The following "Guidelines for Off-the-Air Recording of Broadcast Programming for Educational Purposes" were developed by the Kastenmeir House Committee in 1979 and ratified by a House subcommittee in 1981. Using the fair use doctrine, these guidelines provide for classroom use of most off-air videotaped recordings.
- Videotaped recordings may be kept for no more than 45 calendar days after the recording date, at which time the tapes must be erased.
- Videotaped recordings may be shown to students only within the first 10 school days of the 45-day retention period.
- Off-air recordings must be made only at the request of an individual instructor for instructional purposes, not by staff in anticipation of later requests.
- The recordings are to be shown to students no more than two times during the 10-day period, and the second time only for necessary instructional reinforcement.
- The taped recordings may be viewed after the 10-day period only by instructors for evaluation purposes, to determine whether to include the broadcast program in the curriculum in the future.
- If several instructors request videotaping of the same program, duplicate copies are permitted to meet the need; all copies are subject to the same restrictions as the original recording.
- Off-air recordings may not be physically or electronically altered or combined with others to form anthologies, but they need not necessarily be used or shown in their entirety.
- All copies of off-air recordings must include the copyright notice on the broadcast program as recorded.
- These guidelines apply only to nonprofit educational institutions, which are further expected to establish appropriate control procedures to maintain the integrity of these guidelines.
