Danielle, The document that would help you is the SCMS 'Statement of Best Practices in Fair Use in Teaching for Film & Media Educators.' It explains and clarifies US copyright law in the area and describes the key exemptions which allow educators to make clips from films for teaching. See http://www.cmstudies.org (first item on the news menu on the right) Hope that helps Iain ---- Iain Robert Smith Institute of Film and Television School of American and Canadian Studies University of Nottingham University Park NG7 2RD Editorial Board, Scope: An Online Journal of Film and Television Studies website: http://www.scope.nottingham.ac.uk/ <http://www.scope.nottingham.ac.uk/> Executive Committee, MeCCSA Post-Graduate Network website: http://www.meccsa.org.uk/pgn/ <http://www.meccsa.org.uk/pgn/> ________________________________ From: Film and TV Studies Discussion List on behalf of Glassmeyer, Danielle Sent: Fri 27/02/2009 21:50 To: [log in to unmask] Subject: [SCREEN-L] making clips....practical matters My school's AV/IT support department has just told me that they can't legally make clips from any film source for any reason due to copyright issues. Before I say "pish posh", I thought I might ask here... I need clips from feature films that would fall well under 10 % of total running time. I would be using them in classroom and conference presentation only. And they are not Disney. And it's okay with me if the clips are housed on a password-restricted streaming server. Three requests -- can you all point me toward the current law so I can review what it says? -- can you all make suggestions about workarounds if you have had a similar problem? --can you all help me to figure out what kind of equipment and programs I would need to do this on my own? Thanks in advance for advice and help! Danielle Glassmeyer English Department Bradley University ---- Learn to speak like a film/TV professor! Listen to the ScreenLex podcast: http://www.screenlex.org <http://www.screenlex.org/> This message has been checked for viruses but the contents of an attachment may still contain software viruses, which could damage your computer system: you are advised to perform your own checks. Email communications with the University of Nottingham may be monitored as permitted by UK legislation. ---- Online resources for film/TV studies may be found at ScreenSite http://www.ScreenSite.org