As long as admission isn't paid for the viewing it can be shown I believe

-----Original Message-----
From: Museum discussion list [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf
Of Paul Perry
Sent: Tuesday, August 09, 2005 7:34 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Another Reel Concern

I am still confused as to the legitimacy of museums showing films at their 
institutions and copyright infrigement.  On one hand museums are 
educational institutions. So long as their film programs have some 
educational component to them (i.e. discussion before or afterward, etc), 
what is the big deal if the film shown is from the local video store? And 
it does seem that DvD is the preferred format these days. 

I have never been able to get a consistent answer yet from colleagues in 
the field.  Some say they pay a performance fee to the distributor for a 
one time showing, or if they have a special "film series".  Some say they 
don't deal with performance fees because they only show the film to a 
small, select group of people (e.g. Members, docents, etc.)-- not the 
general public.  So since it's considered a private screening, it's OK.

Others simply throw caution to the wind and rent DvDs from the local video 
store and show them at their museums to the general public in order to 
supplement their programming.  In this case, is it considered a public or 
private screening?

I'm willing to bet many museums are NOT paying performance fees to any 
distributor.  Have you seen the cost of some of these fees?  Unless your 
institution has a humongous budget, the fees are far outside the range of 
what most institutions want to add to their budgets.

And has anyone heard of a museum getting sued for showing a rented DvD at 
their institution?  Is there any website that specifically talks about 
this issue as it pertains to museums?

Is there a common consensus out there about this issue?  An inquiring mind 
wants to know

Paul Perry
Lakeland, Florida

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