TEACH ACT OF 2002

In November 2002, the "Technology Education and Copyright Harmonization Act" (the "TEACH Act") was passed into law. The act intended to update the distance education provisions of the Copyright Act to account for advancements in digital transmission technologies that support distance learning.

ALA's Washington Office has into on the TEACH Act at www.ala.org/washoff/teach.html.

A copy of the bill from the Library of Congress's Thomas system (backup copy).

Essentially, the act makes the following changes to the copyright laws with respect to distance education:

1. expands the categories of works that can be performed in DL beyond non-dramatic literary and musical works
2. removes the limitation of the physical classroom, recognizing that DL students may be in offices, homes, libraries, etc.
3. allows storage of copyright works on a server for asyncronous display and access
4. allows institutions to digitize works for DL when digital versions do not already exist and are subject to technological protections
5. clarifies that participants in DL are not liable for copyright infringement during for temporary and transient copies made during the normal DL process
6. requires universities to establish university-wide copyrigyht policies, among other things, to take advantage of the TEACH Act

EduCause has a good review article on the TEACH bill.

The Univ of Texas System has a good page with some interpretation of the TEACH ACT (backup copy).