The TEACH Act: Copyright Law and Online
Education
Kristine H.
Hutchinson
In response to an
increase in the use of the Internet to distribute distance
education courses and resultant concerns that copyright law
related to distance education activities had become outdated,
Congress passed the Technology Education and Copyright
Harmonization Act (TEACH Act) in November, 2002. Through this
enactment, Congress sought to align educators’ rights to use
copyrighted materials in online courses with their rights to use
such materials in traditional, classroombased courses. In this
Note, Kristine Hutchinson argues that they did not achieve this
result. Rather, she suggests, the Act is fraught with requirements
and vague terminology, which have caused confusion amongst
educational institutions and have resulted in the failure to take
advantage of the Act. In the end, despite the Act’s shortcomings,
Hutchinson concludes that the TEACH Act is viable legislation, and
offers suggestions to aid educational institutions in making use
of the expanded rights to use copyrighted materials in online
courses enabled by the TEACH Act.
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