Copyright & Fair Use
During the past
several years, courses delivered via the Internet have become
more common, making higher education more accessible to students.
However, online instruction creates new challenges for faculty.
One of the primary
challenges relates to the use of copyrighted materials for
instructional purposes in the online classroom. Until 2002,
faculty and their use of copyrighted instructional materials
were governed by Section 110(1) of the Copyright Act. Section
110(1) gives instructors a lot of latitude in the face-to-face
classroom, but Section 110(2) severely limited faculty trying
to use copyrighted materials online. These limitations have
received a lot of attention.
In 2002, the President
signed the TEACH Act which amends copyright law for the online
classroom and increases the flexibility of faculty using copyrighted
materials. As useful as the new TEACH Act is, it is complicated.
Faculty may now rely on Fair Use guidelines, along with the
TEACH Act.
Fair use specifications
in Sections 106 and 106A allow the fair use of copyrighted
materials for specific purposes, including teaching. Fair
use allows faculty to provide multiple copies of a copyrighted
document for classroom use if the use follows 4 primary fair
use factors:
- the copyrighted
material being used is for nonprofit, educational, or personal
purposes
- the nature of
the work being used is either fact or already published
work
- the percentage
of the work being used is relatively small in relation to
the work as a whole
- the effect of
the using the work on the potential market for the copyrighted
work (this factor can become more important than the others,
primarily because we are in effect asking whether or not
the copyright owner is losing money because of our use,
which is a difficult thing to determine.
The annotated bibliography on copyright, TEACH Act, and Fair
Use should better explain all the issues surrounding copyright.
Click each of the headings below for more information.
| UH
System Intellectual Policy and Copyright Policy
|
The faculty handbook provides an
overview of intellectual and copyright policy. |
| |
| Distance
Education and the TEACH Act |
| The American Library Association provides
an overview of the TEACH Act, covers legislative history,
meaning and significance. |
| |
| The
TEACH Act Finally Becomes Law |
| Georgia Harper, a well known authority
on copyright law at the University of Texas thoroughly
covers the implications for faculty of the TEACH Act.
The site also includes a readiness checklist and appropriate
supplemental links to valuable resources. |
| |
| Victoria
College/UHV Copyright Tutorial |
| The Victoria College/University of
Houston-Victoria Library copyright tutorial for faculty
defines copyright and Fair Use. The tutorial also defines
appropriate use of copyrighted materials by both faculty
and students. |
|
