2b.
One purpose of the law is to prevent an instructor from including, in a digital
transmission, copies of materials that are specifically marketed for and meant
to be used by students outside of the classroom in the traditional teaching model.
For example, the law is attempting to prevent an instructor from scanning and
uploading chapters from a textbook in lieu of having the students purchase that
material for their own use. The provision is clearly intended to protect the market
for materials designed to serve the educational marketplace. Not entirely clear
is the treatment of other materials that might ordinarily constitute handouts
in class or reserves in the library. However, the general provision allowing displays
of materials in a quantity similar to that which would be displayed in the live
classroom setting ("mediated instructional activity") would suggest
that occasional, brief handouts-perhaps including entire short works-may be permitted
in distance education, while reserves and other outside reading may not be proper
materials to scan and display under the auspices of the new law.
Source: Crews,
Kenneth D. New Copyright Law for Distance Education: The Meaning and Importance
of the TEACH Act.