The TEACH Act
The Copyright Act of 1976 set a precedent that copyrighted works could only be used in non-profit educational institutions during a face-to-face setting. The "Technology, Education and Copyright Harmonization Act was signed into law in 2002. This law was to help provide guidelines for educational institutions teaching courses at a distance using new formats of media not previously covered in law.
The TEACH Act requirements:
- Institution must be non-profit, accredited educational institution.
- Access limited to students enrolled in the course.
- Access limited for a period of time to complete the class (not formally defined). You are expected to use a common sense approach to this definition which is typically a single class session.
- Amounts displayed of graphics, photos, etc. must be comparable to what is displayed in a face-to-face classroom.
- Amounts shown of audiovisual works should be limited and reasonable (what is described in fair use).
- Reasonable controls must be in place to prevent students from downloading or copying the copyrighted materials.