Answered By: Katie Hutchison
Last Updated: Sep 24, 2019     Views: 41554

Netflix now explicitly grants permission for educational screenings of certain Netflix Original documentaries; they have a page in their Help documentation about this.

 

Comments (3)

  1. I have had a similar experience. If you call Netflix they will verbally grant permission to stream content in a classroom. That said, they will not put that guarantee in writing. At best I would take Netflix blessing as turning a blind eye to classrooms or libraries streaming content from their site rather than outright legal clearance. If you search online you will find there is a very large gray area when it comes to whether streaming content from online sources such as Netflix or Hulu is in fact legal so it is best to proceed with caution. Keep in mind that when you stream Netflix can indentify you by your personal user account and your employer by its IP address. While Netflix has not prosecuted a school for violation of their terms of service yet that does not mean they never will and if they choose to do so they will have all of the information they need to fine you and your employer.
    by Victor Sage on Mar 22, 2014
  2. Good response, Victor. I also called Netflix about this in 2014, as we were having a lot of teachers wishing to use personal accounts to stream movies not related to direct curricular ties. Netflix had no problem with that, UNLESS it was a copyright violation, which it definitely is. Our school district has made it clear that individuals will be responsible if we choose to violate copyright laws.
    by Teacher librarian on Jul 16, 2017
  3. Netflix has now granted permission for educators to perform one time screenings (outside of class, once per week max) of some of their content. Implicitly, this would seem to grant permission to use the streams in class as well, under a more traditional fair-use doctrine. https://web.archive.org/web/20210428112027/https://help.netflix.com/en/node/57695
    by Teacher - CTE on May 14, 2021

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