In 2004, Congress passed the Teaching, Education, And Copyright Harmonization Act (“TEACH ACT”) in order to enable universities to comply with United States copyright law while providing distance online education. The TEACH Act provides universities and their faculty a safe harbor from copyright liability if several conditions are met.
A university must:
- have in place a copyright policy,
- make educational materials on copyright available to faculty and staff,
- create technological safeguards to protect the copyrighted materials that are made digitally available to students, and include appropriate copyright notices.
In an effort to comply with the terms of the TEACH Act and empower faculty and afford them the opportunity to use certain copyrighted materials on-line in a legal manner, Villanova University has adopted a copyright policy. The new copyright policy is separate from the pre-existing Intellectual Property Policy found in the Faculty Handbook, which remains in place.
Sample Copyright Notice
Any faculty member who wishes to post others’ copyrighted materials on the faculty member’s website should include a copyright notice similar in form to the following:
Copyright Notice
The materials on this course Website are only for the use of the course instructor and the students enrolled in this course for purposes associated with this course. Some of these Website materials may be subject to copyrights held by third parties. None of these materials may be (i) retained after the course term expires, (ii) further disseminated, or (iii) accessed by or made available to others. Students with questions about the permissibility of use of materials on this Website are advised to consult the course instructor.
