Copyright

U.S. copyright law permits certain uses of copyrighted works in face-to-face teaching. As an instructor or student, you are allowed to perform or display a copyrighted work without permission as long as the following conditions are met:

• The performance or display takes place in “a classroom or similar place devoted to instruction”
• during face-to-face teaching
• at a nonprofit educational institution.

If the work is a motion picture or other audiovisual work, you must use a copy of the work that was lawfully made.

This is codified at 17 U.S.C. § 110(1).

U.S. copyright law gives instructors the right to use copyright-protected works for distance learning without permission under certain circumstances.

If you

• are, or are acting under direction or actual supervision of, an instructor in a class session offered by an accredited nonprofit educational institution or governmental body;
• are using the material as an integral part of a class session;
• are using the material that is directly related to and of material assistance to your teaching content; and
• are using a copy of the work that was prepared lawfully,

and the copyrighted work

• was not “produced or marketed primarily for performance or display as part of mediated instructional activities transmitted via digital networks;” and
• will be transmitted solely to students officially enrolled in the course for which the transmission is made,

and your use is:

• performing a nondramatic literary  or musical work (e.g., reading a short story aloud or singing a song);
• performing a reasonable and limited amount of any other work (e.g., playing an excerpt from a movie); or
• displaying any work in an amount comparable to what would be used in a live classroom,

and your institution

• institutes a copyright policy;
• provides information about copyright to faculty, students, and relevant staff members;
• provides notice to students that materials used in connection with the course may be subject to copyright protection; and
• if the transmission is digital, applies the required technological measures,

then U.S. copyright law permits your use.

You can read this provision, often referred to as TEACH Act,  at 17 U.S.C. § 110.