Educators Praise Bill to Ease Copyright RestrictionsBy DAN CARNEVALE
At a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing this month,
university officials praised a bill that would ease the use of
copyrighted material in online instruction. They said the
legislation would put distance courses on the same legal
footing as traditional instruction.
But an official of a publishers organization voiced
opposition, saying the bill would not block the misuse of
copyrighted works.
The pending Technology, Education, and Copyright Harmonization
Act follows the recommendations of a report issued in 1999 by
the U.S. Copyright Office, calling on Congress to expand
copyright law's so-called fair-use exemption to include
distance education.
Under current law, the same copyrighted material that can be
used in a face-to-face course often can't be used in an online
course, Marybeth Peters, the register of copyrights, said at
the hearing. Online-course developers have to ask for
permission to use any such material, which can be a lengthy
and expensive process, she said.
Gerald A. Heeger, president of the University of Maryland
University College, testified that current copyright law is
outdated, given the new technologies that have sparked the
growth of distance education. The new bill, he said, would
allow educators to use the Internet more effectively in
delivering distance courses. "It will move the copyright law
in accordance with the educational reality of today," he said.
People who develop distance-education courses must be able to
experiment with new media without being inhibited by federal
law, said Gary Carpentier, an adjunct professor of law at
American University who is developing an online course about
the North American Free Trade Agreement. "Traditional teaching
techniques have been outpaced by the opportunities of an
online world," he said.
The bill is also based in part on recommendations made by the
Congressional Web-based Education Commission. The commission
released a report in December recommending, among other
things, the adoption of the copyright office's suggestions.
The current fair-use exemption allows distance educators to
use complete versions of nondramatic literary and musical
works. The bill would allow them to use limited portions of
dramatic literary and musical works, audiovisual works, and
sound recordings as well.
The legislation would require safeguards, like passwords or
electronic watermarks, to ensure that only eligible students
view the copyrighted material.
The authors of the bill are Sen. Orrin G. Hatch, a Utah
Republican who is chairman of the Judiciary Committee, and
Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, the panel's ranking Democrat.
Extending the fair-use exemption, they said, was important for
the growth of online education. "If we don't use all these
tools, what kind of economic future will our grandchildren
have?" Mr. Leahy said.
But Allan Robert Adler, vice president for legal and
governmental affairs at the Association of American Publishers
Inc., said online education is doing just fine without changes
in the law. "We don't believe the Copyright Act is holding
back distance education in any serious way," he said. "It's
quite clear that distance education is growing by leaps and
bounds."
He opposed the bill on grounds that its language may be too
broad and could be read as exempting entire novels from the
copyright restrictions. What's more, students would be able to
duplicate and share any copyrighted information, he said,
adding that technology to prevent such misuse isn't widely
available. He cited Napster, the popular file-sharing program
that allows users to download music files free, as an example
of the dangers of permitting copyrighted material to go
unregulated online.
Those who offer online courses have other options, Mr. Adler
said: They can create their own digital content, digitize
"public domain" materials already available, or get licenses
for copyrighted works.
But Ms. Peters said the bill extends the exemptions in current
copyright law so narrowly that it would prevent misuses like
posting books online in their entirety. "The exemption is
limited to what is called by some 'mediated instruction,'" she
said.
She did, however, speak against the existing law's limiting of
the fair-use privilege to people at nonprofit institutions.
She said all accredited institutions should be allowed to use
the fair-use exemption, meaning that for-profit colleges could
benefit as well.
Senator Hatch said the committee would discuss the
suggestions. "This is something that has to be done," he said.
"We'll try to do what's right here."
Senator Leahy said few of the suggestions were likely to be
incorporated into the bill. "I don't think there's going to be
much in the way of changes -- maybe some," he said.