Using Videotape in the Classroom Without Violating Copyright Law
If you're a teacher, you should know if and when you may legally tape educational TV programs and use them in your classroom.
Teachers need to know if and when they may legally tape educational TV programs off the air and show them to their students.
Permission and the Fair Use Doctrine
Television programs, like most other types of expression, are protected by federal copyright laws. This means that as a general rule, a TV program can legally be taped and shown to students only with the copyright owner's permission.
Fortunately, the Copyright Act contains a special exception. Under what is known as the "fair use" rule, someone other than the copyright owner may make limited use of a copyrighted work without permission for purposes such as teaching, research, scholarship, criticism, parody, and news reporting.
Recording Guidelines
To help educators determine when off-air taping is and is not a fair use, a committee comprising representatives from educational organizations and copyright owners created a set of concrete guidelines -- officially known as "Guidelines for Off-Air Recording of Broadcast Programming for Educational Purposes." The guidelines do not have the force of law and have never been tested in the courts. However, most copyright experts believe that taping that falls within the guidelines is permissible and would be upheld as a fair use if challenged in court.
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