Jessica A wonderful explanation. As a distributer " Docs For Education" I want to add I don't want the retail Market at $25 a DVD, the work to correspond , invoice & post etc. is the same for a Library use at $175 or a private home use at $25, as the so called "fair use" allows a legally bought DVD to screen a film in a classroom, I and other distributers have no reason "to shot my own leg" and sell for "home use" Sometimes an individual person contacts me for specific title that he has a personal interest in. This week a guy found a document that his father served 1943 on the SS. Darien and asked me for the Film "the Darien Dilemma", I asked and got $56 yet specified it is only for his "Home use"
If a university professor asks for a copy (very rare) I prefer to send him a "Preview" stating it is for "personal use",( I hope that as s/he has not paid for it they can't use it in classroom), asking them that the library will contact me for a purchase. Cheers Nahum Laufer http://onedayafterpeace.com/index.php http://docsforeducation.com/ Sales Docs for Education Erez Laufer Films Holland st 10 Afulla 18371 Israel Today's Topics: 1. Institutional Pricing for DVDs rant (Richard Graham) 2. Re: Institutional Pricing for DVDs rant (Jessica Rosner) 3. Re: Institutional Pricing for DVDs rant (Norman Howden) 4. Re: Institutional Pricing for DVDs rant (Dennis Doros) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Message: 1 Date: Thu, 20 Sep 2012 15:26:54 +0000 From: Richard Graham <rgrah...@unl.edu> Subject: [Videolib] Institutional Pricing for DVDs rant To: "cams...@lists.carleton.edu" <cams...@lists.carleton.edu> Cc: "videolib@lists.berkeley.edu" <videolib@lists.berkeley.edu> Message-ID: <ddaa91b1d53bc14dba679e49ea74af11195a4...@by2prd0811mb441.namprd08.prod.outl ook.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8" Fellow camslib/videolib folks, A faculty member recently requested we acquire a film titled White Scripts and Black Supermen: Black Masculinities in Comic Books. At the site to purchase it, the dreaded tiered pricing plan appears (http://newsreel.org/video/WHITE-SCRIPTS-BLACK-SUPERMEN), with public and school libraries allowed to buy it for $25, while colleges have to spend nearly $200. They claim if you purchase the home video version, you are not granted rights to show the film in classrooms. Now, I'm not a lawyer, but these sort of statements don't sound right to me. A colleague mentioned that some publishers do this because they need funds to cover future productions and it's a way for large institutions to subsidize independent documentaries, but I can't help feel offended that they use these scare tactics and assume colleges can easily absorb these large costs. I'm probably late to the party on this topic, but I wonder what your thoughts are. Does anyone try to work with publishers/producers to make these sort of materials more affordable? How do you all handle these sort of acquisition situations? Cheers from Nebraska, Richard ------------------------------ Message: 2 Date: Thu, 20 Sep 2012 11:41:56 -0400 From: Jessica Rosner <maddux2...@gmail.com> Subject: Re: [Videolib] Institutional Pricing for DVDs rant To: videolib@lists.berkeley.edu Message-ID: <cacre6m8by1ggmwy39htzjm4o4+23godoqcgrjksm2a4kegn...@mail.gmail.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" I have probably posted on this dozens of times. You do NOT need any extra rights to show a legally acquired film in classroom BUT if it is only sold from a single source ( Filmmaker or their rep) as opposed to retail ( Amazon etc) than they can pretty much set any restrictions/pricing they want by CONTRACT though it should be made clear that it is contract and not copyright and the system should include one of those "I have read and agreed to these conditions" type of sign off at point of sale. A lot of distributors are between a rock and hard place. They have films which have very limited retail value but they also want as many people as possible to see the film so many offer copies to individuals. In the "old" days they rarely did. This comes with the obvious pitfall that you are going to piss off libraries who have to pay more. Sadly the vast majority of these films simply could not be made and distributed if all copies were sold at $25. I am justifying just explaining the reality. Personally I just think it better not to offer copies to individuals even if that limits the markets. I worked for several years on an excellent series of films on post genocide Rwanda and there was never an option for individuals to purchase the films at a retail price BUT when a special request was received, we would often agree to it explaining that we would make the exception but the film could not be used in a class or given to a library. Some of you may remember many months ago when the "groupon" experiment was tried. One company ( sorry guys I can't remember which one) offered to sell some of their most expensive titles at a very low price PROVIDED a minimum of institutions bought them in specific time frame. They did not even come close. I think I can speak for all distributors & filmmakers that they would MUCH rather sell 1,000 copies at $25 than 100 copies at $250 even with the added hastle but alas most of the films we work with won't sell 1,000 copies. ******** VIDEOLIB is intended to encourage the broad and lively discussion of issues relating to the selection, evaluation, acquisition,bibliographic control, preservation, and use of current and evolving video formats in libraries and related institutions. It is hoped that the list will serve as an effective working tool for video librarians, as well as a channel of communication between libraries,educational institutions, and video producers and distributors.
