Education & Distance Learning Enthusiasts- AAP Vice President Testifies Against Proposed Copyright Legislation

Home | Education & Distance Learning Articles | Article

AAP Vice President Testifies Against Proposed Copyright Legislation - Brief Article

Educational Marketer - March 19, 2001

Congress should not extend copyright exemptions to distance learning enterprises, Allan R. Adler, vice president for legal and government affairs at the Association for American Publishers, told a Senate Judiciary Committee. Congress is considering extending an exemption originally designed for instructional television in 1976 to include distance education delivered over the Internet. The bill under consideration is the Technology, Education and Copyright Harmonization Act of 2001.

Adler was the sole representative of content producers who testified on March 13 and the only voice in opposition. Several distance learning educators testified in support of the bill, including Gerald Heeger, the University of Maryland; Richard Siddoway, Utah's Electronic High School; Paul LeBlanc, Marlboro College; and Gary Carpentier, American University. Marybeth Peters, the federal registrar of copyrights also testified.

In his testimony, Adler told the committee that the legislation is "unnecessary, unjustifiable, unworkable and unfair insofar as it ignores the exploding competition, collaboration and consolidation among for-profit and not-for-profit online education program providers."

He said that course content providers should not be singled out to provide free services in the distance-learning field. "Since no one is advocating that Congress should enact legislation eliminating the need to pay for computers, software, Internet access, faculty salaries, administrative personnel costs and tuition in connection with online education programs, the AAP questioned why the costs of course content - and therefore, the copyright owners who create and produce them - should stand alone among the necessary elements of online education programs as exempt from payment," Adler said.

The current laws, he said, do not need to be revised as they are working very well. He pointed out that a 1999 federal report that is the basis for the current proposed legislation noted that the existing statutory exemptions for distance learning are largely irrelevant, as most providers create their own content, use existing public domain materials or obtain licenses.

The law was proposed to resolve licensing problems caused by difficulties in locating the owners of content for their permission. These problems are more the result of the newness of the online education industry and should diminish over time, according to the federal report. Adler said that several publishers, including Houghton Mifflin, Pearson Education, Elsevier Science and Thomson Learning, have taken measures to ease the process of using copyrighted material. Those measures include providing permission request forms online, allowing online searches of texts and customizing textbooks and other instructional materials.

Should the committee recommend Congress approve the legislation, Adler urged the committee to consider several changes including excluding instructional materials from any copyright exemption. He urged the committee to limit any exemption to accredited, non-profit educational institutions, "...so that in practical application, the helpful TEACH Act acronym does not come to represent the Technology, Education and Copyright Heist Act," he said.

Contact: The Association of American Publishers can be reached at (202) 347-3375 or at www.publishers.org.

If you would like to discuss any of the issues raised in this article with hundreds of other Education & Distance Learning enthusiasts from around the world, please feel free to visit the discussion forums & post a message.

Discuss this article in the discussion forums now.

Popular Education & Distance Learning Discussions From The Past

We help students in doing assignments on any subject (Scientists Group) (2 posts)
by Scientists Group - Last post on: 09-04-03 06:29
Dear Students, If you need a high-quality solution of your assignments, apply to our Scientists Group. We provide problem solving for undergrad, postgrad, distance learning and adult students on ANY SUBJECT and of ANY complexity (sure, excepting well-known problems, which have no solu... (Read More)

@@@ Pre-test Self Assessment E-Books on eBay for $4 @@@ (1 posts)
by me@you.com - Last post on: 09-20-04 08:51
I just bought 3 Pre-test Self Assessment E-Books on eBay for $4 each. I got Medicine, Ob-Gyn, and Pediatrics..They are McGraw-Hill, tenth Edition with 500 UCMLE test questions... If anyone is looking for a cheap way out instead of paying $25 or more for these books, I recommend looking on eBay... (Read More)

Re: Norwich University Internet Assurence program/Rpi question (1 posts)
by it man 2003 - Last post on: 10-02-03 21:11
hello --- View this thread: http://www.online-college.info/article929.html it man 2003------------------------------------------------------------------------ it man 2003's Profile: http://www.online-college.info/forum/member.php?action=getinfo&userid=332 ... (Read More)

Re: Taking math refresher courses for biostatistics program? (2 posts)
by iskip - Last post on: 07-17-03 06:28
wrote in message news:i5dbhvs3kcr557f8ohjljkoucs1a6sj8qu@4ax.com... > but if you decide to take the courses again, you might be able to > escape boredom by taking the route of analysis instead of calculus. > It is a more rigorous route, harder, involving precise proofs (no hand > waving,) ... (Read More)

You must register before posting in the Education & Distance Learning discussion forums. It's free & only takes a few seconds. Please also remember that no advertising is allowed...
Enter The Forums Here