Copyright Topic Guide: TEACH Act

The Technology, Education and Copyright Harmonization (TEACH) Act was enacted in November 2002 as an amendment to the Copyright Act of 1976. Found in section 110(2) of the Act, it covers distance education as well as face to face teaching which has an online, web enhanced, transmitted or broadcast component. It exempts from liability the transmission, including over a digital network, of a performance or display of a copyrighted work by an accredited non-profit educational institution to students officially enrolled in a course or a government body to officers or employees of government as a part of their official duties or employment.

It does not cover making textual materials available to students.

The performance or display must be:

• Part of systematic mediated instructional activity.
• At the direction of or under the actual supervision of the instructor.
• An integral part of a class session.

• Must apply technological measures that reasonably prevent recipients from retaining works beyond the class session and further distributing them, and
• May not interfere with technological protections taken by copyright owners.

The TEACH Act places considerable responsibilities on educational institutions that wish to take advantage of the exemption it offers.The greater freedoms granted to instructors are balanced with increased responsibility for the management of distance education. It does not, however, modify the previous standards for the fair use of copyrighted materials.