Copyright Rules and Swank

Teachers should be familiar with the basics of copyright laws and how they pertain to your use of copyrighted material in your teaching. There is often confusion, however, about these rules and how they pertain to the showing of videos in class. The information below should help with understanding what you can and can’t show in your classroom.

Swank K12 Movies

The district has an active subscription with Swank K12 Streaming that allows you to show any film included in our subscription for any reason in your classroom. This includes films that are directly correlated to your course content as well as for non-educational uses, i.e. classroom rewards. See this document for more information on the Swank service. If you don’t find the movie that you’re looking for in the Swank portal (and you can’t request it), see the next section.

If a movie isn’t available on the streaming platform but is in their library and you own a copy of the movie, you can still show it since our subscription gives us access to the streaming library AND site license to show any covered film.

You can access the Swank streaming platform at: https://digitalcampus.swankmp.net/mtblue394509/

Showing videos in class

If the video you want to show in class, for any reason, is not included in the Swank library, you must follow these guidelines to decide if you have permission to show the video.

The US Copyright Law has an exception in it that generally allows a teacher to show a copyrighted film or video in the classroom as long as it has an educational purpose. It has long been understood that teachers could show snippets or segments of copyrighted material without permission, but this exception allows for an entire film to be shown as long as it correlates with the educational content of the course. This does not include showing films or videos as a reward or for entertainment. If you have any questions, you should reach out to IT Services or your school librarian.

Streaming services

You cannot, under any circumstances, show videos in your classroom that are being streamed from Amazon Prime Video, Disney+, Hulu, & Netflix (and probably others). The terms of use for these services specifically state that the content on their platforms is for “personal, non-commercial use” only. This means that while you may pay for a subscription, you are paying for the right to stream that content for your own personal use only.