FAQ: Can a LPFM station rebroadcast the Senate or House debates and hearings live from C-SPAN?
All federal events are considered public domain. C-SPAN does permit non-commercial educational entities to rebroadcast their raw coverage of the Senate and House floors without restriction or attribution. For other federal government events, they may be carried but with attribution to C-SPAN. This includes:
- Congressional committee hearings
- Executive agency hearings
- Events at the White House
- Congressional and Presidential Commissions
Rebroadcast of any C-SPAN programming not considered public domain (Washington Journal, coverage of non-government meetings, party conventions, candidate rallys, political debates, Book TV, etc.) is not permitted without a license. While not mentioned, the commentary and phone calls during silent periods (such as quorum calls) technically does not fall under public domain as C-SPAN originated that part of the content.
Please note that any audio or video derived directly from a federal government agency (like the FCC) can be considered also as public domain.
Note, you can also get raw live feeds of the floor and commitees by going to house.gov or senate.gov.
Use of public domain proceedings for commercial or political purposes is prohibited.
