MPLC

[MisterJames]

Hello,

 

One of the assistant head passed a letter from a Motion Picture Licensing Company (MPLC) Saying we need to purchase a license so we can show films like the kings speech or avatar or BBC programmes like Macbeth or drug abuse educational advice programmes. I thought the educational school copyright covered these things. Is this just a company trying to make money or is this real? we NEVER received this sort of letter before?

 

Has anyone encountered this? If anyone can help that would be greatly appreciated. Thank you - My apologises if this is in the from sections of the forum.

 

Kind Regards,

James

[Brian]

Have you checked their FAQ?

[timtheenchanteruk]

Is your school a "normal" secondary, independant or an Academy.

I found previously, when our school became an academy, tht alot of licensing is normally done by the LEA, when becoming an academy, we were then responsible for our own licencing,

MPLC was one that came up, IIRC it covers SOME film producers, and BBC content, NOT however ITV, Ch4 or 5 stuff, thats a seperate licence.

 

Dont take that as gospel, its an IIRC, but there were different licences for some producers to others, and BBC sperate from the rest, and as for disney stuff, you just CAN'T, they dont licence though anyone, you have to apply for permission direct.

 

The music side was a bit simpler, PPL/MCPS and PRS

 

This guide helped alot (PDF download)

[PDD]

I can't comment about legality or legitimacy but I've always understood that you can only watch a film/programme in a lesson specifically as a teaching aid, but never simply for social watching or as a "end of term" treat, for example. You will certainly need a licence for any viewing which falls outside of teaching classroom use.

 

I work in a boarding school, so there is a slight grey-area in that the kids regularly watch films in their boarding houses. I've never really followed it up, but I guess that situation is classed as domestic viewing, as it's their home effectively. However, we're very strict about not showing films elsewhere in the school.

 

 

Edit to add: Tim, that link was really useful, thanks. Don't know why I've never found that before!

[timtheenchanteruk]

depends on your licencing, theres one level for educational (Curricular is the key word here) use, some even offer this for free, its different if you want to use them for noncurricular, but still educational, ie afterchool stuff. and another thing again if you want to show them for entertainment (even if its only wet lunchtimes etc), and dont even think about charging for it!!

 

Its an absolute minefield, to me and 2 other techs about 3 months to gather info from each group to see what we were licenced for, not and what we needed to be licenced for, and other 3 with discussions with the head and burser to see what they wanted to pay for, and enforce the restrictions in school, unfortuntaly when it came to copywrite there were many of the, "well everyone does it, so its ok" camp, and wondered why I was making a fuss when I said no, I wouldnt copy the DVD for students to take home.

[MisterJames]

Hello,

 

Thats really helped! - We are currently switching to academy status and that's probably explains why. I mean if we have to get the license then we will. It just confused some people.

 

Thanks for the help.

[paulears]

There are plenty of schools and colleges who assume so much about licenses - and have the view that if it's educational use, it's fine. Unfortunately, it's rarely fine, and many DVDs even now have specific warnings at the start about where the DVD cannot be watched - prisons, schools, colleges, oil rigs and plenty more. These particular exclusions are where a 'proper' license is available. I've been told that it's not just PPL who have started targeting users, and it looks like MPLC are becoming proactive too.

[timtheenchanteruk]

Hello,

 

Thats really helped! - We are currently switching to academy status and that's probably explains why. I mean if we have to get the license then we will. It just confused some people.

 

Thanks for the help.

 

its not just film and video, check you music use as well, do you use on hold music in the phone system? etc etc.

 

We got around the phone system one by using the previous years student work, even then we could only use their compositions, and not their performed work.

as an academy, you will have a few more licences to buy, depending on who your sponsor is, they may have the blanket licence for its academies, our sponsor was looking into sorting this out, and working out which was better cost wise for them.

[pjrails]

Hello,

 

One of the assistant head passed a letter from a Motion Picture Licensing Company (MPLC) Saying we need to purchase a license so we can show films like the kings speech or avatar or BBC programmes like Macbeth or drug abuse educational advice programmes. I thought the educational school copyright covered these things. Is this just a company trying to make money or is this real? we NEVER received this sort of letter before?

 

Has anyone encountered this? If anyone can help that would be greatly appreciated. Thank you - My apologises if this is in the from sections of the forum.

 

Kind Regards,

James

 

Hi

This came into being last year and the company work closely with all Local Authories, We started paying last year and I was just like you but found that it has to be paid if you are showing any any kind of pre-recorded DVD/Blu-ray or Downloads of anything distributed by MPLC -Affiliated producers which when you see the list is almost everyone.

PM with a phone number if you need to chat about it.

 

PJ