Questions by teachers
3a. Can I show a copy that I have made of someone else’s video during a classroom lesson?
3b. Can I show a copy, during a classroom lesson, of a film that I bought in a shop?
3c. Am I allowed to show a video during an open day?
3d. Am I allowed to show a video during a celebration or another non-teaching-related event at the educational institution where I work?
3e. Can I upload a copy of someone else’s video to my institution’s video server so that my students can watch it?
3f. Can I place a video film in a digital learning environment such as Blackboard?
3g. Can I use parts of a video in a paper, PowerPoint presentation or DLE?
3h. Am I allowed to edit videos or have my students edit them?
3i. Do special user conditions apply to videos that are offered via the SURFnet Video Portal (SVP)?
3j. I use the Virtual Cutting Machine. Do I need to worry about copyright?
3k. Do I always have to pay to use a video in an educational context?
3l. Are there conditions attached to showing a video when teaching?
3a. Can I show a copy that I have made of someone else’s video during a classroom lesson?
Before you can use a video film in your teaching, you need to have a copy. The conditions for making a copy from the TV or Internet are given in 2c. Subsequently, showing the copy of part of the work may be done on the basis of the three exceptions in 1g:
1. Briefly, the display exception entails that you can show a video film (or a still image or audio material) in your teaching without needing to pay if you do so in one of the classrooms of your educational institution (see exception 1).
2. The education exception (exception 2) allows you to copy and show short works but only parts of long video works. You are also required to make fair payment to the right holder. You must indicate the source, the work may not be altered, and it must not be an unpublished work.
3. The right to quote (exception 3) means that you can record and show a short section of a video – or all of a short video – free of charge in the context of an educational or scientific treatise. You are always required to acknowledge the source.
If you have made a copy of a video film on the Internet whose right holder has permitted it to be reused, whether or not commercially (see 6i and 6j), then you can of course copy it and show it in the classroom.
3b. Can I show a copy, during a classroom lesson, of a film that I bought in a shop?
Videos and DVDs that you buy in a shop often carry an explicit prohibition on showing them in an educational context; specific permission is required from the film producer before you can do so. In actual educational practice, this requirement is often circumvented. This is defensible because the Dutch Copyright Act permits you to show a work in the classroom if this is part of the study programme (see exception 1 and the NB section in 1g).
3c. Am I allowed to show a video during an open day?
This is not permitted on the basis of the display or education exceptions (exceptions 1 and 2 in 1g), because these require that display is solely for actual educational purposes. The right of quotation does, however, offer a restricted possibility: during an informative presentation – for example to give an impression of the educational practice at your institution – you can record and show a fragment of a long video, or a short video in its entirety.
You can copy and show a video film that the right holder has uploaded to the Internet with consent for free re-use (see 6i and 6j), not only during your teaching but also at an open day or during a celebration or another non-teaching-related event (see below).
3d. Am I allowed to show a video during a celebration or another non-teaching-related event at the educational institution where I work?
No, this is a form of publication that has no educational purpose – it is in fact for entertainment – meaning that you always require the permission of the right holder. In the case of a feature film, you can get a licence from Videma (www.videma.nl). This is a commercial organisation set up by film producers in the Netherlands to collect licence fees for showing films in public. A reduced rate applies for educational institutions.
3e. Can I upload a copy of someone else’s video to my institution’s video server so that my students can watch it?
Storing a digital copy of a video on a video server is a form of copying, and making it accessible to students is a form of making it available. This is permitted under certain circumstances on the basis of the education exception and the right to quote (exceptions 2 and 3 in 1g):
• The education exception (exception 2) only allows you to upload parts of long works to a video server, but you can upload short works, photos, or works of art. You can only do this to provide information within the context of your teaching. This means that you must make use of technical means to prevent people other than students having access to the video server, for example by linking the video material to a course in a digital learning environment that requires students to log in (for example with a password). Moreover, you are also required to make fair payment to the right holder. You must also indicate the source, the work may not be altered, and it must not be an unpublished work.
• You are allowed to upload something to a video server free of charge on the basis of the right to quote (exception 3), but only a short section of a video (you may only show a whole video if it is short). The short section (with acknowledgment of the source) must form part of a treatise, for example a PowerPoint presentation that you have made for use in your teaching. This presentation must then be uploaded to the video server in its entirety. A more obvious thing to do, incidentally, is to upload the presentation to a digital learning environment such as Blackboard.
• You can freely copy a video that a right holder has uploaded to the Internet with consent for free re-use (see 6i and j) and place the copy on a video server.
3f. Can I place a video film in a digital learning environment such as Blackboard?
The education exception and the right to quote (exceptions 2 and 3 in 1g) allow you to do this only in the case of parts or short sections of a video film. Only very short video films may be placed in a DLE in their entirety. The education exception (exception 2) also requires that this environment should be technically protected so that it is only accessible to students. The holder of the copyright in the video material must also receive fair payment. The right to quote (exception 3) does not require this. (For both exceptions, see 3e.) One complication is that bought videos and DVDs sometimes say that they may not be used in education, which then also applies to placing them on a video server or in a digital learning environment. (Also see the NB section in 1g.)
3g. Can I use parts of a video in a paper, PowerPoint presentation or DLE?
This kind of use involves both reproduction and making available. The right to quote (exception 3 in 1g) means that you can include short sections of videos in PowerPoint presentations; students can do the same in (digital) assignments, so long as they acknowledge the source. You can place part of a video in a digital learning environment if you comply with the conditions of the education exception (exception 2 in 1g): the DLE must be a closed one (i.e. only accessible to students), the right holder must receive fair payment, the source must be acknowledged, and the work concerned must not be altered or unpublished.
These exceptions need not be invoked if you make use of the “Virtual Cutting Machine”. In that case, the copyright in the video material is not an issue because nothing is in fact reproduced or published. The Virtual Cutting Machine allows you to mark a starting point and a finishing point in a video. A hyperlink is then generated automatically that you can insert into a Word document, a PowerPoint presentation, or a DLE. Clicking this link “streams” the marked section of the video. This is permitted because the hyperlink is to a stream, meaning that no new copy is actually made, while the linking is not considered to be publication. This allows sections of works – not only videos – that are offered on the Internet to be used legally, although it is important to remember that the link will only work as long as the provider of the material keeps it uploaded and does not make it subject to access restrictions.
The broadcast material offered via the Academia project is stored on the SURFnet Video Portal, where it is made available to educational institutions by means of streaming. Referring (linking) to this material in closed DLEs and digital papers is permitted by the Academia licence.
3h. Am I allowed to edit videos or have my students edit them?
You and your students can edit a video in various different ways:
• By annotating it. This may mean using “graphic overlays” to add arrows or other visual indications to a section of a programme. This does not involve altering the work itself; the teacher or student is simply alerting the viewer to certain specific points. It is defensible that this is permitted in the context of education.
• Matters are different when existing material is used to create a reassembled version or an adaptation. Doing this does in fact change the original work, thus bringing up the issue of the author’s intention and consequently his personality rights. Adapting a work therefore generally requires the author’s permission. (It is true, however, that the likelihood of an adaptation being discovered is less in a closed environment than if the adapted work were to be put on the Internet).
The licence for Academia material specifically allows digital editing of the material using special tools such as the Virtual Cutting Machine.
3i. Do special user conditions apply to videos that are offered via the SURFnet Video Portal (SVP)?
The rules embodied in the Dutch Copyright Act also apply to video material provided via the SVP. However, the SVP does offer a lot of material which the right holder has allowed to be freely used for educational purposes.
The SVP also provides television and radio programmes that are covered by the Academia licence. If their institution has acquired such a licence, teachers and students can basically make free use of these programmes in an educational context. (The permitted use is described in detail in the Academia licence.)
3j. I use the Virtual Cutting Machine. Do I need to worry about copyright?
No, you don’t. The Virtual Cutting Machine creates a hyperlink that allows part of a work (for example audio or video material) to be streamed. The work is only viewed via the link and not copied; this is permitted (see also 3g). You do need to be aware that the link will only work as long as the provider keeps the material uploaded.
3k. Do I always have to pay to use a video in an educational context?
If you use video material on the basis of the education exception (exception 2 in 1g), you must make fair payment to the right holder (see 3a, 3c, and 3e to 3g). If, however, you can invoke the display exception or the right to quote (exceptions 1 and 3 in 1g), then you do not need to pay (see 3a to c and 3e to 3g). You can also create hyperlinks to material stored elsewhere without needing to pay.
In a few cases, payment of licence fees to right holders is regulated by means of licences. The Academia licence for public broadcasting programmes is one example. That licence is specially intended for use in higher education.
3l. Are there conditions attached to showing a video when teaching?
Yes often there are, but not always. Various situations can be distinguished:
• You may be able to invoke one of the three exceptions in the Dutch Copyright Act, each of which has its own conditions (see 1g). (You are not always allowed to use the whole video, and in some cases you need to make fair payment to the right holder.)
• Things may be complicated in the case of videos that you have bought or downloaded (legally) because use in an educational context may be prohibited (see the NB section in 1g).
• You can also use works in an educational context if your institution has acquired a licence for such use, for example the Academia licence for public broadcasting programmes (radio and TV) (see 6d). An educational institution can get an Academia licence in return for an annual fee proportionate to the number of students and staff.
• Some repositories and right holders provide their material on the Internet for use free of charge. This means that it can be used in any way by teachers, students, and educational institutions (see also 6i and 6j).
• There may in some cases be exceptions for reasons of privacy on showing video recordings or placing them on a video server or DLE (see 5e to g).