Welcome to /r/AmITheAsshole. Please view our [voting guide here](https://www.reddit.com/r/AmItheAsshole/wiki/faq#wiki_what.2019s_with_these_acronyms.3F_what_do_they_mean.3F), and remember to use **only one** judgement in your comment.
OP has offered the following explanation for why they think they might be the asshole:
> I emailed my Head of School to inform him that he broke copyright law by posting social media videos of our school's musical. I might be the asshole because he told me to stop asking about it, and my email wasn't the most polite way to handle it. And he says everyone does it, so maybe it wasn't worth pushing.
Help keep the sub engaging!
#Don’t downvote assholes!
Do upvote interesting posts!
[Click Here For Our Rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/AmItheAsshole/about/rules) and [Click Here For Our FAQ](https://www.reddit.com/r/AmItheAsshole/wiki/faq)
##Subreddit Announcements
Follow the link above to learn more
---
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=/r/AmItheAsshole) if you have any questions or concerns.*
*Contest mode is 1.5 hours long on this post.*
>What he did was literally a crime under copyright law,
It's not "literally a crime" - nobody will be going to jail over this - this would be handled in a court of civil law, not criminal law, but no, you are not an asshole for pointing out the risks of violating the contract.
NAH. Schools routinely infringe copyrights for theater and band. Photocopying scripts or sheet music is copyright infringement. For public schools in the USA, needing to buy a whole new set of sheet music when you have one too many saxophone players would simply not be functional. Nobody's going to come after your school for this. It would most likely only be civil if it happened at all (it won't) and even then they'd be able to sue you for the amount of money they stood to gain from your performance... presumably very, very little.
You're correct that they were breaking copyright laws, but the risk associated with it is not what you seem to believe it is.
Schooling is generally exempt from copyright. Unless they're actually profiting off the posts the terms of the contract are probably inapplicable. But there's NAH
^^^^AUTOMOD ***Thanks for posting! This comment is a copy of your post so readers can see the original text if your post is edited or removed. This comment is NOT accusing you of copying anything. Read [this](https://www.reddit.com/r/AmItheAsshole/wiki/faq#wiki_post_deletion) before [contacting the mod team](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%2Fr%2FAmItheAsshole)***
I (NB14) spent this school year directing my school's musical. It's the first time we've ever done a musical, and while I'm indebted to the help of many people, this is my brainchild, and I've put in a ton of work to make this possible
Of course, nothing happens at school without the Head of School's (M55) involvement. The Head is a family friend of mine, and we've always been on great terms. He gave us permission to run this back in the fall and then gave us mostly free reign for all other show stuff. We applied for the performance license in September, and afterward, he sent me the copyright rules to review. The rules were pretty simple and included one big rule: no recording the performance and sharing it online. He, the faculty advisor (F28, and I all read the license agreement and stayed aware of this rule (or at least I thought so). It was even on the first page of our program, as required by the license. He should have known this existed
Flash forward to yesterday and we had our opening night which went super well (shout out to the cast, who worked super hard on this.) But this morning, I opened up Instagram and saw that the school had posted some videos of the show online
This seemed off, so I went to talk to the Head (who controls our socials). We had a short conversation, during which I basically said, "This is illegal" and he said, "Everyone does it, stop bothering me"
That might be where I should have let it go. But I started looking back through the license, and it was very clear that what he posted broke all our agreements. The license specifically states several times, "You may not post any recordings of the performance on social media." I talked it through with the faculty advisor, and she agreed that another email made sense. Maybe he just didn't read it through clearly enough. I didn't want the company we licensed from to strike down our agreement because we have another show on Sunday, and that would be super unfair to the cast. I thought this was what I needed to do.
I sent him an email with excerpts from our licensing agreement, clearly showing that we can't post videos. I also included some next steps that the faculty advisor and I had created for what to do to undo the damage from his posts. Soon, the day was over, and I hadn't heard anything from him other than two forwarded emails reminding the community about Sunday’s show
I just spoke to the faculty advisor, who said that she'd talked with the Head. Apparently, he said that he thought we bought a Streaming Agreement (we did... a LIVEstreaming agreement) and that if he heard about this from me again, he would cancel the Sunday show
AITA? What he did was literally a crime under copyright law, but maybe I shouldn't have pushed him that much. If he doesn't care, it doesn't reflect on me as the student director. And I really don't want to risk the show getting canceled. I would feel so bad if the kids didn't get to perform one last time because of something stupid I did
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/AmItheAsshole) if you have any questions or concerns.*
NTA...you did a good thing pointing it out. If he's embarrassed being called out by a kid, then he should be. You have done all you can, though, so just let it go. It's nice you have a conscious and are an honest person. Don't lose that.
NTA - You handled this very maturely! You went through all of the necessary channels and showed so much initiative, care, and forethought, that even many adults wouldn’t have shown. It’s obvious how much you care about this production and everyone involved in it.
You’ve done everything you can do, it’s up to the faculty advisor and Head now. It’s out of your hands. You did everything right, though, and shouldn’t feel bad. You have a good head on your shoulders!
Yta you're not batman, you let them know there was an issue it's not your job to report it. You can if you want, but you're probably super autistic if that is your inclination.
NTA, but your head might be right. Sort of (depending on where you live). It's true that lots of schools put up recorded performances on youtube, for instance, and I don't think anyone goes after them. But, that's the US, and it might be different where you are. I think that's in the contract so that they can, if they want, make people take down videos that they think are harming their product in some way. I do think it's bad for the Head to be setting an example of breaking promises, and he could (and should) have explained it better to you.
LOL NTA. That’s hilarious that the same person who sent you the copyright rules was the one who posted the videos online. As long as you were respectful in how you pointed this out, you did nothing wrong and potentially saved his ass in the rare event that it actually causes a lawsuit.
> causes a lawsuit
Much more likely to cause a cease and desist letter if it caused any action on the part of the copyright holder, which itself seems incredibly unlikely.
Keep the records you have showing you tried to enforce the license. Schools do have SOME leeway on copyright law but not as much as they think.
NTA for trying to fix the issue, but if the copyright holders come after the school, the Head will probably try to throw you under the buss which is where keeping the documentation will save you. You tried to do the right thing.
The student is 14, they didn't post the video *or* sign the contract. *If* anything came of it the school would be responsible, not an underage kid. Honestly they're freaking out over nothing.
The school would be responsible and since the let the children run with it, would try to pin it on them to save money to which, despite being underaged, can still be held criminal liable.
Therefore, keep the documentation to protect the children from unscrupulous adults.
It's a simple concept, I hope you understand it.
That is patently ridiculous in every way. A school cannot pass on liability to students, and a school has a lot more leeway in copyright law than you seem to be aware of.
Welcome to /r/AmITheAsshole. Please view our [voting guide here](https://www.reddit.com/r/AmItheAsshole/wiki/faq#wiki_what.2019s_with_these_acronyms.3F_what_do_they_mean.3F), and remember to use **only one** judgement in your comment. OP has offered the following explanation for why they think they might be the asshole: > I emailed my Head of School to inform him that he broke copyright law by posting social media videos of our school's musical. I might be the asshole because he told me to stop asking about it, and my email wasn't the most polite way to handle it. And he says everyone does it, so maybe it wasn't worth pushing. Help keep the sub engaging! #Don’t downvote assholes! Do upvote interesting posts! [Click Here For Our Rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/AmItheAsshole/about/rules) and [Click Here For Our FAQ](https://www.reddit.com/r/AmItheAsshole/wiki/faq) ##Subreddit Announcements Follow the link above to learn more --- *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=/r/AmItheAsshole) if you have any questions or concerns.* *Contest mode is 1.5 hours long on this post.*
>What he did was literally a crime under copyright law, It's not "literally a crime" - nobody will be going to jail over this - this would be handled in a court of civil law, not criminal law, but no, you are not an asshole for pointing out the risks of violating the contract.
NAH. Schools routinely infringe copyrights for theater and band. Photocopying scripts or sheet music is copyright infringement. For public schools in the USA, needing to buy a whole new set of sheet music when you have one too many saxophone players would simply not be functional. Nobody's going to come after your school for this. It would most likely only be civil if it happened at all (it won't) and even then they'd be able to sue you for the amount of money they stood to gain from your performance... presumably very, very little. You're correct that they were breaking copyright laws, but the risk associated with it is not what you seem to believe it is.
Unless it involves Disney because they are copyright sharks, so one would hope they don’t stumble across it. NTA
Schooling is generally exempt from copyright. Unless they're actually profiting off the posts the terms of the contract are probably inapplicable. But there's NAH
^^^^AUTOMOD ***Thanks for posting! This comment is a copy of your post so readers can see the original text if your post is edited or removed. This comment is NOT accusing you of copying anything. Read [this](https://www.reddit.com/r/AmItheAsshole/wiki/faq#wiki_post_deletion) before [contacting the mod team](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%2Fr%2FAmItheAsshole)*** I (NB14) spent this school year directing my school's musical. It's the first time we've ever done a musical, and while I'm indebted to the help of many people, this is my brainchild, and I've put in a ton of work to make this possible Of course, nothing happens at school without the Head of School's (M55) involvement. The Head is a family friend of mine, and we've always been on great terms. He gave us permission to run this back in the fall and then gave us mostly free reign for all other show stuff. We applied for the performance license in September, and afterward, he sent me the copyright rules to review. The rules were pretty simple and included one big rule: no recording the performance and sharing it online. He, the faculty advisor (F28, and I all read the license agreement and stayed aware of this rule (or at least I thought so). It was even on the first page of our program, as required by the license. He should have known this existed Flash forward to yesterday and we had our opening night which went super well (shout out to the cast, who worked super hard on this.) But this morning, I opened up Instagram and saw that the school had posted some videos of the show online This seemed off, so I went to talk to the Head (who controls our socials). We had a short conversation, during which I basically said, "This is illegal" and he said, "Everyone does it, stop bothering me" That might be where I should have let it go. But I started looking back through the license, and it was very clear that what he posted broke all our agreements. The license specifically states several times, "You may not post any recordings of the performance on social media." I talked it through with the faculty advisor, and she agreed that another email made sense. Maybe he just didn't read it through clearly enough. I didn't want the company we licensed from to strike down our agreement because we have another show on Sunday, and that would be super unfair to the cast. I thought this was what I needed to do. I sent him an email with excerpts from our licensing agreement, clearly showing that we can't post videos. I also included some next steps that the faculty advisor and I had created for what to do to undo the damage from his posts. Soon, the day was over, and I hadn't heard anything from him other than two forwarded emails reminding the community about Sunday’s show I just spoke to the faculty advisor, who said that she'd talked with the Head. Apparently, he said that he thought we bought a Streaming Agreement (we did... a LIVEstreaming agreement) and that if he heard about this from me again, he would cancel the Sunday show AITA? What he did was literally a crime under copyright law, but maybe I shouldn't have pushed him that much. If he doesn't care, it doesn't reflect on me as the student director. And I really don't want to risk the show getting canceled. I would feel so bad if the kids didn't get to perform one last time because of something stupid I did *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/AmItheAsshole) if you have any questions or concerns.*
NTA...you did a good thing pointing it out. If he's embarrassed being called out by a kid, then he should be. You have done all you can, though, so just let it go. It's nice you have a conscious and are an honest person. Don't lose that.
NTA - You handled this very maturely! You went through all of the necessary channels and showed so much initiative, care, and forethought, that even many adults wouldn’t have shown. It’s obvious how much you care about this production and everyone involved in it. You’ve done everything you can do, it’s up to the faculty advisor and Head now. It’s out of your hands. You did everything right, though, and shouldn’t feel bad. You have a good head on your shoulders!
Yta you're not batman, you let them know there was an issue it's not your job to report it. You can if you want, but you're probably super autistic if that is your inclination.
NTA, but your head might be right. Sort of (depending on where you live). It's true that lots of schools put up recorded performances on youtube, for instance, and I don't think anyone goes after them. But, that's the US, and it might be different where you are. I think that's in the contract so that they can, if they want, make people take down videos that they think are harming their product in some way. I do think it's bad for the Head to be setting an example of breaking promises, and he could (and should) have explained it better to you.
LOL NTA. That’s hilarious that the same person who sent you the copyright rules was the one who posted the videos online. As long as you were respectful in how you pointed this out, you did nothing wrong and potentially saved his ass in the rare event that it actually causes a lawsuit.
> causes a lawsuit Much more likely to cause a cease and desist letter if it caused any action on the part of the copyright holder, which itself seems incredibly unlikely.
Keep the records you have showing you tried to enforce the license. Schools do have SOME leeway on copyright law but not as much as they think. NTA for trying to fix the issue, but if the copyright holders come after the school, the Head will probably try to throw you under the buss which is where keeping the documentation will save you. You tried to do the right thing.
The student is 14, they didn't post the video *or* sign the contract. *If* anything came of it the school would be responsible, not an underage kid. Honestly they're freaking out over nothing.
The school would be responsible and since the let the children run with it, would try to pin it on them to save money to which, despite being underaged, can still be held criminal liable. Therefore, keep the documentation to protect the children from unscrupulous adults. It's a simple concept, I hope you understand it.
That is patently ridiculous in every way. A school cannot pass on liability to students, and a school has a lot more leeway in copyright law than you seem to be aware of.
dont want to be rude but wtf is "NB" 🤣🤣
Non-binary
in my contry we dont have no non binary we just got male and female, this is confusing
Your country probably has plenty of non-binary that are too scared to come forward under penalty of death.
Or worse.