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Copyright in the Classroom

Copyright protections are intended to preserve the rights of the creator, while also allowing for certain, specific uses. One of the most foundational of these specific use cases is educational or instructional settings. Instructors and educators often have questions about how they can use copywritten materials in an instructional context.

Face-to-Face Instruction

“Face-to-face instruction,” as the phrase suggests, is when an instructor and students at a non-profit educational institution are together in a single place devoted to instruction, and where the teaching and learning takes place at the same time. This format is also called synchronous instruction. In this setting all performances and displays of a work are allowed, provided that all the materials are legally acquired.

If the use occurs outside the classroom, then you can still fall back upon fair use as an option. However, permission will be required if neither fair use nor the educational exception pertains.

Choosing Materials

Many materials are available to use free of charge. If you want to use digital materials such as text, images, audio and film clips, start by looking for sources that don’t require special permission. These may include:

  • materials you created yourself, and for which you hold the copyright;
  • materials that are in the public domain, either because the creator has waived their exclusive rights, they were created by the federal government, or because they are sufficiently old and so their rights have now lapsed;
  • materials that have been made available by the creator under a license that allows for the kind of use you want to make (for example, a Creative Commons license);
  • materials that are publicly available on the Internet, to which you may link (as opposed to copying the files and reposting them elsewhere); or
  • content found on one of the U of I Libraries’ many licensed electronic databases (e.g. EBSCO, JSTOR, HeinOnline, Web of Science, etc.)

Distance Education / Virtual Instruction

Distance education is when a course is taught either solely online or when components of face-to-face instruction are taught online by means of course management systems like Canvas. Distance education generally includes materials that must be digitally transmitted to students. This transmission is authorized under the TEACH Act, a 2002 revision of the copyright law. The basic premise behind TEACH is to allow comparable instruction in the online environment as to what takes place in a traditional classroom or face-to-face instruction.

One of the major requirements of this law is that materials can only be digitally transmitted to students who are officially enrolled in the course, and even then the materials can only be retained for short periods of time. There are numerous other requirements for teaching, technology, and course materials that instructors must also meet before taking advantage of the TEACH Act. For a more thorough overview of this exception, see the section devoted to the TEACH Act.

Additional Resources

  • Know Your Copyrights (Association of Research Libraries) - This website addresses some of the frequently asked questions regarding copyright that may arise in the course of face-to-face instruction.