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Faculty Resources

In Person Classes

Section 110(1) of the copyright act allows for public performances or displays of copyrighted material in classroom environments. The display must be for instructional purposes only and only for the students in your class. So if you are displaying a film that directly relates to your course content, you may display it for your students, but you may not distribute or display illicitly made copies. If you wish to have a "fun" class day and watch a movie for entertainment, then you will need to purchase Public Performance Rights for that movie.

Online Classes

The 2003 TEACH Act updated the section 110(2) of copyright code. This section covers public performances in online courses. TEACH stands for "Technology, Education, and Copyright Harmonization."

This act allows display of films in online classroom environments provided that:

  1. The display is under supervision and at the direction of the instructor
  2. The display is directly related to the teaching content of the course
  3. The display is only for students officially enrolled (no auditing students) in the course as well as any government employees as a part of their work.
  4. The institution has and provides policies on copyright that accurately describe and promote compliance with copyright laws.
  5. Be able to prevent the portion of the class session that is displaying the work from being recorded.
  6. Do not interfere with any technological measures used by the copyright holder to prevent unauthorized use and retention

A few non-code items to think about:

  1. Make sure the source is you acquire it from is authorized to stream it (i.e. not illegally uploaded).
  2. Many paid streaming services (such as Netflix) have screen sharing detection and will disable the video when you try to play it. Screen sharing usually violates the streaming services terms of service and any attempt to bypass it could result in your being banned from the service.

 

Disclaimer

Copyright issues can be complicated! This guide is meant to inform you of common issues surrounding copyright, but it is not legal advice.