Making a digital copy of a DVD for educational purposes

[Jaspar_St-Laurence]

Does anyone know if schools and collages in the UK are legally allowed to make a digital copy of a DVD for educational purposes?

 

For example, could you make a digital copy of a DVD, and then store that digital copy on a shared drive accessible to any member of the teaching staff?

[FragglePete]

I think the issue is of Media Transfer which I believe is legal, but it would be illegal for you to circumvent the copy protection of a DVD to do so.

 

Pete

[FragglePete]

Just as another note. It was the ERA+ license that allowed you to make a copy of Free To Air transmissions and store it digital to stream within your own network. This required a ERA license before hand which covered recording to tape. Both these licenses are now covered by Central Government for all schools in the UK.

 

However, it doesn't cover making a copy of purchased DVD. Check the individual copyright I guess.

 

This is a useful resource: Copyright & Schools: photocopy, scan, screen or broadcast copyright resources in classrooms - simple advice for teachers

 

Pete

[Jaspar_St-Laurence]

Thanks for that Pete; that is a particularly useful resource

 

So essentially, the bottom line is that you cannot make a copy of a DVD without prior permission from the copyright holder. That's simple enough.

 

Many thanks,

Jaspar

[thimon]

I emailed ERA directly over summer regarding this. Their reply was a school's ERA licence allows you to make a copy of VHS tapes, but not DVDs. Unless you get written permission from the copyright holder.

[3s-gtech]

Central Government for all schools in the UK.

England only.

[Jaspar_St-Laurence]

Given all of the helpful advice above, does anyone know what the best procedure might be for purchasing a digital copy of a film that could be played from a shared hard drive, rather than having to fit each classroom computer with a DVD drive?

[thimon]

Given all of the helpful advice above, does anyone know what the best procedure might be for purchasing a digital copy of a film that could be played from a shared hard drive, rather than having to fit each classroom computer with a DVD drive?

I don't see that being possible at all, again due to copyright. Maybe look into a service like Planet eStream or other online streaming sites? None of our staff laptops come with DVD drives and we've found external DVD drives only work 10% of the time. We pretty much just don't support DVDs anymore. It's 2018!

[GuyJD]

This is a useful resource: Copyright & Schools: photocopy, scan, screen or broadcast copyright resources in classrooms - simple advice for teachers

 

This website appears to be down now which is a shame because it made it really easy to understand.

Does anyone know of another that makes this subject clear on what you can and can't do as a school?

[Marci]

None that cover it as simply & comprehensively or clearly...

 

https://www.copyrightuser.org/understand/exceptions/education/

Schools and academia - The Copyright Hub

[Brimstone]

Try this site instead...

 

https://www.cla.co.uk/cla-schools-licence

[Joko]

This website appears to be down now which is a shame because it made it really easy to understand.

Does anyone know of another that makes this subject clear on what you can and can't do as a school?

 

This appears to be back up now

 

So with Youtube being allowed, if we make a school account on YouTube and buy the film, i guess this doesn't break copyright? Aslong as its just used within the classroom and its on the curriculum?

 

Thanks.

 

Edit - Didn't realise the thread was from Jan, my bad!