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Friday, September 14, 2007

Copyright issues for Community Access Television Story Hour

I'm looking for some advice on copyright issues and perhaps some personal advice from someone who might have produced a Community Access Television Story Hour. I'm working with my local community access television station to produce shows. I would like to apply for a local Cultural Council grant to produce a show featuring grandparents who want to read to their grandchildren. The grandparent would come down to the studio and sit in a rocking chair and read.

Here's my reference question: Do I need to get permission from each publisher to use the book on Community Access Television? Or, is there some type of blanket contract that might apply, similar to permission to show videos/dvds in libraries?

Here's the concept: We would film the story being read by a grandparent, which would be reproduced on DVD for purchase by the Grandparent, so it could be replayed as many times as it interests the grandchild. The reading would air once or twice for a general audience, more if it was a classic book by an exceptional reader. I think the project would be especially popular among grandparents that live far from their grandchildren. The grant would provide seed money for a selection of good big print children's books. If successful, the profits from the DVDs would keep the show going after the grant runs out.

Any comments are appreciated.

3 comments:

Jude said...

I think you should check with someone who is expert in copyright law. A couple sticky points with this plan are that you would be using the entire work and there is the potential/appearance of potential to profit from the use by selling the DVD's and broadcasting. This seems to be stretching fair use.

Christine Drew said...

Your grant application may need to include funding to pay royalty fees to the copyright owners. Perhaps you could choose a few example books that you might use and check in with the publishers?

Christine Drew said...

Another idea would be to use public domain materials such as Yesterday's Classics, Children's Books online, and Stories on the Web.

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