Article from the Information Technology Services newsletter (vol.34 no.5 Sept/Oct 06):

A new satellite dish has raised its head on the fifth floor balcony of the Hight Building. Down at ground level the Audio Visual Group (AV) is copying the Optus B1 bird at strength 9 on all channels. At this point those readers who are space based communications literate will cry in righteous indignation “That’s the Sky Channel” how come AV get to receive Sky Digital at work, surely that is simply using the University’s money to watch the Discovery or History or Movie channels during working hours?

So why would AV invest heavily in a Sky category C commercial users agreement? The answer is copyright. The University pays a not insignificant sum of money each year for a Screen Rights Licence. This licence allows the University to record any broadcast or satellite transmitted television programme and use it for teaching. This wonderful agreement covers all free to air channels, all Sky channels and everything else transmitted or sent by cable. The proviso is that they be recorded live off air and suitably labelled with an approved sticker.

Enterprising lecturers who pop down to the local video library and hire a movie such as Wall Street, take it into a lecture theatre and play it to illustrate a lecture on the finer points of business, are breaking the law. When the lecture is recorded and placed on WebCT the copyright is infringed again. This is the sort of thing that keeps AV managers awake at night and brings librarians to the brink of nervous breakdowns. The University is potentially liable for hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines and the unlucky individual who actually recorded the offending movie is also deemed to be liable.

The Audio Visual Group will foot the bill for the University to access all this material from 1 November 2006 until the end of 2007. During this time please use the opportunity to assemble a new library of teaching videos. Replace those piles of treasured but illegal tapes and pirated DVD content with new DVD material selected from the mass of material available on Free to Air and Sky and recorded legally by AV.

AV has two Sky decoders running into two DVD recorders and will program them to record selected material for teaching, 24/7. It is intended that a watermark identifying the material as recorded by UC under the Screen Rights Agreement will be inserted into the recorded picture. All perfectly legal and yes a VHS copy will be available if necessary. All you have to do is scan the schedules and book a recording through the AV office. Judging by the amount of repeats on television these days it won’t be long before Wall Street comes around again.