Watching movies online

Do you want to show a movie to your online class? I heard a short podcast this morning from Future Tense with some ways to legally watch free movies online (links to the show are near the top in a variety of formats, about 4 minutes long). At Open Culture, find a list of 100 classic movies to watch followed further down the page with a list of sites to find 100s more free, ranging from classics, European, indie, Australian, B-movies, documentaries, and many, many more.

Find a movie you want to use in your class, and just provide a link and any site-specific instructions to your students.

If you find video content on a site like GoogleVideo or YouTube, be absolutely certain the entity who uploaded the video has the rights to put it out there before you ask your students to watch it. Otherwise, you are encouraging copyright violation.

If you a Univ of Main System faculty or staff member and you want to use a movie you can't find in these resources, you can get assistance in getting copyright clearance from Donna Bancroft, Off-Campus Library Services, 800-339-7323, donnaban@maine.edu. If your class will be watching a lot of movies, consider including a NetFlix subscription as a required item for the class. However, if the movies aren't current or popular, be sure to give flexible viewing dates. NetFlix cannot get 30 copies of the same old movie to Maine on the same night (or maybe even within the same week).

These can be resources for personal use, too! I can't wait to find some great classic sci-fi B movies now!