Copyright Under COVID-19 in Film and Media Studies

Film and media educators already rip short film clips for teaching purposes, a practice expressly protected in the United States under a "1201" exemption [https://www.federalre gister. gov / documents /2018/10/26/2018-23241/ exemption-to-prohibition-on-circumvention-of-copyright- protection-systems-for-access-control_t) [https://www.federalre gisten gov / documents /2018 /10/26/2018-23241/ exemption-to-prohibition-on-eireumvention-of-eopyright-protection-systems-for-access-control] у the Librarian of Congress, named for the provision of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) that permits circumvention in certain instances. For years, many scholars have looked to the statements of best practices developed by Patricia Aufderheide and the Center for Media and Social Impact [https: / /emsimpaet.org /resources/teaehing-tools /] : today, as we consider the question of whether and how to continue screening media for our online classes, including full-length films, television episodes and games, we must further develop and refine those practices.[#N1] How have faculty approached the legal issues of copyright and compliance across different national contexts? [...]a number of institutions have made the decision to digitize titles from their own media libraries and make them available to students, often limiting access to those enrolled in specific courses via the university's learning management system (LMS). In the UK and US, risk management decisions also play a part in assessing the mixed case law around whether anti-circumvention prohibitions - in the DMCA (in the US), or the Copyright, Designs, and Patents Act (CDPA) (in the UK) - prevent film faculty from otherwise permissible reliance on fair use.

Twenty-First Century Battles and Eighteenth Century Tools: Copyright in the COVID-19 Era

In current copyright law, doing that would raise questions about first sale and exhaustion, about fair use, and about reproduction and public performance. (Tawyers in secondary and primary education are even more so, even assuming - contrary to most of my experience - that they know anything about IP law at all.) For more than a decade, colleges and universities have been migrating course administration and a lot of pedagogy onto campus-wide courseware platforms that are optimized to sync with copyright permissions systems for media content. The "best practices" statements [https: / /cmsimpact.org/program/fair-use/] produced by the Center for Media and Social Impact at American University can be extremely helpful, though teachers (and others) should read them carefully. A single teacher may feel exposed and at risk for streaming media to their students;a community of teachers has a stronger voice, both speaking to its members and also speaking to outsiders - such as copyright owners, or campus administrators.