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160 organizations. The cost of the license depends on the amount of usage, size of patron base, and number of viewing sites.

As for the second question, which asks whether a patron may watch a film in the library, most entertainment companies would regard those as public performances. Even though libraries have purchased copies of films, they have not also purchased public performance rights, so those rights need to be obtained separately. For example, the Library Video Company, while acknowledging fair use and the section 110(2) exemption, advises customers that “The best way to fully enjoy the benefits and flexibility of the digital age is to secure a license for all of your digital content needs.”

A former Attorney General of Ohio shared this view years ago when, in 1987, he wrote that patrons of an Ohio school district public library could not view videotapes in library viewing rooms. The Attorney General reasoned that because the public library was accessible to the public, performances of videotapes on the premises—even in individual viewing rooms—were infringing public performances. He wrote that “it is the public accessibility of the location where the videotape is shown that determines whether the playing of the tape is a public performance of the copyrighted work for the purposes of section 106(4).” But even if this is true, and if a few people watching a film in a small library viewing room is a public performance, there is a strong case for fair use.

Libraries do not always need to acquire public performance licenses when they purchase a film for their collections. If the New York Public Library lends Woody Allen a DVD of the 1940 Marx Brothers’ film Go