We recently signed off on the 4th edition of our book. In the final chapter, we discuss copyright issues and we took a conservative stance on online publication. We described online publication even for instructional purposes as different from classroom instruction in fair use of content. The key to the distinction we were making is the word “publication” – online resources are published in the sense that a book is published. It is out there for anyone to use. It now appears that this conservative position can be relaxed a bit. The TEACH act (signed in late 2002) allows technological protection measures (password protection systems) as a way to restrict access and allow fair use.
An online video prepared by SERC (Satellite Educational Resources Consortium), CoSN (Consortium for School Networking), explains the TEACH act (note the video was made before the TEACH act was signed).
