Teaching With Film Across the Curriculum
Conceived and edited by:
Laura McGee, Department of Modern Languages
Compiled by:
The Faculty Center for Excellence in Teaching
1783 Chestnut Street t 270/745-6508
http://www.wku.edu/teaching/
~ Table of Contents ~
| I | Critical Thinking About Pop Culture: References to Movie Scenes By Richard Gelderman, Physics and Astronomy |
| II | Analyzing the Science Represented in Movies By Richard Gelderman, Physics and Astronomy |
| III | Film and Video As Examples of Course Content By Victoria Gordon, Political Science |
| IV | The Use of Film Clips to Reinforce Student Understanding By Warren Campbell, Engineering |
| V | Students as “Exhibitors” of Multimedia Presentations By Ted Hovet, English |
| VI | Use of Older Video Tapes with Deaf & Hard-of-Hearing Students |
| VII | “Ask a J.D. …” FAQs on Fair Use and Intellectual Property Issues By Brian Carson, Library Public Services |
Introduction
Do you use video or film in your classroom? Do you want to know how to use it more effectively?
A 2003 study conducted at WKU by Richard Parker, formerly of the Department of Management, indicates that students have a more positive perception of learning in courses where film is among the materials used. Not only do students like viewing films, according to Parker’s study, but films can make content and concepts easier for students to understand.
This booklet was compiled as a resource for faculty on uses of video or film in teaching, which may include feature films, documentaries, TV shows, video/web clips, Tegrity clips for web classes, etc. Faculty were asked to share their “tricks of the trade” and lessons learned in using film and video in the classroom. Specifically, they were asked the following:
Have students in your courses made films or videos as part of their learning?The comments shared include ideas from several disciplines, plus an important section on fair use and intellectual property laws which apply when using films and videos in the classroom. Additional ideas and comments that you may wish to submit are welcome, and may be added to future editions of this booklet.
Laura G. McGee
Associate Professor of German
Department of Modern Languages
270-745-6408
Reference:
Parker, Richard D. (2003) Using Film to Enhance Business Education. Teaching Workshop at the 2003 Academy of Business Education Conference, San Francisco, California.
I Critical Thinking About Pop Culture: References to Movie Scenes
By Richard Gelderman, Physics and Astronomy
Hardly a lecture goes by in my introductory astronomy class where I do not make a reference to some cinematic depiction of science. Student comments on evaluations and during or after class confirm that they appreciate the links to pop culture and the relevance to a world outside of science. Most of the time I prompt a few minutes of discussion with mention of a relevant scene from a movie. Here are a few brief examples:
Alien’s promotional catch phrase: “In space no one can hear you scream.” is a great reinforcement of the fact that sound waves cannot travel through a vacuum. The sound of the exploding Death Star in Star Wars is an example of Hollywood getting the physics wrong.
Superman’s X-ray vision just can’t work. He can’t be both the emitter and detector of the X-rays.
The Invisible Man would be blind if he were completely transparent, since his eyes have to absorb light to see. It is the same situation for Harry Potter using his Invisibility Cloak; he would be effectively blind if all the light is bent around him, with no light reaching and getting absorbed by his eyes.
Gamma rays might not turn Bruce Banner into The Hulk; but if any intense exposure to light waves would change a human into a raging green behemoth, it would have to be gamma-rays, the highest energy light.
It is reasonable that the various star faring cultures in Star Trek never go outside the Galaxy. As fast as those fictional starships can travel, the Galaxy is so big that even they can’t casually go across it.
Star Trek is such a rich trove of physics examples that multiple books have been written on the topics (e.g., The Physics of Star Trek, by Lawrence Krauss).
II Analyzing the Science Represented in Movies
By Richard Gelderman, Physics and Astronomy
Sample lesson #1a
Numerous science fiction movies make use of space stations as a dramatic location for the action. Of course producers do not want to pay to have the scenes filmed in a free-fall, or “weightless” situation. Instead it is common to have the space station be spinning, so that centripetal force will simulate the acceleration due to gravity. In the movie Armageddon, Bruce Willis and his crew of oilmen visit the Russian space station Mir. They choose to rotate Mir to produce artificial gravity. I have asked students in my class to use visual clues from the movie to estimate the size of Mir and calculate how fast the ship would have to rotate in the various sections to create artificial gravity. They find that Bruce Willis may be bold and brave, but that he is no rocket scientist.
Sample lesson #1b
A much more realistic depiction of artificial gravity is presented in 2001: A Space Odyssey. On the way to the Moon to witness the lunar monolith, the rocket ship docks at an Earth orbiting space station that is gracefully spinning in space. In the film, artificial gravity is generated along the rim of the rotating space station by centrifugal force. Students watch the movie and observe the size of the station and its rotation rate. Then they must apply the equations for circular motion to calculate the amount of “artificial gravity” that would result. If they do this correctly, they determine that the gravity at the outer rim of the station is about 90 percent of that on Earth.
Sample lesson #2
By watching how objects fall, students can confirm that all of the Star Wars scenes were really filmed on Earth. I set the stage for this lesson with a digital video clip of a scene in the classroom with something tossed or dropped. We step through the frames of the video and measure the distance moved per unit time as the object accelerates in Earth’s gravitational field. Then we analyze a clip from a Star Wars film showing Luke tossing a wrench in his uncle’s Tatooine workshop. The analysis demonstrates that Tatooine’s gravity is the same as on Earth. I compare this to a clip of Luke dropping the previously levitated stones on Yoda’s world, which apparently also has the same gravity as Earth. Even in space the gravity does not change; measuring the fall of a helmet that Han drops while on the Millennium Falcon leads to the discovery that the acceleration due to gravity on the ship is also “one-g.”
There are also lessons that are less time intensive. With a brief movie clip I can set up a twelve minute exercise where students calculate that the alien’s “mother-ship” from Independence Day, described at a quarter the mass of our Moon, would create destructive tidal forces just by parking in a geosynchronous orbit beyond the Earth.
III Film and Video As Examples of Course Content
By Victoria Gordon, Political Science
I use the following videos or excerpts from videos in graduate level MPA classes (PS 540 Public Sector Organizations).
Cheaper by the Dozen (the old version—done in the 40’s)
This is the story of Frank and Lillian Gilbreth, who were pioneers in “scientific management” and conducted many time and motion studies in the early 1900’s. Many of the experiments they conducted were illustrated in this movie about their twelve children. This movie also shows the importance of a female and her work in a very male dominated field.
MASH—old TV episodes
There are many episodes that do a wonderful job of highlighting and describing the “organizational culture” of a MASH unit during the Korean War. For example, one assignment for the MPA students involves describing and deciphering the culture of an organization. A MASH episode is used in class to take us collectively through an exercise that identifies the shared beliefs, values, assumptions and norms; describes the shared things, sayings, doings, feelings; and interprets the identity, image, climate and ideology of the organization. After this, the students are much more comfortable about describing an organization that they know.
A Bug’s Life
This movie also describes the “organization” of the bugs, and also has a lot of “leadership” lessons that can be learned by students as they think about what it means to become a public sector manager.
PBS—Typhoid Mary: The Most Dangerous Woman in America
I use this video to demonstrate the ethical and professional dilemmas that are faced in the public sector. This video also does a good job of illustrating the conflicting values that are held important in the United States and how we have to balance those values in administrative decision making. Further, this video helps students think about how to deal with a range of modern day contagious diseases and epidemics—i.e. anthrax, bird flu, etc.
IV The Use of Film Clips to Reinforce Student Understanding
By Warren Campbell, Engineering
In the civil engineering version of the university experience class, we used two film clips to reinforce students’ understanding of engineering ethics and civil engineering practice. Incident at Morales is a wonderful case study. The choices made by management and engineers, both bad and good, are never shown as black and white. The video shows realistically that members of our profession are often faced with decisions without clear choices. This idea is further reinforced with discussions of the Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster.
We also show students the video Hoover Dam: The Making of a Monument. This is a wonderful documentary that describes the creativity applied to this groundbreaking project. It also describes how the managers circumvented Nevada state safety regulations in the rush to meet deadlines. 130 people died in the construction of the dam.
In the water resources courses I teach, I frequently use video clips because flooding is so much more impressive in motion. A picture of an overflowing manhole is fairly impressive, but can’t compare with an image that includes motion and sound. The roar of flood waters passing under a bridge is far more impressive than a still photo. A video of a woman being pulled out of a flooded parking lot because she ignored signs saying “impassible when flooded” also creates a greater impression than still images. I almost always travel with a digital camera that can take VGA (640x400) video clips. These fit nicely on a Power Point slide. When heavy rains fall, I can generally be seen driving around in my car taking pictures of flooding. I consider the camera with video capability an indispensable tool for my lectures.
V Students as Exhibitors of Multimedia Presentations
By Ted Hovet, English
[Note: This is an excerpt from a longer essay, “The Teacher as Exhibitor: Pedagogical Lessons from Early Film Exhibition,” in Pedagogy: Critical Approaches to Teaching Literature, Language, Composition and Culture, Volume 6, Number 2 (2006).]
Increasingly, student presentations in the classroom may have a “multimedia” dimension, incorporating film clips, images from the Internet, and so on. Yet if students passively stand by while images on a screen do the “work” for them, it defeats a significant purpose of the presentation model—giving students the responsibility and experience of actively engaging an audience. Further, it leaves the images to “speak for themselves,” with the audience receiving no guidance on the relevance to the learning goals of the course. To help counter these problems, I have come to ask my students to follow a model of presentation based on early film exhibition (one that is potentially relevant, I think, to any circumstance in which visuals are brought into a classroom—whether by students or by the instructor).
In the first years of cinema the exhibitor held a considerable amount of responsibility for shaping the audience’s experience, including promoting the product, designing the venue to suit the viewing experience, arranging the program in a particular order, and accompanying the silent images with sound (anything from live music to sound effects to lectures that would explain the images on the screen).
Asking students to follow this exhibition model shifts the goal of their presentation from a mere demonstration of their own competency to an interactive involvement with the material and, crucially, with their audience. In my film history class, for instance, I address the frustration we all feel at not being able to cover every major figure (directors, producers, screenwriters, etc.) in depth by allowing each student a fifteen-minute “exhibition” on the career of one person not present on the syllabus.
The student has to select and arrange material, organize it into a coherent narrative and (especially as the semester progresses) make connections between his or her topic and those covered in earlier exhibitions. To reinforce the importance of conveying this material to the class (and to increase the likelihood of the class actively participating by asking questions), each exam I give features several questions based strictly on these student exhibitions.
To be honest, some of the presentations can be quite poor as under prepared exhibitors fumble with remote controls trying to find clips they had not arranged in advance. These become lessons in themselves as the class observes a variety of exhibition strategies. I find that the exhibitions generally improve as the semester goes on and I gain ideas myself from the best of them. Ideally, these focused presentations, wedded to a specific learning outcome that is evaluated, help the student to creatively present the material of the exhibition in a way that engages the audience and makes it clear how it fits into the larger “program” of the course.
VI Use of Older Video Tapes with Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Students
By Paul Bush, English, BGCC
Seeing Hamlet performed is a boring experience—if all you are doing is seeing and not hearing it. Having had three deaf students in the past three years (and recently being told that I myself will be needing hearing aids in a couple of years), I’ve had to become aware of the necessity for verifying that films I show have closed captioning. Even then, I didn’t know that the closed captioning on older tapes or those “fuzzy” from dubbing may be misread by the equipment. On a worn tape, instead of:
“To be or not to be, that is the question”
you may get:
“To %#= or not to %^*! that is <.\#-+@ question.”
This would be perfect if the role of Hamlet were being performed by a rap singer instead of Kenneth Branagh, but it’s not fun for those students who are trying to follow the play on the screen. Reading along in the textbook isn’t a substitute either, because the time delay between looking up at the film after reading Elizabethan English is as distracting to the deaf as our watching a Japanese Godzilla film dubbed with a voiceover performed by Porky Pig.)
These tips will help instructors use media with closed captioning more effectively:
1. Preview dusty videos in the machine in which they will be shown—better yet, spring for a DVD copy.
2. Practice with the remote control ahead of time to ensure familiarity with setting up the closed captioning feature.
3. Be aware that there is a slight time delay for closed captioning to begin again when a video tape is paused and then restarted. Some of the text will be lost each time you pause the tape to add anecdotes or explanations.
4. Put deaf and hard-of-hearing students close enough to the screen to see the text.
Your deaf and hard-of-hearing students will thank you—and so may your hearing students if they missed hearing a couple of spoken words.
VII “Ask a J.D.”
FAQs on Fair Use and Intellectual Property Issues
By Brian Carson, Library Public Services
(Note: The information in this FAQ is current as of July 2006. Please check the copyright laws and intellectual property policies that are referenced in order to obtain the most updated information.)
1. What conditions do I have to meet in order to show all or part of a film in class?
In order to show a film in class, you need to make it a part of your classroom curriculum. Section 110(1) of the Copyright Act (Title 17, U.S. Code) allows “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.” The film must be a part of the classroom instruction, and may not be used for entertainment or reward purposes. You should always introduce the film with an explanation of the context of the film which relates to the subject being taught. You should also include a class discussion of the film, and should provide one or more handouts with information about the film, such as a bibliography of materials for further study or other pertinent information. For assistance with creating a bibliography, please contact your department’s liaison librarian in the University Libraries.
2. Are the conditions different for clubs or departments that want to show films?
The conditions for showing a film outside of class are almost exactly the same as they are for showing a film in a regular classroom. Section 110(1) of the Copyright Act allows films to be used “in a classroom or similar place devoted to instruction.” This has been interpreted to mean the library, the student center, lecture halls and auditoriums, etc. However, the film must be accompanied by a lecture that explains the film’s educational significance. This lecture needs to be slightly longer than that which would be given in a regularly scheduled class, since it must be clear that there is an academic and educational purpose for the showing of the film. The film must not be shown for entertainment or reward purposes, but must clearly be shown for an educational reason. You should always include one or more handouts with information about the film, a bibliography of materials for further study, and other pertinent information. In addition, you must not charge any admission, and should not advertise the film off campus.
3. Does a department have to own the films shown by its professors or clubs?
In order to show a film under the educational exemption to copyright, the film must be a legal copy that was legally made. You may not use an illegal (pirated) copy of a film. The film should be owned either by the university, i.e. the library, a specific department, or the campus organization that is showing the film. Rented films may also be shown, subject to the requirement that they be shown for a genuine educational purpose.
4. May I show films from my own collection?
If you have purchased a legal copy of a film, you may show it to your classes once (this includes multiple sections of the same class). If you decide to show the film again in the future, you need to obtain permission from the owner of the copyright.
There are certain limited conditions under which you may tape a program from television and bring it into class. If the film is a part of the regular instructional activities of a class, it may be used once per class section. The film should be accompanied by an introduction, and should relate to the subject matter of the class. You must use the taped program within two weeks of the time you have taped it, and must destroy the tape (or take it home for your personal collection) once you have finished showing it. If you wish to show the program to future classes, you will need to obtain permission from the copyright owner.
5. May I show the same film every year?
You may use the educational exception found in the section 110 of the Copyright Act for a single semester, although you may show the same films to multiple sections. However, if you wish to show the film in a future semester, you should obtain copyright permission.
The films formerly owned by Academic Technology are now found in the library. These films have been purchased with classroom and public performance rights, so they may be shown in class at any time over multiple semesters. TOPCAT will indicate which films have public performance rights. For more information, call Michael Franklin at 745-6166.
6. May I show the same film to multiple sections of a class?
There are no differences between showing a film to a single class and showing it to multiple sections of the same class. In each section, you should follow the same format, i.e. introduce the film with a lecture, supply handouts, and provide time for class discussion of the material.
7. May films be shown in ITV or Online courses?
This is a more difficult question. All of the restrictions listed above for face-to-face classrooms also apply to ITV and online classes; however, there are additional restrictions. The current copyright law makes no distinction between ITV and Internet classes. Under certain circumstances, section 110(2) of the Copyright Act allows the transmission of “a nondramatic literary or musical work or reasonable and limited portions of any other work. . . .” The Copyright Glossary at Washburn University (http://www.washburn.edu/copyright/glossary/) defines dramatic and non-dramatic works as follows: “Dramatic is defined as a story in which the narrative is not related but is represented by dialogue and action. Therefore, dramatic narrative would include plays and motion pictures. Non-dramatic literary works would include poetry, novels, and textbooks. Non-dramatic musical works covers both song and musical composition.”
If you wish to use an entire film in an ITV or Internet class, you should obtain permission from the copyright owner. However, you may use “reasonable and limited” portions of dramatic works, including films. “Reasonable and limited” is defined in the context of the Fair Use defense in copyright law. This means that you may use a short clip, which you then discuss. However, you may not transmit an entire film without copyright permission.
In order to legally transmit an entire non-dramatic work—or reasonable and limited portions of dramatic works—to an ITV class, the transmission must be made under the supervision of the teacher of the class, and it must be directly related and of material assistance to the teaching content of the class. As with a face-to-face course, it must be a legal copy that was legally obtained. The transmission must only be available to students who are enrolled in the class, and you must make sure they are not able to retain the material after the class transmission is done.
8. If I want students in my class to see several films over the course of a semester, can I require them to join Netflix?
You may require a student to join Netflix or a similar service. This is similar to requiring the purchase of a particular textbook from the bookstore. Of course, some students are able to borrow books from other students, and don’t have to actually spend the money to buy the book. Similarly, the reality is that some students may be able to obtain movies from friends, roommates, etc. These students would then not need to join Netflix.
I have an additional word about Netflix. If joining Netflix or another movie rental service is a requirement for the class, some students may be able to use some types of financial aid funds to help pay for the membership, just as some financial aid will pay for textbooks and supplies. My suggestion is to put a statement on your syllabus, in the same section where you talk about textbooks and supplies, explaining that students are required to join “Netflix or a similar service.” This will allow for some flexibility, while still allowing some students to be able to use their financial aid awards for membership.
9. May I post film clips inside my Blackboard course for students to study?
If you wish to post film clips in Blackboard or other course management software, you will need to work with Academic Technology to make sure that the students are not able to copy the material or to retain it at the end of the class. Also, you must make sure that only registered students are able to obtain the material. (That is why you should use Blackboard rather than an open website.) Since there are significant technical challenges in retaining control of the material once it goes online, I would suggest using Netflix or other rental services if you plan to use more than a limited amount of material from a film.
10. If a student can’t be in class for a film showing, can I make a copy for her to take home?
Under copyright law, you are restricted from making copies, so making a copy of a film for a student would violate the law. In addition, there is no telling what the student will do with it when he or she has finished watching the film. My suggestion for students who are unable to be in class is to place the film on reserve in the library. Please see question #14 for more information on putting films on reserve in the library.
11. May I put films on reserve in the library?
Absolutely! An individual student viewing a film is not considered a public performance; rather, this is an individual use of a video or DVD.
The rules do vary, however, depending on whether the library (or the department) owns the film, or whether it belongs to the faculty member. In 1984, the U.S. Supreme Court discussed “time shifting” in Sony Corporation of America Et Al. V. Universal City Studies, Inc., volume 464 United States Reports p. 417 (1984). Better known as the “Betamax Case,” the Supreme Court stated that it was not a violation of copyright law for viewers to record programs and view them later. Similarly, if a film may be shown legally in the classroom, leaving it for an individual is nothing more than time shifting. Since educational exception in Section 110(1) of the Copyright Act allows films to be used “in a classroom or similar place devoted to instruction,” the library is a permissible place to house a film.
Remember, however, that a faculty member may only show a film from his or her personal collection for one semester without asking for rights. Similarly, an individually owned copy of a film can only be placed on reserve once without obtaining the permission of the copyright owner. This must be a legal copy that has been legally made. Since a program that has been taped off the air must be destroyed (or placed in a home collection) within two weeks of the date of taping, you may only keep taped programs on reserve for up to two weeks.
This restriction is not true, however, if the film is owned by the library or by another division of WKU. In that case, the film may be placed on reserve an unlimited number of times. This situation falls within the library exception to copyright law found in Title 17 U.S. Code Section 108. If you plan to show a film semester after semester, you should ask your library liaison or your department to purchase a copy.
You may place items on reserve at the circulation desk in Cravens Library or at the Educational Resources Center. In addition, you may place items on reserve in Glasgow, Owensboro, or Elizabethtown. The faculty member may choose whether he or she wishes to have the film kept in the library and loaned for two hours, or whether students may be allowed to take the film home overnight. (Each facility has a place where students may watch videos and DVDs.)
Library reserves are placed in TOPCAT, so that they are accessible. These materials may be checked out by anyone who has a WKU ID, not just those in a specific class. Please allow enough time (at least 2 days) for library staff to process the material. If you have any questions about putting films on reserve, please call our reserve specialist, Michael Franklin, at 270-745-6166.
12. May I convert a film from videotape to DVD or other digital format?
As with most legal questions, the answer is “it depends.” Films owned by an individual may not be duplicated onto a DVD. If the university owns the film, Section 112(a)(1) of the Copyright Act allows one copy to be made under certain circumstances. If the university-owned film is available in DVD format, the videotape may not be duplicated; however, if the film is only available on videotape, you may create one copy on DVD. This copy will be in effect a replacement for the videotape, and may be used by the university in the same way as the original.
It is permissible to digitize a university-owned video if you are planning to use the film in a face-to-face class or to place it on reserve in the library. You may also use a digital version of a video in an ITV or online class if you comply with all of the conditions and restrictions listed above. (See questions #7 and #9.)
Converting a video to a digital format requires special equipment. The Faculty Center for Excellence in Teaching (FaCET) has this equipment available for use; for more information, contact FaCET at 745-6508. The Technology Resource Center, located in Tate Page Hall room 101, also has video digitization equipment; for more information, contact Justin Rexing at 745-8911.
13. If I tape my lecture for students because I will be away at a conference, who owns the rights to that tape?
The answer to this question is different at WKU than at many campuses. Normally, what you create at work belongs to the university. However, WKU has decided to allow faculty members to retain the rights to books and articles, as well as class lectures.
Under the default provisions of the Copyright Act (section 101), anything made by an employee in the scope of his or her employment belongs to the employer. However, WKU has chosen to make changes to this rule. The Western Kentucky University Intellectual Property Policy (available at www.wku.edu/Dept/Support/SponsPrg/grants/pols/ip_main.htm) states that:
[T]raditional products of scholarly activity which have customarily been considered to be the unrestricted property of the author or creator are exempted from this general policy. Such traditional products include books, monographs, articles, reviews, and works of art (including paintings, sculptures, plays, choreography, musical compositions); and individual course materials such as syllabi, exams, transparencies, study guides, workbooks, and manuals. Also included are instructional software, webpages, and internet-based instructional materials developed by faculty members in the course of their usual scholarly, pedagogical, and service activities. The latter include projects undertaken during sabbatical leaves, faculty fellowships, and other special assignment periods intended for such activities.
This portion of the university’s intellectual property policy includes “traditional products of scholarly activity.” Just as syllabi, exams, and lecture notes are included in this policy, so too would be a taped lecture by the faculty member. You will own the rights to any lectures that you tape for your classes.
14. If I want to film a speaker on our campus, what permissions do I need get?
If you plan to film a speaker, you must obtain his or her written permission first. The written permission must include information on the way in which the recording is going to be used and whether it will be put to commercial use. If the lecture is to be used solely for educational purposes (which would be the most common situation), you should have a provision in the agreement dealing with ITV and online class transmissions. You should also have a clause in the agreement stating where the recording will reside (in the department, in the library, at FACET, etc.). If the recording is going to be placed in the library, the agreement should state whether it is available for checkout and/or interlibrary loan. The agreement should discuss whether the university has the right to duplicate and distribute the recording. Finally, the agreement should state whether the university has permission to show this recording publicly, or whether it must only be shown to students.
For informational purposes, the form the library uses for podcasting is available online; however, this form may not be suitable for all purposes. If you have a question, please consult with the university attorney. To access this sample form, go to www.wku.edu/library/tip/ip and click the link on the left side for the “Release and Authorization Agreement for recording a lecture.”
This type of agreement has not always been done. Creating a written agreement may seem very formal. However, if you come to an agreement ahead of time, you will be able to avoid any problems or misunderstandings that may arise later. I always recommend getting these kinds of agreements in writing. It solves problems before they arise.
15. If I film students for a project or students film each other, what permissions are necessary?
As with a campus speaker, it is best to get everyone to agree up front about what will happen with the recording, whether it will be destroyed at the end of the class, who owns the copyright, and how the recording is going to be used. It is better to avoid problems ahead of time rather than to have to face conflicting interpretations afterwards.
16. May I download a video from a website and show it in class?
If a video is found on an open Website, there are no copyright issues for classroom or ITV use. Similarly, an online class may include links to videos that are freely available on the web. In fact, this type of linking is better than trying to use materials from videos or DVDs.
You may assume that anything you find on the Web may be used in class. If the copy on the web is not legal, the copyright owner will go after the website owner rather than the professor who uses it in good faith. If you learn that the copy is not legal, you should of course stop using it. In any case, as long as you are using it in good faith that it is a legal copy, you will not be subject to any repercussions for using it. Usually, if the online copy is illegal, the website simply disappears.
You may also use multimedia materials (videos, music, etc.) that are included in databases that the library has licensed. For example, the library has subscriptions to the Naxos Music Library and the Vanderbilt Television News Archive. The Naxos Music Library is a collection of online Classical music, Jazz, World, Folk and Chinese music. (Naxos also includes notes on the works being played as well as biographical information on composers and artists.) The Vanderbilt Television News Archive contains over 30,000 individual network evening news broadcasts from ABC, CBS, NBC, and CNN, along with many special news-related programs (such as ABC’s Nightline since 1989).
You may play these materials in your classroom or via ITV. You should not post clips from Naxos or the Vanderbilt Television News Archive in Blackboard; rather, you should link the students to the database, tell them what to view or listen to, and let them log in themselves through the library’s website.
If you are giving a synchronous lecture to the students in an online class via Blackboard, you may play clips as part of that lecture. Nonetheless, because of technical concerns, it is probably better to ask the students to log into the databases themselves in order to see or hear the material. That can help to avoid bandwidth problems and other technical issues that might arise during the synchronous lecture.
17. May I upload to the web films made by students?
Before you upload a film made by students, you should obtain permission from the person who made the film. Although copyright law places student work in the same category as work for hire, the Western Kentucky University Intellectual Property Policy allows students to retain ownership of the work they perform as part of their classes. Therefore, the same rules for other films also apply to films made by students.
18. I obtained rights for my students to publicly perform a play. May I make and sell copies of this production?
The answer to your question depends on the language of the contract that you signed to obtain the rights to produce the play in the first place. You should read the contract, and should speak with the university attorney about this.
If you record the performance and sell it, the recording would be considered a derivative work. Section 102 of the copyright act (17 U.S.C. § 102) states that your school would own the copyright to the original portion, while the original copyright owner would still own the copyright to the underlying work.
There are three separate provisions of the copyright law that are involved. One is the right to reproduce the work, one is the right to perform the work, and one is the right to prepare derivative works. According to 17 U.S.C. § 106, the copyright owner has the right to restrict reproductions, public performances, and the preparation of derivative works. In most cases, the licensing agreements for plays and musicals grant the right to publicly perform the work, but not the right to reproduce it or to prepare derivative works.
In some cases, the agreements will also contain a limited number of public performances. Each time the recording is played, this is considered to be a performance. If the licensing agreement contains such a clause, you will be limited in the number of public performances, and would be barred from selling the recording.
The limitations on public performance do not mean that you can’t record the musical and show it to the students who are involved. Nor does it prevent you from placing a copy of the musical in the library and checking it out to students. These uses would fall within the Fair Use provisions of the copyright act. However, selling the performance to the public might be more problematic.
In other words, it depends on the language and scope of the contract that you signed when you licensed the play.
19. Where can I get further information on copyright law?
Go to the library’s Intellectual Property website at www.wku.edu/Library/tip/ip. There are links to major Websites on copyright, trademark, patent law, and international intellectual property resources. There are also links for finding news and articles on intellectual property. The Website also includes links to the WKU Intellectual Property Policy, as well as various offices on campus that deal with intellectual property issues.