This is the current message board in front of a school I pass nearly every day, providing another example of how schools (and their associated organizations) flirt with violations of copyright law.
Of course I’m assuming this particular showing will use someone’s personal copy of the DVD and will be shown using a projector and speakers provided by the school.
This despite the fact that the itty bitty print on the packaging specifically prohibits the “public exhibition” of the movie (which, incidentally, includes those recreational showings that occur in some classrooms right around the winter holidays).
However, I suppose I could be mistaken and the PTA has paid for a public performance license to show the movie, in which case I certainly owe them an apology for this overly preachy post.
And, if that’s not the case, I’m also assuming no lawyers from Disney have driven down the road past this notice.
This isn’t my school, but we have done some free movie nights (selling refreshments as the fundraiser) and our PTA president did get permission for the public showing each time. I have no idea how one goes about doing that and I would guess most PTAs don’t bother.
We do those at our school and we pay a fee through these guys: http://www.movlic.com/
Our schools also all purchase the license for group showing. The librarian handles the purchase of the license from library funds raised with Book Fairs.
As teacherninja notes it’s not difficult to buy a license and, if you don’t charge admission, the price isn’t bad. However, many teachers and principals don’t even know they’re supposed to pay the fee in the first place.