The Technology, Education, and Copyright Harmonization Act (TEACH Act) was passed in 2002. This act says that it is not copyright infringement for teachers and students at a nonprofit educational institution to transmit performances and displays of copyrighted works as part of a course if certain conditions are met. It can apply to what we refer to as distance education or online courses. Any time a performance (music, movies, etc.) or display (image, text, etc.) is transmitted (cable television, over the web), the TEACH exception might be an option for our faculty.

The TEACH Act only covers in class performances and displays in an online environment, not, for example, supplemental online reading, viewing, or listening materials. For those activities, continue to rely on fair use. 

Some things to keep in mind:

• The audiovisual works and dramatic musical works may only be shown as clips -- "reasonable and limited portions".
• Supervise the digital performance or display and make it an integral part of a class session. In other words, interactively use the copyrighted work as part of a class assignment or in your lecture.
• Transmission must be made solely for and reception limited to students enrolled in the course.
• Provide notice to students that course materials may be copyrighted.
• Avoid use of commercial works that are sold or licensed for purposes of digital distance education.
• Avoid use of pirated works or unlawfully made works.

TEACH checklists from LSU Libraries TEACH Act Toolkit can be found here:

• TEACH Basic Checklist
• TEACH Expanded Checklist

Title 17, section 108 of the U.S. Code permits libraries and archives to use copyrighted material in specific ways without permission from the copyright holder. This does not replace fair use. Librarians, archivists, and library users can rely on fair use just like everyone else. 

Section 108 permits libraries and archives to:

• Make one copy of an item held by a library for interlibrary loan;
• Make up to three copies of a damaged, deteriorated, lost, or stolen work for the purpose of replacement. This only applies if a replacement copy is not available at a fair price;
• Make up to three copies of an unpublished work held by the library for the purpose of preservation. If the copy is digital, it cannot be circulated outside the library;
• Reproduce, distribute, display, or perform a published work that is in its last 20 years of copyright for the purposes of preservation, research, or scholarship if the work is not available at a fair price or subject to commercial exploitation.

The following restrictions must be observed when appealing to this exception:

• It applies only to libraries and archives open to the public, or to unaffiliated researchers in a specialized field (LUC Libraries meets this exception);
• Copies cannot be made for commercial purposes;
• The copying cannot be systematic (e.g., to replace subscriptions);
• All copies made under this exception must include a notice stating that the materials may be protected under copyright.

Digitizing Content in Libraries

If the libraries were to digitize all of our physical books and put them online, this would constitute infringement if the works are protected by copyright and permission was not obtained. Libraries may be able to digitize portions of their collections for specific purposes based on a fair use analysis. See Court Cases below.

Copyright and Interlibrary Loan

Interlibrary loan is permitted under section 108 of the Copyright Act.  Both the lending and the borrowing libraries have specific responsibilities they must fulfill. The Copyright Act lacks guidance on, for example, how many articles from a library may request from one journal in one year. 

Per the CONTU guidelines a library may receive copies of up to five articles from a single journal title per calendar year. Starting with the sixth copy, copyright permission and royalty fees may be required and you must evaluate whether the copies requested would substitute for a subscription to, or purchase of, the journal.

Additionally, requests for any purpose other than private study, scholarship or research, should not be requested or fulfilled through Interlibrary loan.

Current U.S. copyright law lacks a blanket exception for accessibility. This means that creating an accessible format of a work that you do not have copyright for may be considered an unauthorized reproduction under current copyright law. However, there are some exceptions to copyright that allow users to make copies or adaptations of works in specific instances for people with disabilities:

Note that translating a work is considered an adaptation or derivative work under U.S. copyright law, which means that translating a work into Braille, for example, or creating an audio recording of a text-based work is copyright infringement. Fair use may be an option if a work needs to be transformed or copied in such a way as to make it accessible to a person with disabilities.