Under the Canadian Copyright Act any viewing or exhibition of a film in a public place must have a Public Performance Rights license. At not-for-profit institutions, the showing of films in the classroom no longer requires obtaining a PPR licence; however, other uses outside the classroom, such as student movie nights, do require an Entertainment license.
The PPR license covers any showing of films as long as the video is legally obtained. It can come from the library's collection, the instructor's personal collection, or a video rental store. Copies that have been dubbed from broadcast or cable, or transferred from another copy, or illegally downloaded, are not covered.
Entertainment Rights licenses are available from two vendors, ACF and Criterion Pictures. Between them they cover almost all of the major US and Canadian studios and production companies and many independent producers and foreign films. At JIBC we subscribe to both of these licenses.
Under the new Copyright Modernization Act (s.29.5d), cinematrographic works can be shown on the premises of an educational institution for educational or training purposes and not for profit, without having to pay copyright royalties, as long as the work is legally obtained.
It is recommended that videos from iTunes or Netflix NOT be shown in the classroom without written permission from iTunes or Netflix. iTunes specifies that the videos are for "personal use", while Netflix specifies that the videos are for "household use". Neither apply to classroom use.
You can ...
NOTE: You can just make a copy, you cannot make any alterations or adaptions to the work unless there is a Creative Commons license associated with the work that permits editing.
If you wish to edit an audio or video file or use more than 10%, contact the Library, who will seek permission on your behalf.
The following information applies to streamed videos from our licensed vendors, such as Can-Core CBC Academic Video, Curio, Criterion On Demand, Films On Demand, Kanopy and National Film Board (NFB) Campus collection.
JIBC Library has purchased a number of individual streamed videos, and we are buying more whenever we can.
You can access them through our online catalogue:
Following is a sample of what is available