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TEACHing from a Distance and Copyright Considerations

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Copyright law has tools specifically intended for distance learning, along with other tools such as fair use.

The following is a guest post by David Welkowitz, attorney-advisor in the Office of the General Counsel.

As the spread of COVID-19 causes schools—particularly colleges and universities—to switch to distance education, it is a good time to review an important part of the educational landscape: copyright. Don’t let the word copyright alarm you; copyright law actually has tools specifically intended for distance learning, along with other tools such as fair use. As a former teacher of copyright law for many years, I feel obliged to at least mention the basics of how copyright affects distance learning. I’m focusing on colleges and universities, but this discussion is applicable to any level of educational institution.

As most teachers probably know, copyright law covers many of the things teachers use to educate students, from textbooks to music to artwork, plays, and movies. That doesn’t mean you always need permission to use these works—there are limits. Fair use is a big one. But fair use, while flexible, is not always easy to determine in advance. So how can you teach your students without running afoul of copyright?

Within the classroom, there is a pretty broad exception for using copyrighted materials (not quite everything goes, but broad). It applies to “face-to-face teaching activities”—those that happen in the actual classroom. Can we use this same exception for online classes? In a word, no. But, there is another exception, called the TEACH Act (sections 110(2) and 112(f)], designed specifically to deal with online distance learning. Because the digital environment poses unique challenges for copyright, particularly the ease with which digital material can be copied and distributed, the law imposes a number of requirements on distance learning that do not apply to face-to-face teaching. I’ll discuss a few here.

First, and very important, to qualify for this special exception under the TEACH Act, the work you are performing or displaying (for example, a video clip, a song, or a photograph) must be one that was “lawfully made and acquired.”  So make sure you have a legitimate copy—don’t just copy works off the internet, because although some things may be in the public domain or available under certain kinds of licenses, others require permission before you use them.

Second, there is a limitation on how much of the material you can use. The online exception is more limited than the one for face-to-face teaching. You can perform as much as you want of a “nondramatic literary or musical work” (poems and songs are OK, but not plays or operas!), “or reasonable and limited portions of any other work” with the amount being what would be “typically displayed in the course of a live classroom session.” So, although you might show a whole movie over several days in a classroom, the law assumes only a fairly short portion of a movie (or play). The same would be true of a sound recording—use only what you need to teach the particular class.

The “limited portion” language does not apply to the display of works, only to the performance. So you can show a slide of a building or a painting as long as it is the kind of thing you would normally show in class. You can even display a short poem if it is something you would display in class. But displaying large portions of the textbook online is not what was intended since you would not normally do that in class.

The use must be at the direction of, or under the supervision of, the instructor “as an integral part of a class session offered as a regular part” of the institution’s “mediated instructional activities.” (It doesn’t prevent student performances as part of the class, as long as they are at the direction and supervision of the instructor.) The general intent of the law here is to make sure that the use is for a particular class, not as, for instance, background or supplementary material. And it must be part of the regular instructional activities of the school, not a side hustle. To emphasize this, the statute goes on to say that the use must be “directly related and of material assistance to the teaching content” of the online class. So it must be related to the particular class, and it must be important to the content of the class. Playing music just to entertain the class would not qualify.

Third, there are several requirements to make sure that the exception is not misused to distribute unauthorized copies of copyrighted material. The school must, to the extent “technologically feasible,” limit the reception of the online information to students enrolled in the course (using things like passwords or other identification procedures). The school must have copyright policies; distribute those policies to faculty, staff, and students; and notify students that material used in the course “may be subject to copyright protection.” The school must use reasonable technological measures to prevent students from keeping the material beyond the class session (no downloading to the students’ hard drives) or from disseminating the material to other people. So not all massive open online courses (MOOCs) fit the exception very well. And the school must not do anything that would likely circumvent any anti-piracy protection surrounding the works in question (so no breaking copy protection in order to show the work to the class).

There are some other requirements that are fairly technical, but you get the idea—the school must try and make sure what you use in an online course isn’t kept by the students or distributed outside of the students in the course.

It is also important to understand that, although the law puts the allowable activities in the context of a digital version of a regular class, it does not require that the instruction take place in real time; “asynchronous” classes (where the instructor uploads material that is accessed at different times by different students) are also permitted.

One more thing—you cannot use this exception for distributing things like textbooks, course packs, or sound recordings that the students would ordinarily purchase on their own (or that the school would normally purchase for students, which is particularly relevant to K–12 schools).

That’s a mouthful, but, fortunately, many universities have websites where these issues are discussed. There are checklists for instructors so that they can ensure that they are following the law. You should check your institution’s website for that information or ask your school’s librarian. Finally, remember that you can still rely on fair use. If you are making fair use of the copyrighted work, then the restrictions I’ve discussed do not apply. For instance, in a drama class, it may be fair use to perform more than “a limited portion” of a play. In that case, the limit of the special exception would not prevent the fair use of a larger amount in the online class. But it must be fair use under the law, not just what you think is fair. The law is, after all, the law.

Comments (19)

  1. Thank you for this article.

    I am in the process of converting an Anatomy and Physiology course from face to face to online/distance. I have traditionally used myriad of resources found with “google searches” without concern under fair use. Their use are strictly for educational use, and exclusively for my students. The image banks and well as the asynchronous class videos that present them are now being password protected.

    But in your article, you talk about using legitimate copies? Well, now I’m not sure that they are. So, would my use be only under Fair Use?

    I guess I am concerned. I am working fast and furiously the get these classes up, but also to make sure that everything is done right. Can you offer any guidance here? Anatomy and Physiology is hugely dependent upon good images.

    Many thanks, Noel

  2. Thank you. There is a good mix of general statements and specific examples–for a non-lawyer who wants to understand, this helps!

  3. The Reverse Problem:

    Your school appropriates your original work and decides to ‘own’ it.

    What about all the lectures you personally write that represent countless hours of research work, training, credentialing- your own original content you have written as Prof of an online course?

    Does the institutions then own this?

    Can the school randomly give your materials to other faculty to use?

    How do you protect against your own institutional stealing your work?

    If in book format it is protected.

    In lecture format?

    Solutions?

    Make a quick Ebook and copyright it?

    I am referring to college /University courses.

    Now that we are generating thousands of pages of online content, how do we protect the original materials we ourselves have written?

  4. The Reverse Problem:

    Your school appropriates your original work and decides to ‘own’ it.

    What about all the lectures you personally write that represent countless hours of research work, training, credentialing- your own original content you have written as Prof of an online course?

    Does the institutions then own this?

    Can the school randomly give your materials to other faculty to use?

    How do you protect against your own institutional stealing your work?

    If in book format it is protected.

    In lecture format?

    Solutions?

    Make a quick Ebook and copyright it?

    I am referring to college /University courses.

    Now that we are generating thousands of pages of online content, how do we protect the original materials we ourselves have written?

    • Thank you for your inquiry. The Copyright Office is not able to respond to specific requests for legal guidance. However, many universities have specific policies covering the ownership of the copyright in materials created by professors and instructors. In addition, we can refer you to the Office’s general guidance on works made for hire, contained in Circular 30, and the Compendium of U.S. Copyright Office Practices, Chapter 500, section 506, and Chapter 600, section 614.

  5. It is essential to comply with all copyright laws and guidelines. Failure to do so may result in serious consequences. It would not be a bad idea to include a copyright policy into the norms established for online teaching.

  6. It is important to follow all copyright laws. It is also equally as important to understand that the copy right laws for face to face learning are not the same. After reading this article it helped me understand that in my virtual classroom under the TEACH act I can still share but I am limited in how much I can share.

  7. I always try to only share information that is available through our school district on-line. I would never want to break copyright laws. If a student or anyone else has access to digital content it can be copied and distributed. However in the classroom if I am sharing something on the smartboard, students would not have access to it. This article has opened my eyes to be mindful of the information that I share on-line.

  8. A teacher asked us to digitize 5 chapters of a 490-page book for his course that he is teaching remotely. How many pages are allowed to be digitized without violating copyright?

  9. To AnnP: You need to look at your contract and see whether it covers the lectures that you have created. Many institutions have listed in the contract that they are the owners of anything created while you are in their employment. If so, I’m sorry, but they own your lectures because you were paid to create your lessons and teach them.

    ***I am not a lawyer but this is how it was explained to me.

  10. It happens … such a coincidence

    https://miginia.com

  11. Hi I have a query I hope you may be able to shed some light on. My question is if a college tutor agrees to doing some of their classes online at the colleges request and when the course finishes asks the college to take down these classes and the institution says no they intend using the online videos in further courses without the tutors authorization who wrote the material and is on video giving the lecture what are the legal rights of the tutor.

    • Hi Kathy,

      Among its other functions, the Copyright Office serves as an office of record, a place where claims to copyright are registered when the claimant has complied with the requirements of the copyright law. We are glad to furnish information about the provisions of the copyright law and the procedures for making registration, to explain the operations and practices of the Copyright Office, and to report on facts found in the public records of the Office. However, the Regulations of the Copyright Office (Code of Federal Regulations, title 37, chapter II) prohibit employees from giving specific legal advice on the rights of persons, whether in connection with particular uses of copyrighted works, cases of alleged foreign or domestic copyright infringement, contracts between authors and publishers, or other matters of a similar nature.

      Many requests for assistance require professional legal advice, frequently that of a copyright attorney. Your local bar association may be able to recommend a copyright attorney. Even though the Copyright Office cannot furnish services of this kind, our policy is to be helpful in supplying authorized information and services.

      Best,
      Holland

  12. Can I record videos where I answer questions in the lessons of textbook used in a class where students purchased the textbook?

    Can I put these homework videos in vimeo and charge a monthly streaming service to view them even though it’s not my curriculum?

  13. Am I correct that giving students links to pdfs of entire, recently published books is a copyright infringement?

    • Hello,

      We are unable to offer specific legal advice. Generally permission is needed to use works, but there are exceptions, such as Fair Use and displays in classrooms.

  14. I’m having some difficulty in understanding how the law differs in these examples in a for-profit education setting, such as a for-profit college or institution, or including snippets of copywritten material into a course that I might offer for sale on my own website or through another site.

    Do these fair use exemptions apply to for-profit uses if all other criteria (such as being educational in purpose, ensuring use is “reasonable and limited” in scope) are met? Thank you!

    • The right to reproduce a work is one of the exclusive rights granted to copyright owners under Section 106 of the Copyright Law. Section 106 rights are not unlimited in scope. One such limitation is the Fair Use doctrine. The “Fair Use” doctrine is codified in Section 107 of the law.

      The Copyright Office can neither determine if a certain use may be considered “fair,” nor advise on possible copyright violations. The safest course is to obtain permission from the copyright owner before using copyrighted material (https://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ16a.pdf). The Copyright Office cannot provide this permission.

      For some guidance, you may be interested in our Fair Use Index, which outlines relevant court decisions regarding Fair Use. http://copyright.gov/fair-use/

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