The TEACH Act Scenarios, Questions & Answers

Scenario 1: Art History

Professor Scherz teaches art history at a community college. For years she has used slides from the College's image archive to conduct her lectures. Now she wants to offer the course at a distance as well as to students who attend the physical campus. She wishes to digitize the slides, post them to a website so she can project them in class using a computer and make them available to the distant students in conjunction with each lesson she posts. She also wants the students to be able to review and study them throughout the semester.

1. How much of what kinds of materials does the TEACH Act authorize Professor Scherz to use?
   
   
2. Will the TEACH Act authorize her to digitize the slides and use them in class the way she proposes?
   
   
3. Will it authorize her to leave the materials on a website accessible to her students for the entire semester? If not, how long may she leave them up under the TEACH Act?
   
   
4. What TEACH Act requirements function as safeguards she must implement to protect the copyright owners' interests in the materials she will use under the TEACH Act?
   
   
5. What safeguards must she implement to bring activity not covered by the TEACH Act within the bounds of fair use?
   
   
6. Imagine that Professor Scherz is your colleague at your college or university. Fill out the checklist for her for the in-class use she proposes, based on your knowledge of your institution's situation right now. Can Professor Scherz digitize and use the slides as she proposes at your institution? If not, what are the areas of noncompliance?
   
   
7. Between the TEACH Act and fair use, can she do what she wants without permission?

Scenario 2: Music Appreciation

Professor Yen teaches music appreciation at a State University. Teaching the course has become easier in recent years because there are now commercially available compilation CDs containing full-length performances of symphonies, concerti, operas and other varieties of music, including most of the music that he wishes to use to illustrate the concepts he teaches. He is considering, however, making his own compilation that would be exactly what he wants and nothing he does not want, posting it to a website and making it available to the students for independent review and study as well as for his use in class to demonstrate concepts and for testing. Additionally, he plans to create some multimedia instructional materials that utilize individual pieces of recorded music to teach specific concepts, such as the formal structure of a symphony.

1. How much of what kinds of materials does the TEACH Act authorize Professor Yen to use?
   
   
2. Will the TEACH Act authorize him to create (a) the compilations and (b) the teaching materials and use them in class the way he proposes?
   
   
3. Will it authorize him to leave the materials on a website accessible to his students for the entire semester? If not, how long may he leave them up under the TEACH Act?
   
   
4. What TEACH Act requirements function as safeguards he must implement to protect the copyright owners' interests in the materials he will use under the TEACH Act?
   
   
5. What safeguards must he implement to bring activity not covered by the TEACH Act within the bounds of fair use?
   
   
6. Imagine that Professor Yen is your colleague at your college or university. Fill out the checklist for him for the in-class uses he proposes (both the compilation and the teaching materials), based on your knowledge of your institution's situation right now. Can Professor Yen digitize and use music as he proposes at your institution? If not, what are the areas of noncompliance?
   
   
7. Between the TEACH Act and fair use, can he do what he wants without permission?

Scenario 3: Media and Culture

Professor Perez teaches a course on media and culture in which the students review, analyze and discuss examples of popular media. Their homework assignments involve their independently seeking out examples for analysis and discussion, but Professor Perez also provides examples during his lectures. He wishes to digitize his examples and project them from his website. His examples include media of all types, including movies, music, advertising from periodicals, television, artworks, and video games. His students' term projects require that they write papers illustrated with their examples, collected over the semester. He wants his students to submit their projects electronically as websites which he will access and "grade."

1. How much of what kinds of materials does the TEACH Act authorize Professor Perez to use?
   
   
2. Will the TEACH Act authorize him and his students to create and project the collections of examples he proposes to use and require?
   
   
3. Will it authorize him to leave the materials on a website accessible to his students for the entire semester? If not, how long may he leave them up under the TEACH Act?
   
   
4. What TEACH Act requirements function as safeguards he must implement to protect the copyright owners' interests in the materials he will use under the TEACH Act?
   
   
5. What safeguards must he implement to bring activity not covered by the TEACH Act within the bounds of fair use?
   
   
6. Imagine that Professor Perez is your colleague at your college or university. Fill out the checklist for him for his and his students' uses of others' materials, based on your knowledge of your institution's situation right now. Can Professor Perez digitize and use music as he proposes at your institution? If not, what are the areas of noncompliance?
   
   
7. Between the TEACH Act and fair use, can he do what he wants without permission?

 

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