Best Buy purchases

March 14, 2016 @ 11:13amCarrie says:
Can commercial DVD's bought from such places as best buy be used at school?
May 16, 2016 @ 1:20pmcmyers8 says:

It depends! If you are using the film as part of classroom education then the answer is most likely yes. Section 110(1) of U.S. Copyright Law (Title 17, United States Code) allows educators to show films as part of the "face-to-face teaching activities of a nonprofit educational institution, in a classroom or similar place devoted to instruction, unless, in the case of a motion picture or other audiovisual work, the performance...is given by means of a copy that was not lawfully made under this title, and that the person responsible for the performance knew or had reason to believe was not lawfully made." As a copy of a work that was purchased from Best Buy could be considered "lawfully made" it would be eligible for use in this capacity.

If you are thinking about showing a film, e.g. Disney's Frozen, during a school assembly or as part of a family movie night then this would most likely be considered a public performance and you would want to obtain permission or a license from the rightsholder for the event. In these situations simply owning a copy of the film is not enough, unless the film was purchased with Public Performance Rights.

Posting to the forum is only available to users who are logged in.