Copyright: Infringement, Remedies, and Defenses in a Pandemic Environment

The abrupt shift of universities to an online environment has heightened the awareness and impact of the copyright law. The issue that the academe and faculty face is whether synchronouspresentation of instructional material is in violation of the copyright laws and if a viable remedy or defense is available. Pre-Pandemic, educators teaching in the traditional in-class format used the Fair Use doctrine in deciding on using the copyrighted work to be presented in class whereasthose in the online remote paradigm faced a different set of barriers. Congress enacted the Technology, Education, and Copyright Harmonization Act of 2002 (TEACH Act) to overcome the barriers for those educators delivering courses in asynchronous mode using copyrighted instructional materials. The intent of the article is to discuss the premise and fundamentals of the Copyright Law, remedies, and defenses and whether the public policy exemptions afforded to faculty can be extended to the remote teaching synchronous environment created by the COVID-19 Pandemic.