Upload films?

[dfwilson]

Can our teachers upload films that distributors have digitized? Trying to avoid any lawsuits.

Thanks!

[#2 · Accepted solution]

Hi @dfwilson

You can upload any video to Stream that is of a supported format

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/stream/input-audio-video-formats-codecs

Stream is, after all, a service for storing and playing video. However it depends on the law - see here

http://teachwithmovies.org/copyright-for-using-movies-in-the-classroom/

So in this example of the US, the movie could probably be used if it was legally purachased used for a educational purpose and the teacher played the film and then removed it from stream immediately after, however, as said the law states that remotely accessing a film from a central memory storage facility is probably not permitted. See 17 U.S.C. § 1201(a). In other words, they probably couldn't store it in Stream for a long period where pupils can just randomly access the film and potentially download it as this would infringe use rights

So whilst you can do it I personally, wouldn't do it. I would leverage the shared system audio facility in Teams and stream the video from the desktop or another source such as Amazon because then there is no way that the students can access the film after. The only video in Stream would be videos under commons, or recorded video from students. If you must do it then I would upload the video, play it for the lesson and then remove it immediately. This would be akin to putting in a DVD and removing it again after use

Hope that answers your question

Best, Chris