The TEACH Act

On November 2nd, 2002 President Bush signed the "Technology, Education and Copyright Harmonization Act" (The TEACH Act) into law. The TEACH Act redefines the terms and conditions on which educators may use copyright protected materials in online education. Although the act establishes new opportunities for educators to use copyrighted works online without permission and payment of royalties, these opportunities are subject to limits and new conditions.

This purpose of this site is to provide links to websites that describe these new opportunities, as well as the accompanying responsibilities.

(1) Ken Crews has written a summary of the Teach Act for the American Library Association Distance Education Website

(2) Georgia Harper at UT Austin discusses the TEACH Act and provides a checklist "to see if you are ready to use the TEACH Act." This helpful summary, with a few minor revisions and better formatting is also available in the Copyright Crash Course http://copyright.lib.utexas.edu/teachact.html

(3) North Carolina State University supplies The TEACH Toolkit Their "toolkit" also includes a checklist to insure compliance with the new law.

(4) The Teach Act was signed by Pres. Bush on November 2, 2002 as part of the larger Justice Reauthorization Legislation (H.R. 2215) The TEACH Act legislation itself, "Public Law 107-273" (this document is huge) is near bottom under, Subtitle C, Sec 13301.

(5) The text of 110(2) is available from the Thomas website: http://thomas.loc.gov/
The TEACH Act was passed in the 107th Congress, so click on the "Bill Text" link, and select the 107th Congress at the top of the page. Next enter "H.R.2215.ENR". You will pull up the "Department of Justice Appropriations Authorization Act", as the TEACH Act is part of this larger Act. Next search this document for "sec. 13301" to get to TEACH Act. (use Edit/find feature in your browser)
Lawmakers deleted old subsection 110(2) and inserted the new one, and also added information to the end of Section 110. Section112(f) was also amended. (See the new 112(f) at http://www.csuchico.edu/lcmt/teachact/112(f).htm or the Public Law 107-273 link)

(6) Laura Gasaway has constructed a chart comparing Sections 110(1) and 110(2)


Last Updated: 30-Apr-2009 2:24 PM