Movies All Day

This case study took a little thought and research. There are a few points that I looked at to figure out if the school could play videos for leisure. I looked at the difference if the movies were in the theaters or not, if the movies playing would be educational, what the purpose was for playing the movies, the first-sale doctrine and if it was a legal copy of the movie.

All of these things coincide with each other. Part of me would think that it would not be acceptable because the people who saw the movies would no longer go to the theater to see them, so that would cause a problem with interfering with profit that would have been made otherwise. If the movies were not in the theater I did not think it would be a big deal as far as interfering with profit. When looking at this for the Fair Use point of view, it would not be acceptable because the movies are being watched specifically for leisure. There is no educational context behind the movies, so they would not be able to play the movies. I would say they should not watch it.

I then looked into the First-Sale Doctrine. Hobbs defines it in chapter 3 as, " The Copyright Act of 1976 says that when you buy a legally produced copyrighted work, you can sell or loan that copy to others." I looked into some other sources online that would make one think that if it would be acceptable to play the movie. Hobbs goes on to describe that if a teacher owns a book she can share it, but not make multiple copies so that the owner's sales are limited. I would think that this would allow for the movies to be played as well.

Personally, I would not play the movies. If the theaters are already watching and sent a cease-and-desist letter, then they will probably pursue action if the movies are played. I would say that the school should cancel the movie day because they were not using them educationally, or they should find an educational movie that they could claim Fair Use on. The First-Sale doctrine can be used and they may be able to get away with playing the movies, but I think it would be safer for them to play something educational instead.