Guidelines
These guidelines are based upon the 1998 Conference on Fair
Use (CONFU) report to congress and have their roots in the original Kastenmeier
Guidelines from 1976. The AD Hoc committee that composed those guidelines
clearly indicated that the guidelines were meant to be a minimum that constituted
educational fair use. The guidelines have not been passed into law and represent
the suggested conditions under which educators can use copyright protected
materials without getting consent of the author or creator of the work. They
are presented here to assist you in making decisions about whether or not
your intended use of certain materials is fair or what is an infringement.
Remember these are guidelines and not hard and fast rules. Use them to guide you
in your selection of educational materials.
Copying Video Materials
The following uses are permissible:
- Students or instructors may perform or display lawfully made videotape
in a non-profit educational setting when the purpose of the performance
or display is educational. Examples of such educational settings include
a classroom or similar place devoted to instruction, such as a school
library, gym, auditorium, or workshop. For example, a
history class may watch a videotape of the film series "The Civil
War" even though the videotape is labeled "Home Use Only"
as long as it is being displayed in class for educational purposes.
- A library may charge library users for private viewing as long as
such charges are nominal and are directly related to the cost of maintenance
of the videotape.
- A library may reproduce and/or distribute videotapes to replace
works that are lost, stolen, or damaged and that cannot otherwise
be replaced at a fair price.
The following uses are prohibited:
- A library may not loan videotapes labeled "For Home Use Only"
to groups for public performances.
- Videotapes may not be performed in a public room for entertainment
purposes (whether or not a fee is charged).
- More than a few people or more than one family may not view a videotape
on library-owned equipment.
- Videotapes may not be transmitted from an outside location by radio
or television without written permission from the copyright owner.
- Videotapes may not be transmitted to audiences not in the same room
or same general area unless written permission from the copyright
owner has first been obtained.
Copying Broadcast Programming Materials
The following uses are permissible:
- A broadcast program may be recorded off-air simultaneously with
broadcast transmission (including simultaneous cable transmission)
and retained by a non-profit educational institution for a period
not to exceed the first forty-five (45) consecutive calendar days
after date of recording. Upon conclusion of such retention period,
all off-air recordings must be erased or destroyed immediately. "Broadcast
programs" are television programs transmitted by television stations
for reception by the general public without charge.
- Off-air recordings may be used once by individual teachers in the
course of relevant teaching activities, and repeated once only when
instructional reinforcement is necessary, in classrooms and similar
places devoted to instruction within a single building, cluster, or
campus, as well as in the homes of students receiving formalized home
instruction, during the first ten (10) consecutive days in the forty-five
(45) day calendar day retention period. Using such a recording for
instructional purposes after the ten-day period of lawful use is prohibited.
"School days" are school session days - not counting weekends,
holidays, vacations, examination periods, or other scheduled interruptions
- within the forty-five (45) calendar day retention period.
- Off-air recordings may be made only at the request of, and used
by, individual teachers, and may not be regularly recorded in anticipation
of requests. No broadcast program may be recorded off-air more than
once at the request of the same teacher, regardless of the number
of times the program may be broadcast. Producing an off-air recording
absent the request of an individual teacher is prohibited.
- A limited number of copies may be reproduced from each off-air recording
to meet the legitimate needs of teachers under these guidelines. Each
such additional copy shall be subject to all provisions governing
the original recording.
- After the first ten (10) consecutive school days, off-air recording
may be used up to the end of the forty-five (45) calendar day retention
period only for teacher evaluation purposes, i.e., to determine whether
or not to include the broadcast program in the teaching curriculum,
and may not be used in the recording institution for student exhibition
or any other non-evaluation purpose without authorization. It is not
permissible to retain the recording for a longer time period than
allowed by these time limits for any reason, including educational
reasons.
- Off-air recordings need not be used in their entirety, but the recorded
programs may not be altered from their original content.
- All copies of off-air recordings must include the copyright notice
on the broadcast program as recorded.
- Educational institutions are expected to establish appropriate control
procedures to maintain the integrity of these guidelines.
- A teacher or librarian may record a television program at home and
bring it to school to use for educational purposes in the classroom.
- It is acceptable to excerpt parts of a program provided that the
original content of the excerpt is not altered in any way. Off-air
recordings may not be physically or electronically combined or merged
to constitute teaching anthologies or compilations.