By Nancy Long

Two surveys currently under way offer faculty a chance to support proposed exemptions to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act’s provisions that control access to copyrighted work. Please take a few moments to weigh in on what kinds of material you need to access in order to create your work.

The UCI Intellectual Property, Arts and Technology Clinic at the University of California, Irvine School of Law, on behalf of Authors Alliance and Professor Bobette Buster, is seeking an exemption that would allow authors greater access to DVDs, Blu-ray and on line media and multimedia e-books for fair use purposes: http://authorsalliance.org/survey

The Glushko Samuelson Intellectual Property Clinic at the American University Washington College of Law is seeking an exemption that would allow increased access to audiovisual works embodied in the physical media (DVDs and Blu-rays) or obtained online for teaching and learning purposes in the higher education context and an exemption for MOOCs, which is an increasingly common mode of teaching in higher education: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1a355BaXb0oAWBkOc5v7oE8BLAG5uY8XBCc2ch8KY1WA/viewform

Your input is key to developing a more robust factual record so these important exemptions can be adopted.

Nancy Long is the AAUP’s Associate Counsel.