This policy was developed to address the requirements of the Technology, Education and Copyright Harmonization Act (TEACH Act), signed into law November 2, 2002.
What is TEACH?
TEACH is part of the larger Justice Reauthorization legislation (H.R. 2215) that updates copyright law to broaden instructors' legal use of copyrighted materials in online instruction at accredited nonprofit educational institutions.
Policy
1. The TEACH Act permits:
Performances of nondramatic literary works;
Performances of nondramatic musical works;
Performances of any other work, including dramatic works and audiovisual works, but only in "reasonable and limited portions"; and
Displays of work "in an amount comparable to that which is typically displayed in the course of a live classroom session."
2. The following works are excluded by the TEACH Act:
Works that are marketed "primarily for performance or display as part of the mediated instructional activities transmitted via digital networks"; and
Performances or displays given by means of copies "not lawfully made and acquired" under the U.S. Copyright Act, if the educational institution "knew or had reason to believe" that they were not lawfully made and acquired.
Work originally produced in analog format cannot be digitized under the following circumstances:
The amount converted is limited to the amount appropriate for the instructional activities [consistent with Section 111(2)]; and
A digital version of the work is not "available to the institution," or is secured behind technological protection preventing accessibility in the distance-education program [consistent with Section 111(2)]
3. Materials may be used under the following conditions:
Procedure
TEACH Act Resource Links
Summary of the TEACH Act of 2002
Full Text of the TEACH Act (Legal Information Institute)
The importance of authorship to the spread of knowledge is recognized in the U.S. Constitution, which authorizes Congress “To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries.” This language is the basis for both copyright and patent law in the United States. Patent law deals with inventors whose discoveries represent progress in the “useful Arts.” Copyright law deals with authors whose writings represent progress in “science,” by which the founders meant knowledge and learning.