Open Educational Resources: Copyright/Author's Rights

Section 107 of the Copyright Act states:

Notwithstanding the provisions of sections 106 and 106A, the fair use of a copyrighted work, including such use by reproduction in copies or phonorecords or by any other means specified by that section, for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright.

Copyright is a form of intellectual property law and protects works of authorship, including literary, dramatic, musical, and artistic works. This encompasses items like poetry, novels, songs, movies, computer software, and more.

Copyright does not protect facts, ideas, systems, or methods of operation. Nor does it protect names, titles, works lacking originality, or works created from public domain information.

The copyright holder of a work has the exclusive right to:

• Reproduce (make copies of) the work; and
• Modify or prepare derivative works based on the work. (Examples of derivative works include translations, transforming printed works into musicals or films, rearrangements of scores, and any other recast, transformation, or adaptation of a work); and
• Distribute the work in any format by sale, publication, license, rental, or for free; and
• Publicly perform or display the work; and
• Authorize others to exercise some or all of those rights

Congress passed the TEACH (technology, education, and copyright harmonization) act in 2002 which enables performance and display of copyrighted material in distance education classes.  TEACH applies to performances of nondramatic literary or musical works in their entirety and limited portions of other works provided the following conditions are met:

• The instructor is the one who decides to use the work; and
• A lawfully acquired copy of the work is used; and
• The work is relevant to the course; and
• Access is limited to students enrolled in the course; and
• Authorized users do not distribute the work to others; and
• The work is taken down at the end of the semester; and
• No one interferes with technological measures used by copyright owners of the work to prevent such retention or unauthorized further dissemination.

Instructors of University courses may transmit entire musical works, but may not transmit entire dramatic works (operas, plays).

The University of Texas has developed a checklist to determine if the TEACH Act applies to your materials.