Copyright and Electronic Materials

When is online transmission of course content allowed?

Online transmission of course content that includes display and performance of copyrighted works is governed by the federal TEACH (Technology, Education and Copyright Harmonization) Act. TEACH allows an accredited, nonprofit educational institution to transmit performances and displays of copyrighted works as part of a course without prior permission from copyright holders if certain conditions are met. If these conditions are not or cannot be met,the copyrighted material may be used only if it qualifies as a “fair use” or prior permission from the copyright holders has been obtained. Works which are in the public domain may be used freely.

Am I allowed to link to something I find online? What am I allowed to transmit online?

Unless you have reason to know that a particular page is infringing you are free to link to anything you find online without obtaining copyright permission.

For more information, also consult Copyright Basics: The TEACH Act

You may transmit the following online:

Performance of an entire non-dramatic literary or musical work (a poetry reading or performance of a string quartet);
Performance of a reasonable and limited amount of any other work (i.e., a scene from a feature dramatic film or musical comedy;
Display of any other work in an amount comparable to that displayed in a live class, i.e. photos of sculpture or paintings.

Are faculty members permitted to transmit dramatic literary and musical works electronically?

Faculty members may transmit works electronically, provided they meet the following criteria:

Used at the direction of or under the supervision of the course instructor;
An integral part of a class session;
Part of systematic, mediated instructional activity;
Directly related and of material assistance to the teaching of the course;
Not a copy which s/he knows or should reasonably know was made or acquired illegally; and
Not produced by someone else primarily for performance or display as part of instructional activities transmitted via digital networks.

Note that Murray Library has streaming video and audio, including dramatic literary and musical works. These may be freely linked in your course materials (i.e., in Canvas). Click here for a link to the Streaming Video page.

What is the TEACH Act and what are the TEACH requirements?

The TEACH (Technology, Education and Copyright Harmonization) Act is a federal act that allows for the online transmission of copyrighted course content that would otherwise not be permissible.

TEACH requires that we provide notice to students that materials used in connection with the course may be subject to copyright protection. The following wording is suggested:

The materials on this course website are only for the use of students enrolled in this course for purposes associated with this course and may not be retained or further disseminated.

TEACH also requires that technical safeguards (“downstream controls”) be in place before copyrighted works can legally be transmitted as a part of online courses. To satisfy the law, we are obliged to use reasonable measures to prevent students from saving, copying, or further disseminating (i.e., sharing) the material.

Among possible safeguards are:

Password protection of copyrighted material so that only students enrolled in the online course have access; and
Limitation of the time that the material is posted to a site; and
Streaming of video; and
Use of HTML coding to prevent downloading and copying.

In order to avoid the complexities of complying with TEACH when a course requires that students view an entire work, it may be advisable to require that students obtain and watch the work on their own. Many DVDs are available online with closed captioning at http://www.amazon.com/ or http://www.netflix.com/Register. Instructors should post in the course syllabus and on the web that acquisition and viewing of the work by the student is a requirement of the course.

Faculty members also may create their own videos for course use. Contact Amy Slody, Director of Disability Services, to obtain assistance creating a transcript of the video for ADA compliance. VHS copies must be digitized by Learning Technology Services. Please note that there is a fee to reformat VHS into a DVD-digital copy.

If a work cannot be purchased or otherwise acquired by students and the College’s available copy is in the VHS format, we are required by TEACH to make an effort to acquire a digital version of the work. If no digital version is available or the available digital version is technologically protected to prevent TEACH uses, we are permitted to reformat the work ourselves (Learning Technology Services) into digital format. In any event, the TEACH rules stated above will apply to the use of the work as a part of an online course.

Is there any difference between providing a stable link to articles from a Library database and linking the PDFs of those articles (also lawfully obtained) in Canvas?

There is no real difference: If you obtain your article from a library database, which is highly encouraged, be sure to link the permalink in your Canvas course (for instructions on adding a permalink, click here).

Ezproxy.messiah.edu insures that students taking the course off-campus will have access to the article as well. If the PDF of the article is available in a library database or on the Internet, the link to the PDF may be inserted into your Canvas course.

I use a video that is only available in VHS. It cannot be replaced. The VHS is degrading and you want to create a more lasting copy. Is it legal to make a digital version to ensure availability for future use?

Unfortunately, archival copies like this can only be made when the format is considered obsolete. VHS, though out of favor, is not yet considered obsolete as it is still possible to purchase VHS tapes and players. Therefore, a license has to be obtained from the rights holder to make digital versions of VHS tapes.

What are your options? Whenever possible, the library, department, or instructor should purchase a DVD copy of the item. In cases where a DVD copy is unavailable, you can ask the copyright owner for permission to convert the VHS to DVD or streaming format. The Copyright Committee is happy to help you with this.

One further note: There are some cases where your use might qualify as a Fair Use, especially if you intend to only work with a small, pertinent section of the tape.

Although we do have the technology to convert those VHS tapes, it is not legal for us to do so in most cases. Here is why: When you purchased those VHS video recordings, you became the owner of the physical items: the plastic cases and the tapes inside them. You did not become the owner of the tapes’ content: that is intellectual property. That is why you are allowed to view them but not to transfer them to another format. You bought VHS, so you have VHS. The right to copy those programs, such as onto DVDs, is a separate right of the copyright owner. That right was not transferred to you when you bought the tape. If you now want DVD, you are supposed to either get permission from the copyright owner or purchase a DVD.
That brings up the next problem: many of those VHS programs are not available on DVD. In some cases, the copyright owner has decided that there will not be enough new sales of the program to make issuing a DVD to be profitable.
If the program is not already available on DVD, but the copyright owner can be located, permission from the copyright owner is required to transfer the program to DVD. Sometimes this actually works. Sometimes it’s even free!
If the copyright owner cannot be located, the program is called an “orphan work.” Congress is making slow progress on formulating legislation to deal with orphaned works, but nothing is definite at this time. There are some situations in which copying a program seems to qualify under the Fair Use Guidelines of the copyright law. Because there are so many variables, it is difficult to describe all of those situations here. Fair Use does favor copyright small sections of a work, so another option is to transfer a small, pertinent section of a tape to DVD and discard the original.

The legal and ethical path through some of these copyright issues is tricky to follow. However, that complexity does not excuse us from our responsibility to follow it. It is important that we maintain an atmosphere of copyright compliance at Messiah College.

-extracted with slight changes from Randy Nieuwsma. November 2011
(View Original Document)

What am I allowed to use once a semester in a live class or in Canvas?

Classroom distribution (print/paper) is allowed for photocopying of one chapter from a book, one article, or one poem without permission provided that the material has not been used before and the material is properly cited with the source information. This is considered spontaneous fair use and the material may not be photocopied and used again for the same or another course without obtaining copyright clearance.

As for posting copyrighted documents in Canvas: Online transmission of course content that includes display and performance of copyrighted works is governed by the federal TEACH (Technology, Education and Copyright Harmonization) Act. TEACH allows an accredited, nonprofit educational institution to transmit performances and displays of copyrighted works as part of a course without prior permission from copyright holders if certain conditions are met. If these conditions are not or cannot be met, the copyrighted material may be used only if it qualifies as a “fair use” or prior permission from the copyright holders has been obtained. Educators are encouraged to link to the material from the Murray Library databases or the Internet. Works which are in the public domain may be used freely.

You cannot post the following without obtaining copyright clearance:

Electronic reserves, coursepacks (electronic or paper) or interlibrary loan (ILL)
Commercial document delivery
Textbooks or other digital content provided under license from the author, publisher, aggregator or other entity
Conversion of materials from analog to digital formats, except when the converted material is used solely for authorized transmissions and when a digital version of a work is unavailable or protected by technological measures

I am creating a website that highlights the life and work of my mentor who was a composer. Some of his work is published but is out of print. I have recordings of my choir performing a few of his pieces which have been published, but are now out of print. Am I able to use those or no?

When it comes to recordings, there are at least 2 copyrights present, as you probably know—the copyright of the music itself and the copyright of the performance. The fact that the music is out of print doesn’t necessarily matter in terms of copyright. Since this would be public website, you really WOULD need to have permission to post the audio online. Even the college’s site licenses with ASCAP, BMI, and SESAC wouldn’t cover it if it was not a Messiah website with Messiah performers. You should contact the copyright department of the publishing house of his music to obtain permission.

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