You are unlikely to be able to copy the contents of a DVD without circumventing an Access-control Technological Protection Measure (ATPM), and thus contravening prohibitions in the Copyright Act. If you can copy the contents without circumventing an ATPM, you may in some cases be allowed to do so for educational instruction under section 200AB.

If the contents of the DVD have been broadcast, you can copy from a recording of the broadcast under Part VA (which allows recording from TV & radio for educational purposes).

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This depends on the type of technology being used to facilitate the streaming. The Copyright Act allows you to play a commercially produced DVD in class where the instruction is not for profit, and to “communicate” it electronically (for example, by streaming).

However, unless the DVD is a “Screenrights copy” (that is, a copy of something broadcast on TV), in most cases the Copyright Act would not allow you to copy it onto the server or content management system you are using in order to stream it.

In most cases, copying a commercially-produced DVD would involve circumventing an access-control technological protection measure (such as CSS), and this is prohibited by the Copyright Act. If the DVD is not protected by an access-control technological protection measure, you may be able to copy it in order to stream it for a class under the “special case” exception for educational institutions. You are more likely to be able to rely on this exception to copy the DVD if:

• you need to show the DVD for a specific class;

• it is not feasible to stream the DVD without copying it;

• you cannot get an off-air copy made under the scheme administered by Screenrights;

• you don’t make more copies than are needed in order to show to the particular class;

• students are not able to download the film; and

• you do not keep the copy for any longer than you need it for the class.

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If the contents of the videotape have been broadcast and recorded by your school or by a resource centre, then you may be entitled to make a digital copy of the recorded broadcast under Part VA.

Otherwise, you might be entitled to transfer the contents to DVD if the contents are not available for purchase on DVD, if:

• section 200AB applies, and/or

• the videotape is part of your school library collection and is missing or damaged (in which case you may be entitled to make a replacement copy, in digtal form, from a copy owned by someone else or from a second "good" copy in the library's collection).

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Assuming the agreement under which the DVD was purchased imposes no contractual limitations to the contrary, teachers don’t need permission to play DVDs in class. This is the case whether they purchased the DVD in Australia or overseas.

In many cases, DVDs are region-coded for playing only in particular countries or groups of countries. Teachers can nevertheless play the DVDs in a multi-region player, or re-set the region coding (we understand this can sometimes be done via the remote control) or they may have the region-code control in the DVD player modified so it plays DVDs from relevant regions.

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The Copyright Act does not prohibit an educational institution purchasing a DVD that is region-coded for regions other than Australia, provided it is not a pirate DVD.

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Screening a DVD to a class for educational instruction does not infringe copyright, provided the instruction is not for profit.

However, you may have legal obligations other than those under copyright law if you have agreed, as a condition of hiring the DVD, not to show it in class.

Because of this, some governing and peak bodies in the school sector advise their schools to borrow from video rental stores in the name of the school, rather than under a teacher’s name, so that the video rental store is aware that you intend to show the DVD to a class. Check with your school’s Local Copyright Manager. http://www.smartcopying.edu.au/scw/go/cache/offonce/pid/513

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