Skip to Main Content

Copyright

Showing DVDs/Videos in the Classroom

You are able to show in the classroom, either in person or online:

  • all DVDs/videos in the KPU Library collection 
  • DVDs/videos borrowed from public libraries
  • videos/DVDs that have been privately purchased (i.e they can be from your private collection as long as they are legal copies)

 All DVDs/videos shown on KPU premises must be legal copies (cannot be recorded off television or copied from borrowed DVDs, or illegally downloaded).

You cannot copy a work (e.g. burn a copy, copy to a USB, or convert to streaming) without permission from the copyright owner.

When teaching online, you have to play the DVD or video on your own device and share your screen, or use one of the integrated video options in the platform. You can record this class (including the video) for students who aren't able to attend the class, but you have to destroy your copy within 30 days of the final course evaluations are due. Students also have to destroy any copy of the recording they download. 

Include this message with the recording:

“This lesson has been made available under section 20.01 of the Copyright Act. You may not distribute, e-mail, or otherwise communicate this lesson to any other person. You must delete all copies of this lesson within 30 days of the end of the course they pertain to”
 

Can I Show Feature Films in the Classroom?

Feature Films are full length movies that were shown in movie theatres and have now been released for the rental and home purchase market.  Revisions to the Copyright Act allow legal copies of feature films to be shown in the classroom without the need for Public Performance Rights.  Copies shown must still be legal copies (not recorded from television or copied from videos/DVDs that were borrowed or purchased).

 

Although we no longer need a feature film licence to show feature films in the classroom we do if we wish to show them outside the classroom.

Our licence has an Entertainment Use Component that allows the showing outside the classroom and/or for entertainment purposes. Under this licence you may show a film that is obtained through a legal source and covered by the University’s licensing agreement with Criterion Pictures (http://www.criterionpic.com/) or Audio Cine Films (http://www.acf-film.com/en/index.php). Check on their websites to see if a title you want to show is covered. 

The Entertainment Use Licence allows broader user rights outside the ordinary use in the classroom with the following conditions:

  • The films can be shown anywhere on campus
  • The films can be shown by someone other than an instructor eg. a student club or a staff training event
  • The primary audience must be students and employees of Kwantlen, with some members of the public allowed to be present
  • Event advertising must be limited to media targeted at the University and its students and staff. In the case of print advertising, the advertisements may only appear in campus media (eg. a student newspaper) and not in general community newspapers.
  • The event must be free to attend - no cost or cover charge. Showing films at charity fund-raisers is allowed but only when the cost is purely by donation.
  • The licence covers only films that have been released for rental and home purchase; films still in theatrical release are not covered.

There may still be circumstances when there is a desire to show a film not covered under the terms of our licence. On a case by case basis it may be possible to obtain permission for a single showing of a film. Generally there is a charge per showing to obtain the rights that are necessary.  Please contact the Library for more information.

Can I Show Television & Radio Broadcasts in the Classroom?

You may show a television program or play a radio broadcast while it's being aired.

You may show purchased TV Documentaries & TV series on DVD in class for a course in session.

You may copy news or news commentary broadcasts to show later in the classroom. Educational institutions using news and commentary under the educational exception of the Copyright Modernization Act, do not have to pay royalties, destroy copies of news or commentary programs after one year, or keep records of the copies made of news or commentary programs. The copy can be made only at the time the program is aired by the broadcaster or communicated over the Internet.

  • News program is a program reporting on local, regional, national and international events as they happen and includes weather reports, sportscast, community news & other related features.  Examples: the National (news segment only), CTV News, Global News, BBC World Report etc.
  • News Commentary program is a program containing discussions, explanation, analysis, observations or interpretations of the news. Examples: Power & Politics with Evan Solomon; Mansbridge One on One, As It Happens, Studio 2, The Editors, Larry King Live

You may record a television show and retain it for up to 30 days.

You may record TV documentaries or TV series at the time of broadcast to show in a face to face classroom ONLY if all of the following conditions apply:

  • There is no commercially available DVD and
  • Technical Protection Measures are not bypassed, and
  •  If, the Educational Rights Collective of Canada (ERCC) is contacted and a licence obtained to screen the recording in class.  Fees will apply. Note: At this time KPU does not belong to the ERCC.

Documentaries are socially relevant programs with a creative vision and/or viewpoint and possess elements such as significant research and preparation; pre-scripting; significant editing. Examples: W5, 5th estate, 20/20, Dateline, Life & Times, the Nature of Things, Rex Murphy, Les affaires et la view.

Note: Fair Dealing does apply to documentaries so up to 10% of a documentary can be reproduced and shown for educational purposes. Using an entire documentary is not permitted under fair dealing.

What About Streamed Video?

You can show any of the KPU owned streamed videos on Kaltura, or streamed videos from the Films On Demand, National Film Board and curia.ca - CBC collections, as well as streamed video from a number of free sites, in the classroom.

Click here for information on KPU's streamed videos.

Streaming video cannot be dowloaded and made into a hard copy of any kind.

Online video feeds from web services must be:

  • legally posted online. For example, you cannot show a scene from the film The Matrix, posted online by someone called johnsmith12345.
  • free of permitted use notices banning use in educational settings.

Please Note:
Personal "on demand" subscriptions (iTunes, Netflix, Crave, Disney+, Prime, etc.) cannot be screened in class due to licensing restrictions. The rights you may otherwise have had, for example the educational exception found in section 29.5 of the Copyright Act, or exceptions under Fair Dealing, do not apply if they are inconsistent with the subscription's Terms of Use. The terms of the agreement between the subscriber and the subscription service govern whether movies from subscription services can be shown in the classroom.  If the agreement states that use is limited to 'personal' or 'household' use then classroom use is not permitted.  

The exception to this restriction is some Netflix documentaries that have a Grant of Permission for Educational Screenings 

Can I Show Video from Free Online Sites? (including YouTube)?

Yes,  if:

  • the videos have been legitimately posted
  • the site does not contain an explicitly worded prohibition against copying and
  • there is no digital lock on the work

Before using an online video in a classroom setting it is prudent to ask the following questions:

  • Are there any explicit warnings or limits stated? 
  • Was the video posted online by the copyright owner?
  • Does the site’s Terms of Use allow you to stream their videos for educational use?
  • Does the video contain copyrighted information from another source (for example, music, pictures, or charts)?
  • Is the video allowed to be shown in Canada? (there will be a message if it is not).
  • Is the video a commercial posted by someone other than the advertising company?
  • Has the video been available online for more than a few days? (companies often remove content immediately if it infringes copyright).
  • Does the YouTube contain ads? (only legitimately uploaded videos contain ads)

Note: It is the faculty member's responsibility to ensure the legitimacy of YouTube videos before they are shown in the classroom. YouTube videos and videos from other video sharing sites may contain content not uploaded by the copyright owner and use of these videos is copyright infringement. Search for official versions of videos uploaded by the content creator.

Many content creators like CBC have channels on YouTube (the videos found on these channels can be used).

To find Open videos and other videos that you can use in your class, please see the OER guide Video page

What about Netflix?

Some Netflix Original educational documentaries are available for one-time educational screenings.

To find out which titles are available for educational screenings, visit media.netflix.com and search for the title or browse our recent and upcoming releases.

Titles that are available for educational screening will display the following grant of permission on their details page:


GRANT OF PERMISSION FOR EDUCATIONAL SCREENINGS

Netflix is proud to present original documentaries that speak to our users in a meaningful way. We know that many of you are as excited about these films as we are; and because of their informational aspects, you’d like to show them in an educational setting -- e.g., in the classroom, at the next meeting of your community group, with your book club, etc. Consequently, we will permit one-time educational screenings, "one-time screening" means that you can't hold screenings several times in one day or one week - but if, for example, you're an educator who wants to show the film once a semester over multiple semesters, that's okay.

Educational screenings are permitted for any of the documentaries noted with this information, on the following terms:

  • The documentary may only be accessed via the Netflix service, by a Netflix account holder. We don’t sell DVDs, nor can we provide other ways for you to exhibit the film.

  • The screening must be non-profit and non-commercial. That means you can’t charge admission, fundraise, solicit donations, or accept advertising or commercial sponsorships in connection with the screening.

  • The documentary shall not be screened at any political campaign events and/or electoral campaigning events.

  • Please don’t use Netflix’s logos in any promotion for the screening, or do anything else that indicates that the screening is “official” or endorsed by Netflix.

We trust our users to respect these guidelines, which are intended to help you share and discuss our documentary content in your community.

 

You will find this information here: https://help.netflix.com/en/node/57695 

Can I Transfer Format?

Under the Copyright Modernization Act you can now transfer format if the format is obsolete or you believe it is becoming obsolete.  You can do this unless the work is commercially available in the new format.

Therefore you can now transfer a video to DVD if the work is not commercially available in DVD format--commercially available means that it can be purchased in DVD format within a reasonable amount of time at a reasonable cost.

Note: when you transfer format the original format must be destroyed; you cannot retain the original video as this would mean you would then have two copies of a title rather than the one you originally paid for

Can I Make Compilations of Movie or Video Clips?

The 'mash-up' exception in the Copyright Act allows you to incorporate existing copyright material in the creation of new works as long as it is done for non-commercial purposes, the existing material was legitimately acquired, you had reasonable grounds to believe that the work did not infringe copyright, the use does not have a substantial negative effect to the copyright holder and you mention the source of the work. For example, the 'mash-up' exception would allow you to splice scenes from legally purchased movies or videos for the purpose of creating a lecture or presentation.

What Can't I Do?

It is not legal to copy an audiovisual work at home and then show it in the classroom. This includes transferring a DVD to a USB for online streaming. 

Open Video Sites

Try this meta-search tool to find videos with Creative Commons licenses.

Aljazeera

  • Select videos are available for free to be downloaded, shared, and remixed.

Critical Commons

  • Critical Commons is a public media archive and fair use advocacy network that supports the transformative reuse of media in scholarly and creative contexts.

Moving Image Archive

  • This library contains digital movies uploaded by Archive users which range from classic full-length films, to daily alternative news broadcasts, to cartoons and concerts. Many of these videos are available for free download.

Khan Academy

  • Find videos or short lectures on math, biology, chemistry, physics, humanities, finance and history.

TED

  • TED is a nonprofit devoted to spreading ideas, usually in the form of short, powerful talks (18 minutes or less).

videolectures.net

  • An open access educational video lectures repository. The lectures are given by scholars and scientists at events like conferences, summer schools, workshops and science promotional events from many fields of Science.

Vimeo

  • Vimeo allows content creators to add a creative commons licence to their videos. These videos can be searched for using the advanced search filter.

YouTube Education

  • YouTube allows content creators to add a creative commons licence to their videos