[school-discuss] Fwd: TEACH Act: DMCA For the Classroom

[William Abernathy <william@inch.com>]

For those of you in a classroom setting, here's another argument for open 
resources. For those of you in open resources, here's another selling point. For 
everyone else, yet another assault on your fair use rights.

Apparently, there's supposed to be special fair use leniency shown to educators 
for instructional use. As I read this (and that's a mighty superficial read), 
this is an attempt to impose a burden on educators to be able to demonstrate 
that they're not using computers for sharing resources in a way vendors don't 
approve of. After all, teachers really have to show some priorities -- corporate 
profit can't be disrupted by educational fair use. I imagine the upshot of this 
will be that school administrators will be FUDded into buying digital rights 
managementware from you-know-who.

--William

Forwarded from DVD Discussion list (dvd-discuss@eon.law.harvard.edu)

By way of the New Yorkers for Fair Use list (fairuse-discuss@mrbrklyn.com)
-------- Original Message --------
Date: Wed, 30 Jan 2002 14:58:49 -080022, 2000) at 01/30/2002
02:58:50 PM
From: "Michael A Rolenz" <Michael.A.Rolenz@aero.org>


Sorry to double post but

ftp://ftp.loc.gov/pub/thomas/cp107/sr031.txt


The digital transmission of works to students poses greater
risks to  copyright owners than transmissions through analog
broadcasts. Digital  technologies make possible the creation
of multiple copies, and their  rapid and widespread
dissemination around the world. Accordingly, the  TEACH Act
includes several safeguards not currently present in
section  110(2).

First, a transmitting body or institution seeking to invoke
the  exemption is required to institute policies regarding
copyright and to  provide information to faculty, students
and relevant staff members  that accurately describe and
promote compliance with copyright law. Further,  the
transmitting organization must provide notice to recipients
that  materials used in connection with the course may be
subject to  copyright protection. These requirements are
intended to promote an environment  of compliance with the
law, inform recipients of their responsibilities  under
copyright law, and decrease the likelihood of unintentional
and  uninformed acts of infringement.

Second, in the case of a digital transmission, the
transmitting body  or institution is required to apply
technological measures to prevent  (i) retention of the work
in accessible form by recipients to which it  sends the work
for longer than the class session, and (ii) unauthorized
further dissemination of the work in accessible form by
such  recipients.

Measures intended to limit access to authorized recipients
of  transmissions from the transmitting body or institution
are not  addressed in this subparagraph (2)(D). Rather, they
are the subjects of  subparagraphs (2)(C).

The requirement that technological measures be applied to
limit  retention for no longer than the ``class session''
refers back to the  requirement that the performance be made
as an ``integral part of a  class session.'' The duration of
a ``class session'' in asynchronous  distance education
would generally be that period during which a  student is
logged on to the server of the institution or governmental
body  making the display or performance, but is likely to
vary with the needs  of the student and with the design of
the particular course. It does  not mean the duration of a
particular course (i.e., a semester or term),  but rather is
intended to describe the equivalent of an actual single
face-to-face mediated class session (although it may be
asynchronous  and one student may remain online or retain
access to the performance or  display for longer than
another student as needed to complete the class  session).
Although flexibility is necessary to accomplish the
pedagogical goals of distance education, the Committee
expects that a  common sense construction will be applied so
that a copy or phonorecord  displayed or performed in the
course of a distance education program  would not remain in
the possession of the recipient in a way that could
substitute for acquisition or for uses other than use in the
particular  class session. Conversely, the technological
protection measure in  subparagraph (2)(D)(ii) refers only
to retention of a copy or  phonorecord in the computer of
the recipient of a transmission. The  material to be
performed or displayed may, under the amendments made by
the Act to section 112 and with certain limitations set
forth therein,  remain on the server of the institution or
government body for the  duration of its use in one or more
courses, and may be accessed by a  student each time the
student logs on to participate in the particular  class
session of the course in which the display or performance
is  made.

The reference to ``accessible form'' recognizes that
certain  technological protection measures that could be
used to comply with  subparagraph (d)(D)(ii) do not cause
the destruction or prevent the  making of a digital file;
rather they work by encrypting the work and  limiting access
to the keys and the period in which such file may be
accessed. On the other hand, an encrypted file would still
be  considered to be in ``accessible form'' if the body or
institution provides the  recipient with a key for use
beyond the class session.

Paragraph (2)(D)(ii) provides, as a condition of eligibility
for the  exemption, that a transmitting body or institution
apply technological  measures that reasonably prevent both
retention of the work in  accessible form for longer than
the class session and further  dissemination of the work.

____________________________
New Yorkers for Fair Use -
because it's either fair use or useless....