Films, videos and DVDs

Films, videos and DVDs may be shown in lectures and tutorials without any licence or permission. This applies whether they were purchased, borrowed or hired.

Fortunately for educational institutions, there is a provision in the Copyright Act in section 28 that deems performances in the course of educational instruction not to be in public, so long as the audience is limited to those taking part in the instruction. This means that films and videos can be screened in class without the permission of the copyright owner. This is despite what it might state on the packaging or the video about strictly for home use; the Copyright Act overrides statements like these. This does not apply to streaming services, such as Netflix or Stan.

Published films and videos cannot be copied unless permission has been obtained from the copyright owner, usually the production company. There is no general licence or copyright exemption that permits you to copy videos, even for educational purposes.

QUT Library subscribes to an off-air content provider. For more information on this service see Streaming video and off-air recordings.

If you need to put together a compilation of excerpts from films for your students to study, contact the University Copyright Officer for further advice.