Week 9 - Fair Use

So after taking the "Fair Use Copy Right" quiz, I have to admit, I don't know nearly about copyright law as I thought I did (I scored a measly 50%).  Being from the "Napster/Kazaa Generation" I thought I had a basic understanding of what was allowable and what was illegal.  However, I found that whenever I received an incorrect answer, it was because I was being overly cautious with fair use.  I guess this is because of all of the instances in the news of people being sued for copyright infringement.
According to the Thompson article, fair use is a listing of allowable instances where people can use copyright material without fear of legal consequences.  This fair use clause in copyright law is especially helpful for teachers since we are allowed to use copyrighted material IF we use the material for teaching, scholarship or research.  As for interpreting this law, I find it is a very difficult law to translate into our everyday usage.  I liked how in the article by Johnson & Simpson that each district/media specialist will have to be an expert in copyright law.  This is advantageous to a teacher since he/she can go to that person/guidelines if they are unclear about using certain material.  However, the basics should still be understood by most teachers (for example: copying copyrighted software / downloading movies / sharing music)

I just have 2 questions about copyright law that I can still not answer after reading the articles.
#1 - If I am showing a copyrighted movie to my friends at my house, does that technically breach copyright as well?  If not, how is that different from showing my class - Does the location matter or is due to the number of people I am showing it?
#2 - Do BBC/History Channel programs (which are usually very educational in nature) fall under the same "Bill Nye" program list that was mentioned in the quiz? (PS - I got that question wrong)

SCHAMA SIGNING OFF.