|
What is the TEACH Act?
The Technology, Educational and Copyright
Harmonization (TEACH) Act was passed
by Congress in 2002 to revise the section of copyright
law that deals with the performance and display of others'
works in distance education settings.
Its purpose is to extend to the distance
learning environment privileges to show and display
copyrighted works that are similar to those enjoyed
in traditional face-to-face classrooms.
What changes have been made to
copyright law by the TEACH Act?
The TEACH Act allows
instructors to offer more electronic media than was
previously allowed. Specifically, they now may perform,
show, or display copyrighted works, or portions of copyrighted
works (depending on the nature of the works) to students
in other locations, including non-dramatic literary
works; non-dramatic musical works; reasonable and limited
portions of other works (such as films, videos or dramatic
musical works like opera, musicals and music videos);
and other copyrighted works such as still images (as
long as the display of such works is in an amount comparable
to that which is typically displayed in the course of
a live classroom session).
For example, an instructor may read a
poem or a scene from a play for her online students.
However, she may not show an entire movie because only
"reasonable and limited portions" of dramatic works
are allowed to be displayed online. However, under "fair
use" she could show the entire movie to students
for educational purposes in a face-to-face classroom
setting. Distance learning is different and that's what
the TEACH Act addresses.
What other restrictions
are placed on performance, showing, and display of a copyrighted
work?
Several restrictions exist, including
the condition that the performance or display of the
work be made by, at the direction of, or under the actual
supervision of an instructor as an integral part of
a class session. The Act also mandates that the transmission
be restricted to students enrolled in the course, which
is the case when Blackboard VISTA or the SCT Luminis
Portal is used for delivery of the copyrighted materials.
The TEACH Act refers
to "systematic mediated instructional activities," what
does that mean?
"Systematic mediated instructional
activities" refers to the activities an instructor would
perform during actual class time, as opposed to activities
educators might assign as part of the students' work
outside of class. In other words, an instructor may
not electronically deliver copyrighted material for
students’ viewing outside of regular classroom time
(unless, as indicated below, making the works available
to the students qualifies as "fair use," such as in
the case of an electronic reserve).
What about fair
use - does it still apply to distance education?
Of course, instructors may still
rely on fair use when making a determination as to whether
they may use copyrighted works in an online class.
How does the Digital
Millennium Copyright Act affect the Teach Act?
This amendment to U.S. Copyright
Law prohibits the circumvention of “technical locks
and controls on the use of digital content and products”.
Since most DVD’s and many CD’s employ some form of technical
copy-protection, the DMCA essentially made it impossible
to legally make copies of those products even for purposes
clearly allowed under the Teach Act and Fair Use. However,
in November, 2006, the Librarian of Congress, on the
recommendation of the Register of Copyrights, announced
that persons making non-infringing uses of...
...audiovisual works included in the educational
library of a college or university's film or media
studies department, when circumvention is accomplished
for the purpose of making compilations of portions
of those works for educational use in the classroom
by media studies or film professors will not be
subject to the prohibition against circumventing
access controls (17 U.S.C. § 1201(a)(1)) during
the next three years.
It is not clear whether faculty
who teach in disciplines other than film or media studies
would be provided the same exemption.
|
