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Copyright Basics

This guide provides information about using copyrighted materials in the online and face-to-face classroom. Disclaimer: This guide is intended to provide general information and does not constitute legal advice.

Public Performance Rights

In educational settings, in order to show an entire copyrighted film or recording to a group outside of the classroom, you must verify or obtain Public Performance Rights (PPR) from the copyright holder. See "Subject Matter and Scope of Copyright" from the U.S. Copyright Office for details. 

Read more about "Public Performance Rights" from the Enoch Pratt Free Library.

Several organizations will provide PPR on selected films, including:

 

Video, Broadcast & Online Recordings

Guidelines for Off-Air Recordings of Broadcast Programming for Educational Purpose

The following excepts are reprinted from the Circular 21: Reproduction of Copyrighted Works by Educators and Librarians (Section F, Page 22).

The purpose of establishing these guidelines is to provide standards for both owners and users of copyrighted television programs.

  1. The guidelines were developed to apply only to off air recording by non-profit educational institutions.
  2. 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. Definition: “Broadcast programs” are television programs transmitted by television stations for reception by the general public without charge.
  3. 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 school days in the forty-five (45) day calendar day retention period. Definition: “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.
  4. Educational institutions are expected to establish appropriate control procedures to maintain the integrity of these guidelines.

Online Video & Fair Use

Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Online Video

 

Thank you to Austin Community College for granting permission to use the information from their copyright webpages.