Public Performance Rights Management in Academic Libraries

Meeting: 161 — "The media is the message! " The convergence of media in rapidly changing societies from a user perspective as well as the demand for preservation — Audiovisual and Multimedia Section with Preservation and Conservation This paper will provide an overview of public performance rights for using audiovisual media in academic libraries. Public performance rights is an important issue because performing or displaying audiovisual media in the context of classroom instruction is the primary use of audiovisual media at George Mason University Libraries. This overview will begin with an introduction to the Copyright Law of the United States ’ definitions of publicly performing or displaying a work. Then, examples from distributors ’ websites describing the rights to display audiovisual works will be used to illustrate the difference of language both between distributors and in the language used by the Copyright Law of the United States. Finally, the workflow George Mason University Libraries created for cataloging public performance rights will be explained. It is hoped that this overview of public performance rights will create an interest in educating and sharing information about public performance rights both to other library professionals and to general users