Movies Disney Charges School $250 for Showing The Lion King at a Fundraiser

[Keyser_Soze]

Quote

A California father’s decision to put on a DVD of “The Lion King” to entertain kids at a parents’-night-out fundraiser may end up costing an elementary school $250, Berkeleyside reports.

A company that handles copyright violations for Disney has contacted Emerson Elementary School to demand $250 for publicly screening the film, Inside the Magic reports.

“The event made $800, so if we have to fork over a third of it to Disney, so be it,” said PTA president David Rose, KPIX reports. “You know, lesson learned.”

 

But Lori Droste, a parent at the school and a member of the Berkeley City Council, blasted Disney in a Twitter thread over the demand.

 

“Who wants to hear an unbelievable story about how Disney is essentially fining Berkeley’s Emerson Elementary School PTA $250 while reaping millions of dollars through a corporate loophole that has decimated public schools across California?” Droste wrote on Twitter.

 

“Now I can imagine some of you may say there are legitimate concerns with copyright and PTA made a mistake. Sure, I get that but coming after an elementary school? Really??” Droste wrote in a follow-up. “Disney wants $250 when we are struggling to pay our teachers and spending per pupil is laughable?”

 

The letter from Music Licensing USA says movies shown to the public for entertainment purposes require a $250 license to avoid violating copyrights, Berkeleyside reported.

Movie studios like Disney contract with the firm to follow up on reported violations, said Corey Goellner of Music Licensing USA, Inside the Magic reported.

“We’re responsible for checking to make sure their movies are protected, basically,” Goellner said, according to the publication. About 25,000 schools across the U.S. have purchased licenses to show Disney films, but not Emerson Elementary School.

 

https://www.sacbee.com/news/california/article239914608.html

 

[Slug]

All I want to know is who reported it.  That's nuts that the copyright firm would randomly find out that some elementary school was showing the movie to kids.

[CitizenVectron]

32 minutes ago, Slug said:

All I want to know is who reported it.  That's nuts that the copyright firm would randomly find out that some elementary school was showing the movie to kids.

 

Our band teachers in my school division are really bad for just photocopying music sheets. I have pointed out numerous times that all it will take is a single band performance going viral (or even noticed on youtube) for the division to be fined thousands of dollars by Disney or some other group.

 

But you can't stop teachers from infringing on copyright, they have no ability to stop themselves.

[Ghost_MH]

36 minutes ago, Slug said:

All I want to know is who reported it.  That's nuts that the copyright firm would randomly find out that some elementary school was showing the movie to kids.

 

That's the thing that stuck out to me most. How does something like this wind up on anyone's radar?

[AbsolutSurgen]

I thought schools knew they had to get a license to screen a film to students.  My kids schools, while I lived in the US, were very aware of the requirement.

[Keyser_Soze]

2 minutes ago, AbsolutSurgen said:

I thought schools knew they had to get a license to screen a film to students.  My kids schools, while I lived in the US, were very aware of the requirement.

 

Back in my day all you needed was a permission slip, or not even that and the teacher would pop in a VHS tape of My Neighbor Totoro in Japanese.

[GeneticBlueprint]

Disney is evil.

[Ghost_MH]

6 minutes ago, AbsolutSurgen said:

I thought schools knew they had to get a license to screen a film to students.  My kids schools, while I lived in the US, were very aware of the requirement.

 

That wasn't the case when I was in school, but that was years ago. However, this wasn't screened to students in a school setting. The school was running a babysitting event for parents that can't normally afford evening babysitting. The school solicited donations, but they weren't required.

[AbsolutSurgen]

9 minutes ago, Ghost_MH said:

 

That wasn't the case when I was in school, but that was years ago. However, this wasn't screened to students in a school setting. The school was running a babysitting event for parents that can't normally afford evening babysitting. The school solicited donations, but they weren't required.

I just want to be clear that I am not defending copyright laws, or how content owners choose to enforce them.

 

I was just expressing my surprise that the school wasn't aware of them and/or chose to ignore the licensing requirements.  My children's school in the US was aware of them (based on the conversations I heard at PTA meetings), and to follow them.

I don't believe who the audience is at the school (parents, students, after school event, fundraising event, etc.) makes much of a difference -- although my recollection was that if we wanted an outdoor screening (vs. in a classroom or gym/lunchroom) it was more expensive.

[Spawn_of_Apathy]

4 hours ago, Slug said:

All I want to know is who reported it.  That's nuts that the copyright firm would randomly find out that some elementary school was showing the movie to kids.

It might have been advertised on a Facebook group or something that would be easily available for Disney’s copyright lawyers to find. 

[EternallDarkness]

As much as I love Disney, part of me wants to say they are being assholes, but the truth is they honestly need to address/defend all violations of copyright infringement.

[johnny]

How much would it cost them to show the lion king at this event had they gone through the proper steps?

[Guest]

The reason that movie studios contract out the licensing of their films for these purposes is because the firms that handle it have whole teams of people actively looking for events that aren’t licensed. That’s how they generate their fees. Most likely there was some online announcement of the event and their web crawlers caught it in their filter.

 

 

7 minutes ago, johnny said:

How much would it cost them to show the lion king at this event had they gone through the proper steps?

$250 is the minimum licensing fee for most repertory product, even for free events by non-profs.

[Mercury33]

Thread title is misleading as hell. Disney execs didn’t meat in a board room to decide to fine a school $250 and then all laugh maniacally. Disney is one of many studios that firms like that represent. It’s the firms job to look for this sort of stuff and it was the firm who issued the fine. 
 

And like others said. My guess is that they advertised it in some way. 

[Keyser_Soze]

20 minutes ago, Mercury33 said:

Thread title is misleading as hell. Disney execs didn’t meat in a board room

 

 

Sounds yummy

[EternallDarkness]

1 hour ago, Mercury33 said:

Thread title is misleading as hell. Disney execs didn’t meat in a board room

of course they didn't. it wasn't done in the boardroom it was done around the barbecue!  

[Guest]

14 hours ago, Mercury33 said:

Thread title is misleading as hell. Disney execs didn’t meat in a board room to decide to fine a school $250 and then all laugh maniacally. Disney is one of many studios that firms like that represent. It’s the firms job to look for this sort of stuff and it was the firm who issued the fine. 

Paying a contractor to perform a service on your behalf doesn’t make you not responsible for it unless the contractor did not properly enforce the agreement.

[Chris-]

I like the thought of sbl slowly driving by the local elementary schools, looking for PTAs that are stepping on his shit. Ruthless. 

[SuperSpreader]

1 hour ago, Chris- said:

I like the thought of sbl slowly driving by the local elementary schools, looking for PTAs that are stepping on his shit. Ruthless. 

You know it was him tho. 

[IdeaOfEvil]

Does this fine/license fee only count for events that has money exchanging hands (whether it's pay to play or donations doesn't matter)? Or does this fine include even just showing a movie during class recess (like on a rainy day when everyone is stuck inside)?

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

33 minutes ago, IdeaOfEvil said:

Does this fine/license fee only count for events that has money exchanging hands (whether it's pay to play or donations doesn't matter)? Or does this fine include even just showing a movie during class recess (like on a rainy day when everyone is stuck inside)?

Unless the film is being screened for a purely academic purpose, a license is still required for showing a movie during class recess.

 

Quote

Q: Does a preschool qualify for a “face-to-face” teaching exemption?

A: No. The educational exemption is narrowly defined and applies to nonprofit academic institutions that only utilize movies, TV programs, and other content in instruction, not when the program is used for entertainment purposes.

 

[Ghost_MH]

 

[Guest]

1 minute ago, Ghost_MH said:

 

I laughed when I saw this because the company that issued the demand for payment was simply complying with the agreement they have with Disney. Bob is acting like some mistake was made. This is their standard operating procedure!

[Kal-El814]

3 hours ago, Chris- said:

I like the thought of sbl slowly driving by the local elementary schools, looking for PTAs that are stepping on his shit. Ruthless. 

[Ghost_MH]

9 minutes ago, sblfilms said:

I laughed when I saw this because the company that issued the demand for payment was simply complying with the agreement they have with Disney. Bob is acting like some mistake was made. This is their standard operating procedure!

 

He's also not STOPPING them from paying the fine or anything to that effect. He's just donating money to the school. They're still on the hook for that $250.

[EternallDarkness]

1 hour ago, Ghost_MH said:

 

He's also not STOPPING them from paying the fine or anything to that effect. He's just donating money to the school. They're still on the hook for that $250.

 

quite true, but they really have to. If they 'waved' the fee they'd be setting up a precedent that would no doubt be exploited and could jeopardize their copyright 

[Ghost_MH]

18 minutes ago, EternallDarkness said:

 

quite true, but they really have to. If they 'waved' the fee they'd be setting up a precedent that would no doubt be exploited and could jeopardize their copyright 

 

They wouldn't be jeopardizing their copyright by not going after some PTA for playing the movie during some after hours babysitting session. That's a bit extreme.

 

It's just silly he's apologizing on behalf of the company. It's not like the company is doing anything to show they care. Even the donation is coming from his pocket and not Disney's.

[IdeaOfEvil]

It's really mind boggling how watching a movie in a non-profit establishment (ie school) can jeopardize a copyright. There were only ever two reasons I got to watch a movie in class - rainy days (or some "event" that kept us all inside during recess) or it was a movie based on a book that we were reading in class for the month.

 

The notion that any group (lawyers or studios) would go out to find this kind of activity and charge them a fine is beyond insane sounding

[thewhyteboar]

5 hours ago, Chris- said:

I like the thought of sbl slowly driving by the local elementary schools, looking for PTAs that are stepping on his shit. Ruthless. 

 

[Guest]

2 hours ago, EternallDarkness said:

 

quite true, but they really have to. If they 'waved' the fee they'd be setting up a precedent that would no doubt be exploited and could jeopardize their copyright 

You’re thinking of trademark infringement. Copyright doesn’t work that way at all. They can grant free use to anybody for any reason while charging to others.

[EternallDarkness]

1 hour ago, sblfilms said:

You’re thinking of trademark infringement. Copyright doesn’t work that way at all. They can grant free use to anybody for any reason while charging to others.

 

yep, you're right, I was thinking trademark 

[Mercury33]

14 hours ago, sblfilms said:

I laughed when I saw this because the company that issued the demand for payment was simply complying with the agreement they have with Disney. Bob is acting like some mistake was made. This is their standard operating procedure!

He has to. It’s creating bad press, even if it’s the schools fault for being stupid and not doing the proper research. This is the way he has to address to the situation. It’s a nice gesture considering if they’d just ignored it people would have forgotten in a few days.