Excuse my ignorance, but ....
 
On Fri, 19 Jul 1996 17:56:57 -0500, Janet Staiger
<[log in to unmask]> wrote:
 
>  Jerome K. Miller in
>"Using Copyrighted Videocassettes in Classrooms, Libraries, and Training
>Centers" (1984) summarizes the "rules" (pp. 13-14):
>        1)  . . . displays . . . must be made from legitimate copies,
>including prerecorded videocassettes;
 
a " video copy" (as the original poster was questioning) of a
laserdisc is not a "legitimate copy" but an illegal one. sorry to put
the stick in your spokes but it seems pretty obvious to me: if i own
the rights to a film then it matters not who you are. i sell the
rights as i see fit. if you rent a laser or vhs tape from your local
store, it is pretty much guaranteed that you have not gotten the
PUBLIC PERFORMANCE RIGHTS (PPR) in your deal. without said rights
you're breaking the law by screening the rental to a class or copy it
for later use. (i don't mean to imply that teachers don't do it every
single day. but if a thousand people say a foolish thing, it is still
a foolish thing.)
 
look at it this way: if it were legal to rent computer software (which
it used to be in canada), you could rent a word processor and use it.
and then erase it from your hd when you returned it, but you could not
copy it and use your copy to teach someone else how to use the word
processor.
 
if public performance rights were inherent in all video and laser
rentals there would be a hell of a lot of companies going out of
business who cater exclusively to the institution market (libraries,
universities)--cfmdc, moving images, etc.
 
L.
Lincoln Stewart
[log in to unmask]
Fetching Pictures
http://www.fetching.com/
 
Life is shorts.
 
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