About Taping Rights
KET purchases rights to broadcast instructional programs for specified periods. In addition, the distributors assign specific “taping rights” that govern how long a school may keep and use recordings of those programs. Following are explanations of the typical taping rights designations found in the KET Instructional Resource Book and online School Instructional Resources catalog, plus other general information about educational rights to television programs.
Instructional Programs
- School year—KET has purchased distribution rights for the duration of the school year. Rights to many of these programs are renewed from year to year, so do not delete your school’s copies of the programs unless KET sends you a notification that we have dropped a program.
- Unlimited—Schools may keep copies of a program or series in perpetuity. Most KET-produced programs are free for Kentucky schools to use in perpetuity.
- Limited rights—Certain programs come with limited rights windows. For instance, the Colonial Williamsburg Field Trips programs are restricted to seven days of classroom use before the program master must be erased.
Other Programs
- The standard school taping rights period for PBS programming is one year from original broadcast.
- In general, all other programming must be used only for face-to-face instruction with students and should be erased after 45 days. Teachers may use such programs twice in the first ten days with students—once for instruction and once for review. Days 11 through 45 are for teacher evaluation only.
For more information about copyright issues, see the web sites listed in the Multimedia Copyright Information section of our online video/multimedia resources page.