Submission Date:
Question:
[In 2019, we got some questions about Swank movie licenses, streaming services, and schools, and posted the answer here: https://wnylrc.org/raq/showing-movies-school. It’s now 2025, and with new content in the Swank licenses, we got this follow-up question from a librarian working with a school district…]
This is an excellent response[1] and I shared it with the district I’m having conversations with. However, the SWANK Movie License now states “the license enables use of any legal formats licensed for home use only.” Can they legally put that on their movie license?
[1] Thank you.
Answer:
To answer this question in 2025, we requested a copy of the updated/new license, because just like cheese, slab-on-grade floors, and skin care regimens, contracts change over time.
We got a copy of the license, and it is so festooned with movie studio logos that we aren’t re-printing it here, for fear of angering a trademark bot.[1]
Aside from LogoFest, there were three things that caught my eye about the license:
First, it was formatted like a certificate my ten-year-old gets for being “A Great Speller!”[2]
Second, it does indeed contain the sentence quoted by the member: The license enables use of any legal formats licensed for “home use only.”
And third: The LogoFest has a purpose, which is to work with the “home use sentence” quoted by the member and provide: “All exhibitions by your school of these copyrighted movies for non-teaching uses from the studios represented below are in full compliance with the copyright laws of the United States while this license is in effect.”
This means I can answer the member’s follow-up question: Can they legally put that on their movie license?
If Swank has contracts with the listed studios that allow them to override the restrictions, the answer is YES. Since Swank is a major player with a lot to lose here, I imagine those contracts are in place.
This means that whether the copy is on a streaming platform, an optical disc, a video cassette tape, or an old-school film reel, viewing at the school is authorized by the Swank license, even if it says “for home viewing only”. HOWEVER, to return to the 2019 question that started all this, that does not mean the license has altered the terms of an individual’s streaming service, which are based not only in copyright but in contract law.
To make an analogy: If I take my parents’ car without permission, but when I do, I park it properly and feed the meter, I won’t get a parking ticket (a copyright claim from the studio), but I still might get in trouble for taking the car (a contract claim from the streaming service).
This means that even with this fancy certificate hanging on the wall, a teacher isn’t authorized to use their personal HuFlixPrime[3] account to show it, unless their agreement with the streaming service makes that okay. That said, if the content they showed at the school was covered by the license, the only penalty would be for misuse of the streaming service, not violation of the copyright of the movie.[4]
In closing, I’ll address the elephant in the room: Considering that the fancy new certificate format[5] is designed to make schools feel really comfortable about watching movies at the school, is this misleading on the part of Swank? I have to say no. Swank is providing a straightforward license, and it is up to schools to make sure they are providing the appropriate streaming services for teachers to use with it. In doing so, schools should not rely on teachers’ personal streaming accounts but instead provide access to accounts held (and paid for) in the name of the institution.
Thank you for a perceptive question!
[1] This is 50% true, which is enough of a fear that I will not do it. I almost asked my law clerk to generate a version using AI, but right now “Ask the Lawyer” is 100% AI-free, and I think we’re going to keep it that way.
[2] She is not, unless you apply criteria from 1760 or so.
[3] These are fun to come up with.
[4] Unless the certificate was not valid…but the school and teacher would have a defense. For a recent case that breaks this down, see Wanjuan Media (Tianjin) Co., Ltd. v. Amazon.Com, Inc., 2024 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 41209, 2024 U.S.P.Q.2D (BNA) 468, 2024 WL 1021081.
[5] Can you tell I am enamored of this thing? I want to be a fly on the wall of the meeting where this approach was landed on.
Tag:
Copyright, Movies, Swank Movie Licensing, Umbrella Licensing, Licensing
