Our friends over at the EdLawConnectBlog in California published a blog about an interesting case from the Golden State that school leaders from across the country may find interesting. The case addressed whether school boards have any copyright control over video clips of public board meetings that a citizen posts on the Internet. The California court that addressed the issue suggested they do not.

The case actually involved a city council, not a school board. A longtime critic of the mayor and other city officials took video footage of city council meetings and posted them online along with criticisms. A federal trial court found that the citizen could take and post such videos without violating copyright law. Part of its decision dealt with legal issues that do not affect public schools. But part of its holding is relevant for schools as well as municipalities. Here is the EdLawConnectBlog’s description:

Specifically, the court found that even if the videos were copyrightable, [the citizen]’s use of the council meeting videos was “fair use.” The videos were “transformative” works used for the purpose of criticism and commentary on matters of public concern. Additionally, the videos were fundamentally factual and incorporated only small segments of the city council meetings. Most important, [the citizen’s] videos did not compete with the City’s own distribution of the videos because under [California’s public records law], the videos must be made available to any person upon payment of the direct costs of duplication. Thus, the City had no way to profit from distributing the videos or to recoup the costs of creating the recordings.

Although the case relied on California open meetings and public records laws, most states have similar laws on the books. The Illinois Open Meetings Act and Freedom of Information Act, for instance, have provisions quite similar to California’s laws. School leaders across the country should thus keep this case in mind and consult with counsel before preventing recording or posting of recordings of public meetings.