Derek, I'll offer a few comments in answer to your question re taping off of TV-- not from the perspective of the legally trained, but of an informed amateur who happens to have to deal with these issues in the practical context of a library media center. There are a set of "off-air taping" guidelines that were formulated by congressional committee in the wake of the Copyright Act of 1976, which sanction taping from broadcast transmission (or its cable equivalent) stations for a temporary period. The taping is supposed to be used for instruction for 10 days aftward, with a period for evaluationa and review extending to 45 days (not counting non-instruction days--e.g., weekends and holidays). After that, you erase or license the copy (or, if a commer- cial version becomes available, buy that). While the guidelines seem generally oriented toward educational service centers in some of its specific provisions, they don't rule out faculty taping themselves rather than having a media center or its equivalent do that. And the wording of the guidelines seems to prohibit taping "cable only" station programming --whether it's a premium one like HBO, or a basic package one like A & E. Some may differ on whether extending the guidelines to such stations is still within their spirit; I'm inclined not to extend them that far. --And remember, too, these are indeed guidelines, not law: some big film/video distributors have not given their blessing to this arrangement, though I've never heard of anyone getting into trouble over following the off-air taping guidelines. Another possibility, relating to taping news programming, is provided in the section of the Copyright Law (sorry, I don't have the number at hand at the moment) dealing with libraries and archives. "Audiovisual news programs" can be taped by such service centers if these are archived under certain provisions made clear in this section (proper copyright notice labeling, public accessibility, etc.). If I remember correctly, a large part of the impetus for this section of the law resulted from the valuable collection of network news programming that was being built by Vanderbilt University. "Audiovisual news program" does have to be interpreted rather conservatively, though. Occasional network specials or regular news-like programs (e.g., "60 Minutes") don't really qualify; neither does MacNeil-Lehrer News Hour-- since that's more commentary than news reporting (besides which, they sell cassette copies of their programs). The further you get away from a straight reporting-events-as-they-happen format, the less likely this section of the law can be applied. In general, I take it to refer only to regular news broadcasts--though I think these could extend to cable news transmissions, and also to local station broadcasts. BTW, all C-Span programming has a special use sanction for educators. You can tape this programming and use it in educational activities--for the life of your recording. Also, I have not found any restrictions in the info coming from C-Span that suggests you are prohibited from editing the programming they transmit (you aren't supposed to do that under the off-air guidelines mentioned above with *that* sort of programming). C-Span makes more infor- mation available under their "C-Span in the Classroom" service, which yo can learn about by calling them. Now I know that "fair use" provisions of the law--for teaching, scholarship, reporting and commentary--may have some application, but I'm more unsure of that when the source being used comes from off air or off cable taping. My hunch would be that the guidelines would be likely to come into play first and override the fair use case, in most instances... but I'd better leave that issue up to others to comment on more fully, as well as adding to/ modifying what I've said here. Jeff Clark James Madison University