in doing this over the years I can tell you a tremendous amount of schools have movies pop up on occasion and I'd say a third of them had no idea they were doing anything wrong by showing the movie, for example, on a Friday afternoon before the holidays, or during lunch hour, or for a movie night, etc.

 

I appreciate you educating your staff on this so that they are well versed and stay in compliance, either by obtaining a license or by prohibiting the use of movies altogether.  A copyright license will cover your entire school building 24/7 for unlimited showings such as student rewards, holiday parties, last days of school, in-between testing, staffing emergencies, indoor recess, etc. The coverage includes teachers, parent groups, before/after school programs, and anyone using the schools facilities.

 

Here is the pricing breakdown for individual schools.  If you are interested in district pricing, just let me know. 

Enrollment 151-300      $413/year

Enrollment 301-500      $440/year

Enrollment 501-1000    $468/year

Enrollment 1001-1500  $495/year