channels such as cable, premium channels, and pay-per-view programs are not included. Second, it does not address taping outside the home. Third, it focuses on taping for the purpose of time-shifting, or watching a program subsequent to the original broadcast. What all of this means is that you may record free broadcast shows, such as Dancing with the Stars, Modern Family, or The Office for later viewing.
8.1. Guidelines for Off-Air Taping of Copyrighted
Works for Educational Use
- Broadcast programs
- Non-profit educational institutions
- For instruction
- At instructor’s request
- Local transmission
- Use for first ten days only
- Thirty-five more days for evaluation, then destroy
- Institutional controls
Digital video recorders (DVR) have given viewers more options for recording and time-shifting television programming from cable operators. Thus far, the copyright owners of television shows have not sued over DVRs that store copies of selected shows on a hard drive in the viewer’s home.[1] These devices function much like VCRs except they record on hard drives instead of magnetic tape cassettes, and they have generally been treated the same as VCRs.
Entertainment companies did sue a cable operator over “remote storage DVR,” a system in which the hard drives containing the recorded programming are kept at a central location owned by the cable company. The recorded shows were then streamed to viewers on demand. The appellate court determined that since the viewer selected and ordered the recording of a show, if any infringement was committed, it was by the viewer, not the cable company. The cable company was found not be infringing directly, and for whatever reason, the entertainment companies
- ↑ Ned Snow, The TiVo Question: Does Skipping Commercials Violate Copyright Law?, 56 Syracuse L. Rev. 27, 29 (2005) (arguing that DVRs’ enabling viewers to skip commercials is infringing).
