Password protected course videos – fair use?

A recent dispute between the Association for Information and Media Equipment and UCLA highlights the tenuous nature of online copyright in education. The article linked below summarizes:

Copyright law does include exemptions for professors who wish to use audiovisual media “in the course of face-to-face teaching activities of a nonprofit educational institution, in a classroom or similar place devoted to instruction” — so long as the professor is not showing media that he or she knows has been made illegally. The university said streaming the video on a password-protected Web site, where only students who are registered members of the class can access it, satisfies these criteria.

But the trade group is arguing that a password-protected space on the Web is not a classroom. “The face-to-face teaching exemption allows a video to be played in class, not streamed to the classroom from a remote location,” Dohra said in an e-mail. “As to the fair use claim, when videos are streamed to students outside the classroom, password protection may limit access to some degree. However, requiring a password doesn’t make an infringement fair use.”

It’s my understanding that most of us who work in higher-ed technology support believe password protecting copyrighted materials to ensure that only students enrolled in a course brings them into compliance with the TEACH Act. This could be a signal of a big departure from that understanding.

via News: Hitting Pause on Class Videos – Inside Higher Ed.