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Copyright & Distance Education
June 5, 2002

It has been almost thirty years since Congress last examined the copyright law and its relationship with distance learning. Now Congress is considering the Technology, Education, and Copyright Harmonization (TEACH) Act, which will rewrite the distance learning exemption to the copyright law in order to bring the law into the digital age. The current distance learning exemption made it possible for courses broadcast directly to the classroom to include displays or performances of a limited set of works without infringing upon copyrights. But in the Internet age of rich multimedia and anytime anywhere learning, the narrow exception made little sense. The TEACH Act will allow educators to use much of the same rich material in distance learning over the Internet that they use in face-to-face classroom instruction, without the need for permissions or payments. It will also eliminate the current law's outmoded requirement that only permits the exception to apply to distance learning delivered to a physical classroom.

The TEACH Act will bring a new set of rights to educators. But it will also make it even more important for educators using the new media to understand their rights and responsibilities under the copyright law. This teleconference will introduce educators to the TEACH Act and provide an overview on the range of emerging issues presented by the integration of technology and the Internet into education.

Presenters:

• Leslie Harris, President, Leslie Harris & Associates
• Gary Becker, Manager of Media Production, Seminole County Public Schools, FL and Copyright Law Consultant

Presented in partnership with:

StateNets

University of Wisconsin-Extension's WisLine Web Conference Center

Presenter Descriptions

Gary Becker is Manager of Media Production (Media, ITV & Distance Learning), for the Seminole County Public Schools in Sanford, Florida. He holds three degrees from Syracuse University.

Since 1975, as an avocation, Mr. Becker has been a national copyright law consultant and has published books and produced videotapes that are in educational institutions in all fifty states. He is a member of the Association for Educational Communications and Technology 's (AECT) Copyright Task Force. He has been and continues to be a presenter, at state and national conferences as well as providing consulting services and in-service training for the public school, college/university and public library communities.

Leslie Harris is the founder and President of Leslie Harris & Associates, an innovative public policy and strategic services firm committed to ensuring that the extraordinary technological advances of the Twenty First Century serve to strengthen essential services such as education and healthcare and create economy opportunity for all Ms. Harris has over twenty years experience as lawyer, public policy advocate and strategist in Washington. She was a principal architect of and advocate for the "E-Rate," provision in the Telecommunications Act of 1996, which provides affordable telecommunications services, Internet access and internal connections to the nation's schools and rural health care facilities as well as the TEACH Act, which will update distance learning copyright exceptions for the digital age. Ms. Harris is a recognized expert on Internet and education technology policy and serves as CoSN's public policy advisor in Washington.