Peter Decherney frequently breaks the law for the sake of his students.
The Penn Cinema Studies professor has been known to illegally compile film clips from copyrighted DVDs to show in his classes.
Now, he and two other Penn professors are on a mission to change the law.
Decherney -- along with Penn professors Katherine Sender and Michael Carpini of the Annenberg School for Communication -- are going to Washington this month to ask the U.S. Copyright Office to bend the rules in certain academic cases when it comes to copyrighted video.
They are seeking two specific exemptions in particular.
First, Decherney says that professors should have permission to copy clips from DVDs available in a film studies department's library.
Second, he thinks professors should have the right to copy clips from DVDs of movies that are too old to still be protected by copyright but are accompanied by additional copyrighted material.
Gary Handman, director of the University of California at Berkeley's Media Resource Center, said that while the practice is technically against the law, unofficial guidelines allow the "spontaneous" use of clips in certain circumstances for teaching, research and student work.
"You can't keep this stuff around forever and use it over and over. ... If you do, you probably need to secure rights from the copyright holder," Handman said, noting that repeated use of a clip can get professors into trouble.
Still Penn's professors are seeking better-defined rules.
They are making their case now because law requires that anyone seeking exemptions from such copyright laws do so during a designated period every three years.
Currently, the law not only makes violating copyright a crime, but also criminalizes any effort to get around the stipulation.
This strictness leaves professors who want to use DVD clips in a pinch, Decherney said, forcing them to either break the law or not use the clips.
The Penn professors face opposition from the Motion Picture Association of America, which has strong concerns about movie piracy.
MPAA officials would not return repeated calls for comment.
Sender said that these issues are not Penn-specific and affect professors across the country.
"Everyone is worried that what they're doing is illegal," Sender said.
Greg Niemeyer, a Berkeley film professor, said that he supports any kind of exemption from these copyright restrictions.
"When I use DVDs in class, I am never sure what the copyright situation is, and I wish that we could use DVDs for education with no cost," Niemeyer said.
He added that he uses them regardless of possible infringement.
Students say that the exemptions Penn professors are seeking are well worth the fight and that showing film clips greatly improves the quality of in-class film criticism.
College sophomore Carrie Alexander, who is majoring in cinema studies, said that there is a world of difference between high-quality clips available on DVDs, which are generally copyrighted, and low-quality clips available on VHS, many of which have copyrights that have expired.
"The ability to pause a film, stare at a specific shot and deeply analyze is the crux of film studies," Alexander said. "It is sort of like an English major ripping apart one specific line in a novel."
College senior Brian Walsh said he has taken film classes that used different levels of technology, with significantly difference results in his learning experience.
"One class I had sophomore year, my professor used only videotapes. This resulted in poor-quality presentations for our lectures," Walsh said.
Decherney said that students liked his film courses better after he introduced clips from DVDs, probably as a result of the higher-quality images as well as streamlined viewing.
But while Sender says gaining exemptions from the Copyright Office should greatly improve the work of teachers nationwide, she added that there is a larger issue at stake.
"For me, what we're trying to do is a small claim," Sender said. "The larger agenda is to open up a conversation about fair use."
Don't take a copy
- Penn professors look for academic exemption to a law that will not allow them to duplicate materials from DVDs
- They will bring their complaint to the U.S. copyright office later this month
