Tuesday, March 18, 2003

College Media Group Cautions That 2 Copyright Laws Could Collide By ANDREA L. FOSTER A group representing college media centers is warning the U.S. Copyright Office about a possible conflict between two federal laws, one meant to limit electronic access to copyrighted material and the other designed to broaden access to the same material for online education. At issue are the Technology Education and Copyright Harmonization Act and the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. The first measure is known as the Teach Act and was signed into law in November. It amended copyright law to allow college instructors to use nondramatic works, such as news articles and novels, and portions of dramatic works, such as movies, in online courses without paying fees and without seeking the copyright holder's permission. The second law, which took effect in 1998, has a section that makes it illegal to bypass technologies that block access to copyrighted material. In a letter sent last month to the Copyright Office, the Consortium of College and University Media Centers says it wants clarification of that section of the digital-copyright law, known as the anti-circumvention provision. What worries the media centers is that colleges might not be allowed to bypass copying protections even when they need to do so to use materials from CDs and DVDs for distance education, as permitted by the Teach Act in certain circumstances. The problem arises when digital materials are not also released in non-digital formats that the colleges can fall back on, such as print. The group represents 312 college media centers, many of which are responsible for helping faculty members create online courses. The group's letter was among dozens sent to the copyright office. It is considering exceptions to the anti-circumvention provision, as it is legally required to do every three years. Noting that colleges have barely begun to apply the provisions of the Teach Act, the group says that given the law's "great promise and its expected wholesale adoption by nonprofit higher education ... we cannot wait another three years to deal with the impact of this conflict after the fact." Jeff Clark, the chairman of the college media group's government regulations and public-policy committee, wrote the letter. He says he knows of no specific cases in which colleges have felt constrained from taking advantage of the Teach Act because of the anti-circumvention provision. "It was more a proactive measure," he says. Allan R. Adler, vice president for legal and governmental affairs for the Association of American Publishers, which helped draft the Teach Act, says the kind of conflict that Mr. Clark's letter describes would be "very rare." Publishers of books and journals almost always have analog versions of digital material. Those that do not often market digital material specifically for educational purposes, he says. Later this year, the Copyright Office is expected to reveal its opinions on the comments it has received during hearings on the issue. Easy-to-print version E-mail this story

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