Copyright: The TEACH Act

The TEACH Act redefines educators’ rights to use copyrighted works through digital netoworks (for distance education), including classes using course management systems, such as Blackboard without obtaining permission . Although the TEACH Act expands educators rights to perform or display copyrighted works via a digital network, there are still different rights for educators in a face-to-face teaching environment.

Some key points in the act:

The performance or display is directly related and of material assistance to the teaching content of the transmission is limited to students enrolled in the course -- the stored material must not be available to anyone other than the students enrolled in that class

Digital transmissions must apply technological measures that reasonably prevent retention of the work in accessble form by recipients of the transmission from the transmitting body or institution for longer than the class session; and unauthroized further dissemination recipients to others

Portions of copyrighted analog media may be converted to digital if no digital version of the work is available to the campus or if the available digital version is technologically protected from using it for such a class

Copyrighted work that is marketed primarily for performance or display as part of mediated instructional activities transmitted via digital networks may not be used without permission from the copyright holder

Here's the full text of the TEACH Act and Section 110 of the copyright law, which is modified by the TEACH Act.

This page was updated March 8, 2004

http://www.ecc.binghamton.edu/teach.html

Send comments to ecc@binghamton.edu

TEACH Act = Technology, Education, and Copyright Harmonization Act of 2002