Media streaming, content licensing

[samba_man]

We've got a fairly large stash of educational DVDs and music CDs, in my eyes it makes sense to set up some kind of media streaming server and make everything available on the network.

 

Now the problem is licensing. Most of the bits have been broadcast on TV and I understand there is a license that will cover these programs, I just need to remember what it was called! What would happen with the music CDs, does anyone know of a license to cover these?

[dayzd]

We used to have a home-brew system for this, until we questioned the licensing of it.

 

It turned out that despite having an appropriate PRS license and whatever else, the long and the short of it was that there is no single 'cover-all' license that will allow you to do that. Individual production companies have differing license agreements inferred by purchase, not to mention the fact that simply copying content to another format typically breaks and copyright laws, it made it too difficult to cover everything. We found it easier to mothball the whole thing as we found it to be a minefield of complication and grey-areas!

 

That said, this was a couple of years ago, so there may be some fresh thinking on this. I hope you can find a simple answer!

[Soulfish]

The ERA/ERA+ covers storing timeshifted content for educational purposes, but be very careful if your going to be ripping DVDs/CDs that have been bought. At the moment format shifting isn't legal, however the government have acknowledged that a lot of people do it and are working to change the law to legalise it but until the law is drafted and enacted your still falling foul of copyright laws if you rip a DVD to store on a media streaming server.

[samba_man]

Thanks for the input chaps. I'll look into the ERA license in a bit more detail but it sounds like I might end up putting it on the back burner for the time being.