Iowa State narrowly avoided a lawsuit by a Des Moines TV station for selling a DVD that contained a portion of the station’s newscasts of the April 18 riot in Campustown.

A story in The (Ames) Tribune on Friday indicated that copies of the DVD created for the Veishea task force were available for purchase. As a result of the story, the Instructional Technology Center received a call from WHO-TV reporter Dan Winters about buying the DVD.

After purchasing the DVD, Winters found it contained WHO newscasts about Veishea, which he said Iowa State did not have approval to use. Winters then called WHO-TV general manager Jim Boyer, who said he was concerned about possible copyright infringement by the university.

After being informed by WHO of the possible infringement, the university has ordered that copies of the DVD not be distributed to the public.

Dean of Students Pete Englin — who indicated in the Tribune story that the DVDs would be available for purchase — apologized for the misunderstanding. Englin said he hadn’t realized copyright law would prohibit the sale of the DVD.

“We’re satisfied,” Boyer said, indicating that WHO will not take any legal action against Iowa State. “It was a mistake, and the university is correcting that. I appreciate they looked into it and corrected the issue. But whenever someone uses our material without our permission, of course we are always concerned.”

The DVD was not being used for commercial use. According to a statement released Friday by the university, the DVD was created for the educational purpose of the Veishea task force, and the Instructional Technology Center reproduced the DVD at cost.

According to an itemized receipt Winters received from the Instructional Technology Center, he was charged $4.26 — a $1.60 machine charge and a $2.66 cost for the DVD and its jewel case.

As such, said associate professor of journalism and communication Barbara Mack — a media law attorney and expert in copyright law — the university could have argued the DVD’s newscasts were fair use under copyright law.

“They’re not selling it to make money; it’s being used to recover cost of making the DVD and the DVD itself. It’s an educational, non-commercial use of information that helps support work of the Veishea committee and helps people understand why the Veishea committee is making these decisions,” Mack said.

She said the university is charged with making a public record and that it is in the public’s interest to make such information available.

“It helps give people a comprehensive understanding of what happened that night. It’s the university simply saying, ‘Here are the materials that support our reports. Here’s the information we’re looking at to make our decisions,'” Mack said.

“It’s creating an archival document. It would be a horse of a different color if this were a ‘Girls Gone Wild’ production or ‘Veishea ’04 at ISU.'”

However, because it’s a public document, the university has said that such a classification does not give it the right to neglect copyright law.

“It’s a public document, but the fact that it is a public document doesn’t mean we have the right to make copies and give copies to people,” said Paul Tanaka, university counsel.

“Public records law says you have to have access to it, but it doesn’t mean that there is no copyright attached to it.”

A copy of the DVD is available at Parks Library for public viewing.

The only other copy known to have been sold was to a Des Moines Register reporter on Sept. 22.