[mit-habitat-exec] [ASA] Copyright Information

[asa-exec@MIT.EDU]

Dear Student Group Officers,

MIT has become aware that some student groups have inadvertently held
events that are not in compliance with intellectual property laws and MIT
policies.  At the advice of MIT's Senior Counsel for Intellectual
Property, we are writing to inform all student groups that they must
remove all copyright protected material from their websites (this includes
pictures as well as text).  If you are not sure what material may be
copyright protected, please err on the side of caution and refrain from
posting it.  Also, student groups must refrain from holding public
showings of movies (free or otherwise) without the proper permission from
the copyright holder.

The Federal Copyright Act (Title 17 of the U.S.Code) governs how
copyrighted materials including films and musical works can be used and
shown.  Neither the rental nor the purchase of a videocassette or DVD
authorizes that the tape or DVD be shown outside of a private
home.  Showing the DVD and videocassette within a home to and by family or
social acquaintances is allowed.  Any other showing or viewing of the
film, movie, music,  or any other copyrighted work in a tavern,
restaurant, private clubs, at MIT or any other place not considered a home
requires permission of the copyright owner.  Before holding your event,
please check with Linda Noel (ldnoel at mit.edu) or Tom Robinson
(trob at mit.edu) in the Student Activities Office 617-253-6777 to ensure
that your event meets these criteria. Permission is required regardless of
whether a fee is charged, whether the institution or organization is a
commercial or not-for-profit entity.

Please note that showing movies that have a significant academic component
is acceptable.  This means that the
group must have a faculty or staff member (NOT a student) sponsor the
movie showing and make a presentation that is relevant to the movie. If
there are questions regarding this narrow exception they should be
referred to: ipcounsel-www at mit.edu.

Groups that fail to follow these policies will be responsible for paying
any fees that may arise.

ASA is currently working with the MIT Intellectual Property Office as well
as the Student Activities Office to find ways for student groups to obtain
the proper permission in order to hold these types of events. We will
share that information with you when it becomes available.

For more information about what materials are copyrighted, what
intellectual property is, and what is considered fair use under the US
Copyright statute you can go to the Office of Intellectual Property
Counsel's website at: http://web.mit.edu/ipcounsel/.

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This email was sent by the ASA Executive Board to the officers of all MIT
Student Activities.  The ASA Executive Board moderates these mailings.
If you have questions about its contents please contact <asa-exec at mit.edu>.

You received this e-mail because you were listed as an officer of an MIT
Student Activity.  The recipients are generated automatically from
the Officer Email List of each student group, as stored in each group's
ASA_Info file.  To update the name of this list and other information
about a group, an officer of the student group can type 'setup asa' from
an Athena prompt.  To update individual members of a list the list
administrator must use 'blanche' or 'listmaint' in Athena, or access
    http://web.mit.edu/moira
with MIT certificates.  The ASA does not have direct control over the
individual memberships of officer's mailing lists.

The table below indicates which lists your username is in.  If you received
this e-mail in error please contact the current officers of the groups
listed.

Username        Officer's List       Group Name
---------------|--------------------|-------------------------------------------
mit-habitat-exec at mailman.mit.edu              mit-habitat-exec     Habitat for Humanity