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Instructor- Frequently Asked Questions

What are the copyright laws concerning online access to videos, audio, and graphics?

Providing Online Access to Materials Performed or Displayed

The following guidelines from the USG Regents Guide to the TEACH Act apply to the performance or display of electronic materials placed within courseware maintained by the institution.
(NOTE: The TEACH Act applies when using copyrighted digital multimedia, videos, images, graphics, photographs, audio, musical works, etc. It does not cover making textual materials available to students.)

  1. Limit Access
    1. Authentication
      To comply with the TEACH Act’s provisions, the institution must use secure authentication technology to restrict access to copyrighted materials placed within a course. When properly maintained, official courseware packages (such as Blackboard Vista) that are restricted to students in the class meet the requirements of the TEACH Act. Performances and displays of copyrighted materials, other than those which the individual instructor created, should not be available on a faculty member’s webpage unless:
      • Permission from the copyright holder has been obtained.
      • The institution has a license that permits such use of the work.
      • Course webpages are password protected to students in the class and meet all of the TEACH Act requirements.
    2. Current Enrollment
      Access to performances and displays of copyrighted materials must be limited to students currently enrolled in the course.
    3. Time Limits
      Copyrighted electronic materials should be available for a prescribed time period only, normally a single class session. This can be achieved through control of the content via password or time limits applied to the internal hyperlink or folder access.
    4. Amounts: Displays
      Display of copyrighted works such as graphics, photographs, short poems, etc., in the online classroom must be comparable to that typically displayed in a face-to-face classroom.
    5. Amounts: Performances
      How much of copyrighted work may be performed without obtaining a license to do so depends on the type of work. The following amounts may be performed:
      • Entire nondramatic literary and musical works.
      • Other works such as audiovisual works and motion pictures -- only a limited and reasonable portion may be performed.
      • No portion of a work produced solely for use in online instruction.
    While entire works may not be performed without a license, a reasonable portion is judged by the length of the copyrighted work, the instructor’s purpose, level of the course, etc.
    1. Download Controls
      Reasonable measures must be taken to prevent retention and / or dissemination of electronic works for longer than the prescribed time period, generally a single class session. Copyrighted images and graphics should be made available in a format limiting printing and saving controls. Copyrighted electronic materials such as video and audio should be streamed to avoid the downloading and saving of the file.

     

Retrieved from USG Regents Guide to the TEACH Act

Additional References :

USG Policy on the Use of Copyrighted Works in Education and Research

VSU Media Center Copyright

VSU Media Center Streaming Media for BlazeVIEW

VSU Media Center Request Form for Streaming Copyrighted Media in Adherence with the TEACH Act (PDF form)


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