Off-Air Recording
Media Services’ policy is to stay within the guidelines of Copyright Law and Fair Use in all of its productions. Media Services can tape off-air recordings for use in the classroom but there are legal restrictions concerning length of use and manner of requesting services that are outlined in the Kastenmeier Guidelines below. Please direct specific questions about copyright matters to NIU's Office of General Counsel at 815-753-8365. Media Services does not provide legal advice for faculty, staff, or students. The responsibility for following legal guidelines for off-air recording rests with the client.
Contact Jay Orbik, Director at 815-753-6670 to inquire about copyright guidelines regarding off-air recording as they apply to Media Services.
Key Legal Document
Kastenmeier Guidelines for Off-Air Taping for Educational Purposes
The Kastenmeier Guidelines for off-air video recording were published in the Congressional Record October 14, 1984 and were obtained from the UC Berkeley Library web site.
- The Guidelines were developed to apply only to off-air recording by non-profit educational institutions.
- A broadcast program (including cable programs) may be recorded off-air and retained by a non-profit educational institution for a period not to exceed the first forty-five (45) consecutive calendar days after the date of recording.
- Off-air recording 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 schools days in the forty-five (45) day calendar day retention period. "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.
- A limited number of copies may be reproduced from each off-air recording to meet the legitimate needs of teachers under these guidelines. Each additional copy shall be subject to all provisions governing the original recording.
- After the first ten (10) consecutive schools days, off-air recordings 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.
- Off-air recordings need not be used in their entirety, but the recorded programs may not be altered from their original content. Off-air recordings may not be physically or electronically combined or merged to constitute teaching anthologies or compilations.
- 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.
Congressional Record, October 14, 1984
