paulst30 Posted March 30, 2011 Posted March 30, 2011 fellow edugeeks, The current popularity of itunes at home with our students and staff has meant the argument for having it installed on their workstations is now at fever pitch. I am at a loss for trying to find out any information on how legal or illeagal this process is. Can a teacher have their iTunes library held on a networked computer in a school? to then show videos on the projector to the class? My first reaction was no they can't as its no more legal than ripping a cd to a network drive and letting everyone listen to it. To be honest this sounds more like a copyright issue than a licensing however its the closest area to post in. Any help or even a hint to a solid outcome would be great. Thanks, Paul
CESIL Posted March 30, 2011 Posted March 30, 2011 This is in their T&Cs USAGE RULES (i) You shall be authorised to use Products only for personal, noncommercial use. For details of your rights and restrictions on your rights to use the Products, see:
enjay Posted March 30, 2011 Posted March 30, 2011 No to holding the files on the server, as the school didn't buy them - therefore what you basically have is an illegal copy. As cesil says, Ts&Cs say personal non-commercial use. You could, morals permitting, show the teachers how to convert the iTunes tracks to MP3 and tell them to bring them in on a pen drive. Or burn them as an audio CD. The phrase "personal, non-commercial" is on pretty much all the music playing apps and web sites (spotify, grooveshark, etc), which is a real bind. Makes you hanker for the 'good old days' of CDs...
featured_spectre Posted March 30, 2011 Posted March 30, 2011 No to itunes. I phoned both Apple and spotify for clarification. If you have spotify premium you can use it commercially providing you have a licence in your establishment to do so.
nicholab Posted March 30, 2011 Posted March 30, 2011 (edited) If they are that keen they could get there own adaptor to plug into the VGA directly. What I mean is form the ipod into the projector. http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1454 Edited March 30, 2011 by nicholab
enjay Posted March 30, 2011 Posted March 30, 2011 If they are that keen they could get there own adaptor to plug into the VGA directly. What I mean is form the ipod into the projector. That doesn't address the "personal, non-commercial" thing. It does at least mean it isn't the school's problem though!
mac_shinobi Posted March 30, 2011 Posted March 30, 2011 Is this the same if say Teacher A - downloads, installs iTunes ( which creates the music library on there local laptop ) Teacher A purchases or downloads material from itunes whether podcasts ( from uTunes section or whatever. Connects there laptop to the projector and plays back material that was purchased / downloaded above Is this still a legal / copyright issue etc ? As teacher A is not storing it on the school network / servers etc and is only playing it back for said class ?
oxide54 Posted March 30, 2011 Posted March 30, 2011 i think that then falls under the same as videos and DVD's do, as long as the teacher or someone owns a copy you can show it
SYNACK Posted March 30, 2011 Posted March 30, 2011 (edited) i think that then falls under the same as videos and DVD's do, as long as the teacher or someone owns a copy you can show it Only if your school has a performance license though as otherwise you are becomming your own movie theater and breaking usage restrictions on stuff like DVDs, the whole personal use only thing again. Edited March 30, 2011 by SYNACK
HarryMonkey Posted March 31, 2011 Posted March 31, 2011 I contacted Apple support yesterday with regards to putting iTunes on the network. Below is the reply. Dear Steve, Thank you for contacting iTunes Store Customer Support. I'm Bernardita, I'll be the one assisting you today. I understand that you want to know if you can install iTunes in a network computer in your school so your music teacher will be able to present his iTunes purchases in your school via projector. I can certainly appreciate how eager you must be for answers, and I will provide as much information for you as I can. Yes you may, you can install iTunes for as many computers as you can in your school. However, please inform your music teacher that in order for him to play his purchases on your school's computers, he needs to authorize those computers using his iTunes account and the maximum authorization that are allowable is up to five computers only. I hope this email helped clarify it for you. If you have further questions, please reply to this email and I'll be happy to assist you. Have an awesome day! Sincerely, xxxxxxx iTunes Store Customer Support 1
enjay Posted March 31, 2011 Posted March 31, 2011 @stevenewman - so not "personal, non-commercial" at all then! TBH, I'm not completely surprised - I can think of other applications where we've been given permission by the manufacturer to use them even though the Ts&Cs prohibit it. Presumably we can all take that as authorisation rather than each of us have to write to Apple individually. Of course, the Music Teacher would only need to authorise the school computer if the files were still in iTunes format. Once converted to MP3, they'd run on as many computers as they wished. Not that I recommend that, of course.
Robbocop Posted March 31, 2011 Posted March 31, 2011 I advise a little caution here. Bernardita seems to have answered the question about whether it's physically possible to get an iTunes library to play on multiple computers, but has completely avoided the question about whether it is legal to do so in a public space. I think that part of the problem here is the ownership of the material in the first place. I've assumed that the material is owned by the teacher. If that's the case the teacher has the "personal, non-commercial rights" to play the material. If the school purchased the material that might change things. Synack is absolutely right though. even though a school is non-commercial, you still need a performance licence to play any copyrighted music or video in school. The Performing Right Society (PRS) published this brief guide to licensing http://www.prsformusic.com/SiteCollectionDocuments/Schools%20leaflet.pdf and is really helpful if you contact them.
enjay Posted March 31, 2011 Posted March 31, 2011 A teacher's personal non-commercial rights to do something don't normally extend to cover their right to do it professionally (and in the case of independent schools, arguably that's commercial use too). PRS is a separate question in many ways, as (I think) most schools already have them in place for other purposes - certainly I know we do to cover music concerts and the like.
timzim Posted March 31, 2011 Posted March 31, 2011 I'm Bernardita, I'll be the one assisting you today...I can certainly appreciate how eager you must be for answers...I'll be happy to assist you...Have an awesome day!... Thank God we never meet these people face to face - I would have to kill her.
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now