Using the Falvey media collection: borrowing and copyright considerations

Falvey Memorial Library has many videos, DVDs and sound recordings, including a number of audiobooks. Most of the items in this collection have been purchased at faculty request to support classroom instruction. If you would like to request a new title, please use the New Book Request form.

Borrowing Policy
While the sound recordings and audiobooks do circulate for an extended period, Villanova students can check out videos and DVDs for viewing in the library only. The Library has single and multi-user stations for videos on the first floor. DVDs may be viewed at these stations as well as on any of the PCs in the Library. Graduate students may check out videos and DVDs for up to three days with written faculty permission. Faculty and staff are granted a seven day loan period. For more information, please refer to the library's Borrowing Policies.

Copyright
Materials in the media collection are protected by copyright regulations according to the U.S. Copyright Law. Unless clearly noted on the video or DVD or on the library catalog record, the Library does not have public performance rights. The use of videos and DVDs is limited to “for home use only.” The only exception is the “face-to-face teaching exemption.”

This exemption allows for the “performance or display of a work by instructors or pupils in the course of face-to-face teaching activities of a nonprofit educational institution, in a classroom or similar place devoted to instruction, unless, in the case of a motion picture or other audiovisual work, the performance, or the display of individual images, is given by means of a copy that was not lawfully made under this title, and that the person responsible for the performance knew or had reason to believe was not lawfully made.”
[Title 17, U.S.C., Copyrights, Section 110 (1), Limitations on exclusive rights: Exemption of certain performances and displays]

According to the American Library Association, the “face-to-face teaching exemption” only applies when all the following conditions are met:
1. The performance must be by instructors or by pupils.
2. The performance is in connection with face-to-face teaching activities.
3. The entire audience is involved in the teaching activity.
4. The entire audience is in the same room or same general area.
5. The teaching activities are conducted by a non-profit education institution.
6. The performance takes place in a classroom or similar place devoted to instruction.
7. The person responsible for the performance has no reason to believe that the videotape was unlawfully made.
[ALA Library Fact Sheet Number 7: Video and Copyright]

All other showings of videos and DVDs require explicit permission from the copyright owner for “public performance” rights. The library catalog record and the item itself identify all items for which the Library has public performance rights with the following note: “On-Campus Public Performance Rights Secured.”

No fees for viewing a video are permitted even when public performance rights are obtained.

It is the responsibility of the user, not the Library, to assure compliance with copyright laws. Consult the library catalog to find out whether the Library has public performance rights for a title or contact a librarian for further assistance.

For detailed information on copyright laws and restrictions as they apply to videos and DVDs, please visit
• ALA Library Fact Sheet Number 7: Video and Copyright
• The U.S. Copyright Office: Copyright Law of the United States of America

Contributed by Jutta Seibert