Stricter rules for showing films will be enforced

Next semester Ripon College's office of student activities and orientation will begin to enforce stricter rules affecting what films can be shown on campus.

For the past few years student organizations have been operating under the assumption that if they did not name a film in their advertising and did not charge admission, they could show the film without a license.

"My investigations found that this was not legal," says Dave Sarnowski, director of student activities and orientation. "Any showing [of a film] in a public place needs a license."

Earlier this semester Sarnowski distributed "film guidelines" to all of the student organizations on campus. A recent swarm of lawsuits over copyright and piracy issues have been affecting campuses across the nation.

Some have hit as close as Lawrence University in Appleton, Wis. For example, late last spring Lawrence was contacted by Universal Studios about students illegally distributing digital copies of copyrighted films.

Sarnowski has also participated in a Web forum in an effort to clarify the technicalities of copyright law, discussing the issue with other student activities directors and copyright lawyers.

"The penalties for being in [violation] of the law are really severe," he says. If one student organization were found guilty of breaking copyright laws by showing an unlicensed film it could face up to $100,000 in fines. This could theoretically wipe out the entire student organization budget in a single blow.

The licenses will be purchased from licensing companies such as Swank Motion Pictures and Criterion Pictures USA and distributed to interested student organizations. Such licensing companies basically provide a middleman service between film production companies and groups wishing to legally show films.

Sarnowski says that he is looking into purchasing licenses in bulk from some of these companies in order to cut the cost. He is also looking into how the size and makeup of an intended audience may reduce license costs.

Under the new college rules, student organizations will be required to submit a one-fund request to cover the cost of securing a license.

Licenses do not come cheap, starting from around $50 per film viewing, and increasing almost indefinitely. For example, SMAC's recent showing of "Pirates of the Caribbean" as part of TOTU festivities cost them $625.

As a result of the administration's new hard line attitude enforcing existing federal film copyright rules, films on campus will probably not be as abundant as in the past-now that student organizations have to spend money on licensing the films.

"We may be seeing fewer small films, but an increase in campus-wide films," predicts Sarnowski.

Cinemaniacs Affected

One group that could be greatly affected is Cinemaniacs, Ripon's film club. The Cinemaniacs currently meet in Scott Hall TV Lounge every Wednesday night at 9 p.m. to watch a film.

"It could hurt us," says Sebastian Meade, senior and Cinemaniacs co-president. "One of the things we do is to watch films."

The group also makes films, critiques films and puts on a film festival each year, but their weekly meetings are centered on watching movies.

Even though a key card is needed to access the building, Sarnowski is technically classifying the Scott Hall TV Lounge-and every other dorm lounge on campus-as a public area. Lounges are therefore off-limits for unlicensed film showings.

Because Cinemaniacs could not afford to buy a license once a week, Sarnowski has suggested that they watch their weekly movie in a dorm room.

"We could do that, but part of what I like about having it where we do is that people notice that our meetings are going on and are drawn in," says Meade.

Another problem is that approximately 60 people are signed up as members of Cinemaniacs, and if more than the usual five or six people show up to a meeting, the dorm room setting would become very uncomfortable.

"I know it will be a challenge for groups but I don't think it is going to be a disastrous thing for us," Sarnowski says. "We'll do everything we can to make sure [films on campus] remain an option for student organizations."

One option Sarnowski recommends is that student organizations team up with one another to show films in order to split the cost for the license. Or, he recommends that they team up with SMAC which, as the college's official media board, has always purchased licenses for the films it shows.

The new guidelines detail the situations in which student organizations will need to purchase a license. It boils down to this: Student organizations may not under any circumstances show films in public places without a license.

"It's not who's watching it, but where it's being watched," Sarnowski says. He says that this is his interpretation of the most current interpretation of copyright law which regards dormatory lounges as public spaces.

One exception offered is for films shown in an educational setting.

Films used in a classroom or educational setting supporting an established course curriculum and where the course professor is present may obtain an "educational exemption" from requiring the purchase of a copyright license for viewing.

Because interpretations of the law generally discourage attendance at such educational films by those who are not students of the course, Ripon's international movie series occupies ambiguous territory in relation to the law.

Sunday Night Films?

The international movie series is a course that has become a Ripon tradition offering educational and cultural benefits to the community at large.