Copyright for Distance Educators

Before you begin planning your course, copyright must be taken into consideration.  The following resources will assist in explaining what you need to know, and what needs to be done in order to comply with the Law.

The TEACH Act compliance form must be completed when using copyrighted materials for your online course.

The TEACH Act

• Overview of the TEACH Act - TEACH enables the use of copyrighted materials for online courses.
• Complying with the TEACH Act - How to enhance your class with video, music, images, pictures, and more.
• TEACH Act compliance form - This form must be completed when using copyrighted materials for your online course.

Additional Online Teaching Resources

• The Conference on Fair Use Multimedia Guidelines can be used for your online course.
• The Copyright Law's Section 107, Fair Use, can be used for your online course. Please use the IUPUI TEACH Act Checklist for the Four Factors analysis.
• Instructional Telecommunications Council Resource Page

Resources for your Students

• Online and Distance Education Home Page
• Copyright for Students
• Respecting Intellectual Property Rights
• CREATIVE THINKING: class lessons, films, & activities on plagiarism and copyright awareness
• Fair Use Statement of Images for Teaching, Research, and Study from the Visual Resources Association's Intellectual Property Rights Committee (PDF)

Free Materials

• Royalty Free Music for Teaching & Learning
• Royalty Free Pictures for Educational Use
• Royalty Free Sites
• Free Materials in Bracken
• Free Music Listening and Clips
• Digital Media Repository
• The Ball State University Copyright for Students Homepage
• SoundBible.com
• Free-Loops.com
• ArtPromote: Art & Culture Online: 34 databases [some international] of free licensable images
• The Ultimate Guide to Finding Fantastic Fonts
• Finding Freely Distributed Images for Your Blog