By Lakewood Research $35.00 Attitudes and Practices Concerning Pre-Recorded Videocassettes and Current Copyright Law In Corporate America Attitudes and Practices Concerning Pre-Recorded Videocassettes and Current Copyright Law in Corporate America. Conducted for the Training Media Distributors 198 Thomas Johnson Drive by Lakewood Research Gary Ballman, Ph. D., Director Colleen Rasinowich, Research Analyst Jim Camery, Research Analyst Kristy Klassy, Research Clerk 50 South Ninth Street, Minneapolis, MN 55402 612-333-0471 COPYRIGHT, ASSIGNED TO TRAINING MEDIA DISTRIBUTORS Executive Summary Reported here is an analysis of a survey dedicated to studying attitudes and practices concerning pre-recorded videocassettes and current copyright law as they relate to training in Corporate America. The study was commissioned by the Training Media Distributors Association and conducted by Lakewood Research. When the term "pre-recorded videocassette" is used in this report, it refers to an off-the-shelf videocassette that has been obtained from an outside vendor, is not something produced by the respondent's organization, is copyrighted, and is not covered by a license to copy or broadcast the program. Data were collected using a mailed questionnaire sent to 815 members of the Lakewood Research Training Panel in organizations which use pre-recorded videocassettes in their training programs. One mailing of the two-page survey resulted in a 46.7 percent response rate. This report focuses around four charges: 1) What pre-recorded cassette duplication policies and practices do various organizations currently have, and what proportion of the organizations in Corporate America are copyright violators? 2) What sort of opinions do individuals involved in training have about copying pre-recorded videocassettes and the broader issue of the role of information in our society? 3) What can be done to protect intellectual and creative property rights? 4) How large are organizations' videocassette libraries, and what percent of those tapes are pre-recorded by outside vendors? The overriding factor in determining the extent of copyright violation is the definition of copyright violation itself. Of course, in the very strictest terms copyright violation is making unauthorized copies in any quantity, anytime, for any purpose, even if it occurs only once. Through this report, though, Lakewood has used a looser definition of copyright violation, which probably means the estimates are conservative. In this report, copyright violation has been defined as occurring when an organization's normal practice is to always, almost always, or sometimes make additional copies of copyrighted, pre-recorded cassettes for internal use without a license. Attitudes and Practices Concerning Pre-Recorded Copyright, 1987, Given this definition, Lakewood Research estimates that 34.6 percent of the organizations in America with 50 or more employees that use pre-recorded videocassettes are copyright violators. This proportion ranges from 26.4 percent of the very largest organizations (those with 10,000 or more employees) to 38.9 percent of the organizations with from 2,500 to 9,999 employees. By industry, the proportion ranges from only 11.1 percent of the organizations in the business services sector being copyright violators, to 43.3 percent of the organizations in the wholesale-retail trade sector having practices defined here as constituting copyright violations. Additionally, the percentage of organizations that could be labeled "ultra clean" regarding copyright policies, practices, and attitudes was calculated. While nearly 60 percent of the organizations have a policy respectful to copyright holders, barely 30 percent of the organizations have attitudes reflecting "clean" copyright beliefs, and only 7 percent of the organizations have actual copying practices that honor copyrights. Only 3 percent of the organizations in corporate America have "clean" copyright policies, attitudes, and practices. Despite current U.S. copyright laws, 7.5 percent of the organizations have an organizational policy to always make a back-up or archival copy of each prerecorded videocassette bought, 24.2 percent never purchase additional copies from the vendor when multiple copies are needed, and 34.7 percent never obtain a license to make additional copies. On the positive side, 48.7 percent of the organizations report never making additional copies for internal use without a license, and 93.4 percent report never transmitting cassettes to multiple locations to be copied. To determine how acceptable some hypothetical duplication situations might be, apart from the organization's actual duplication policies and practices, respondents were asked about the acceptability of some specific scenerios where cassettes might be copied without the authorization of the vendors. As would be expected, respondents from organizations that were copyright violators tended to find all instances of unauthorized copying more acceptable than non-violators. In general, respondents found actions that don't have the outward appearances of defrauding the vendor as the most acceptable reasons to copy a videocassette. The most acceptable purposes for copying cassettes were to make a back-up or archival copy of a cassette (60.3 percent of the respondents found it acceptable) and to make a videocassette copy of a 16mm film (45.7 percent of the respondents found it acceptable). It is seen as much less acceptable to copy a cassette when the element of larceny is more blatant respondents found making copies for resale, making Copyright, 1987, by Lakewood Research Attitudes and Practices Conceming Pre-Recorded Videocassettes and Current Copyright Law 2 |