It depends. As long as it's done for educational purposes, television programming can be shown in classrooms at the time of broadcast. TV programming purchased on DVD can also be shown in class under the educational exemption.
Recording live TV broadcasts to later play back in the classroom may be done with certain restrictions. Use this information to help you decide if your recording can be shown.
Copying or Display Allowed?
Explanation and Examples:
Videos & TV
- ✓ News programs
- ✓ TV series, documentaries, films (as long as you have a legal copy)
- ✓ Seneca Libraries’ thousands of DVDs and online educational videos
- X Videos from personal user accounts (e.g., Netflix**, iTunes)
- ✓ Faculty can show a television program or play a radio broadcast while it is being aired.
- ✓ News programs or news commentaries can be taped and shown in class.
- X You cannot tape TV series, documentaries, or films and show them in class without permission from the copyright holder.
- ✓ Videos from personal collections can be shown as long as the copy is legal.
- X You cannot copy a work (e.g. burn a copy, convert to streaming) without permission from the copyright holder.
- • There is no technological protection measure preventing you from accessing the material
- X Please be aware that content from personal subscriptions(Netflix, Crave, etc.) can't be shown under the educational exemption due to licence restrictions**.
Netflix Educational Screening Exception** January 2020: Netflix is now allowing a small number of its titles to be shown in educational settings. Note that they do not allow any and all Netflix titles to be shown in the classroom, only some selected documentaries.
- Permitted titles contain the words "GRANT OF PERMISSION FOR EDUCATIONAL SCREENINGS" in their descriptions on media.netflix.com.
- Please see this Netflix post for further information.
Can recorded television be uploaded to my LMS course?
It's possible, but every case is unique and likely requires individual fair dealing-related analysis from your college's copyright team.
What are the alternatives to live or recorded TV?
Consider using video content made available through your libraries licensed databases