Faculty Services: Copyright & TEACH Act

It may not be legal to scan and post an article even in BlackBoard. Instead, create a persistent link to an article accessible through one of the LTU Library's subscriptions. (Harvard Business Review, available through Business Source Complete, does NOT allow posting a link.)

If the library does not have access to a particular article:

• get permission through the Copyright Clearance Center
• contact the library and we will investigate
• if course is "on ground", consider placing a print copy of the article on reserve in the library (email library@ltu.edu)

• identify the article or ebook from one of the Library's subscription databases within TechCat.
• click on the article or ebook title
• look in the tools area (upper right) for the permalink or persistent link
• copy & paste the link into a Word document or your Canvas page
• TechCat automatically adds the EZProxy statement for off-campus users
   
• For other non-TechCat links, add the EZProxy statement to the front of the persistent url: ( http://ezproxy.ltu.edu:8080/login?url= )
• Make sure to test all links from off-campus, whether from TechCat or custom-created!
• contact the library for assistance if you need additional explanation
• contact the library if your link does not work, sometimes an internal adjustment is all it needs to be viable.

To the question "Can I post an article on BlackBoard?" the answer is, "It depends...." Fair Use guidelines will help you determine if the proposed activity falls within copyright fair use. These tools are similar; choose the one that works best for you. It is up to the individual instructor to evaluate the balance. If you are teaching an online course, be sure to consider the TEACH Act as well.

Most scholars and educators agree that copyright law is a confusing quagmire. Below are links that may help you sort it out.

Best Practices

• Copyright Basics from Columbia University Libraries/Information Services, Copyright Advisory Office

• Guides developed by Patricia Aufderheide and Peter Jaszi available on the American University, Center for Social Media site.  Current guides cover examples of fair use in poetry, open courseware, media literacy education, online video and documentary film.

Copyright Law

Copyright Law in the United States from the United States Government copyright website.

Copyright Law in the United States from BitLaw website created by copyright attorney Daniel Tysver, a partner with the Minneapolis patent law firm of Beck & Tysver.

Copyright and Fair Use website from Stanford University.

Copyright Term and the Public Domain in the United States from Cornell University

The Copyright Crash Course from the University of Texas

Online course in Copyright law from MIT Professor Keith Winstein.

Tales from the Public Domain: Bound by Law? a comic book from scholars at the Duke University Law School's Center for the Study of the Public Domain. Read a digital version of the book or buy a paper copy.

There have been questions regarding the ownership of videos created by students and posted online, particularly on YouTube. Like everything else related to copyright issues, "it depends". Your work is automatically copyright protected when it is created but the agreements you sign or "click through" may extend many of those rights to the host of your work.

It really is worth reading the YouTube agreement. It looks like you retain ownership rights but you also give YouTube the rights to do almost anything with the video.

Below are some links that should give you some insights.

The TEACH Act (Technology, Education, and Copyright Harmonization Act) affects all classroom instruction.  Read more about it at LTU here.

The Copyright Clearance Center guide to TEACH Act.