Our school recently installed a video transcoding system to replace our obsolete video distribution system.

The old system is housed in the lmc's backroom. We would place dvd's/vhs's into players and assign teachers a channel.

They would them view the movie in their classroom. They had the ability to control the movie through a special telephone.

The new video transcoding system will allow teachers to access the video collection from their desktops. I've been told it will be like using Youtube.

My assistant and I will be responsible for ripping each video into this new system. I am relying heavily on Fair Use for the educational videos that correspond directly to the curriculum.

I inherited a number of commercial movies (i.e. Sandlot) from my predecessor and my principal wants me to investigate how much it would cost to rip these videos into the sytem. I went to Movie Licensing USA and found that individual public performance site licenses can be bought but that the movies, "may not be altered, duplicated, digitized or transmitted electronically in any form without specific permission from the copyright owner.' It also states on this site that it is for use by public libraries

This all came about because I told my principal I was not comfortable placing these commercial movies into this new system. She wants me to investigate further and come up with a ball park figure as to how much such a license would cost. I've been in touch with people from 21st Century Fox which led me to Criterion, USA.

Has anyone been through such a process with their video collection? If so, any guidance/assistance would be much appreciated.