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Using Videotape in the Classroom Without Violating Copyright Law
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| Why You Should Obey the Guidelines |
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As a practical matter, it is highly unlikely that a television producer would ever sue a school or individual teacher. Most unauthorized use is never discovered -- after all, there are no copyright police roaming the nation's classrooms. Fear of getting caught, however, isn't the only reason to obey the law.
Schools have a special responsibility to set an example regarding copyright law. And from a purely practical point of view, schools are an important market for producers of documentaries and other educational works. If, instead of buying copies of a program, schools simply taped a telecast and made as many copies as they chose, producers might be discouraged from entering this market and would be less likely to create new educational works.
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Beyond the Guidelines
What the guidelines don't allow -- for example, keeping a recorded program more than ten days or taping a cable channel offering -- may or may not be permissible under the fair use doctrine. To determine whether or not a particular use is a fair use, four rather vague factors must be considered:
- The purpose and character of the use.
- The nature of the copyrighted work.
- The amount of copyrighted material used.
- The effect of the use on the present or future market value of the work.
Here's a simple way to think about it: a use that takes money out of a copyright owner's pocket is probably not a fair use. Thus, recording beyond the scope of the guidelines is probably not a fair use if the program's producer makes DVDs available to the schools or the public for purchase or rental, because the recording reduces the market for such DVDs or videotapes.This is particularly true where DVDs or videotapes are made available to schools at special discounts. If these products are not available, limited recording might be a fair use, but no one knows for sure because no court has considered the question.
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