Can I play a movie in my class?

The legal side

You are allowed to play copyrighted music, films or live broadcasts at the College, for educational or training purposes, before an audience consisting primarily of students or teachers. There are also some exceptions in the Copyrights Acts under ‘fair dealing’ to allow some copying of excerpts for educational purposes.

The copyright on a feature film last fifty years after the creator’s death; for documentaries it is fifty years after release.

Notwithstanding the above, the material cannot be played from Netflix or iTunes because it would contravene the terms of use of these platforms. For that reason Netflix is blocked in the classrooms.

The technical side

Every podium includes a standalone DVD player, which probably offers the easiest way to play back your media.

For greater control you may use Windows Media player or VLC (found on the Sandbox). Provided you can copy without breaking the copyright (see above), we recommend you download the media to a network drive.