Copyright Law: §1201 for Professors

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In 2006, the Librarian of Congress granted an exemption for “[a]udiovisual works included in the educational library of a college or university’s film or media studies department, when circumvention is accomplished for the purpose of making compilations of portions of those works for educational use in the classroom by media studies or film professors.”  The Librarian indicated that the exemption was based on the need for film and media studies professors to use higher-quality images in their teaching than could be obtained from VHS materials.

Between 2006 and 2009, VHS was abandoned by the media industry as a release format for new works.  In light of the evolving technologies, several academic and special library organizations made requests during the 2009 rulemaking for the prior exemption to be expanded to include all educational uses, because of the logistical difficulties involved in the attempt to display small portions of DVDs in a classroom setting.  The Librarian of Congress granted this request, but only in part.  Film and video clips from DVDs are a new class of materials exempted from the prohibition against circumvention.  The new educational use exemption applies only to college and university professors and higher-education film or media studies students; and as required by the statute, only to activities that are already within the bounds of "fair use."

Subsequent rulemaking proceedings have extended &/or modified the exemption details. Published rules for all eight triennial proceedings are available on the Library of Congress website for §1201. The current exemptions are in force through October 2024.

PDF of the Final Rule regarding the Exemption to Prohibition on Circumvention of Copyright Protection Systems for Access Control Technologies. 86 Fed. Reg. 59627 (October 28, 2021).

The Recommendation of the Register of Copyrights: 

The Librarian of Congress has announced the classes of works subject to the exemption from the prohibition against circumvention of technological measures that control access to copyrighted works. Persons making noninfringing uses of the following ... classes of works will not be subject to the prohibition against circumventing access controls (17 U.S.C. § 1201(a)(1)) until the conclusion of the next rulemaking.

(1) Motion pictures (including television shows and videos), as defined in 17 U.S.C. 101, where the motion picture is lawfully made and acquired on a DVD protected by the Content Scramble System, on a Blu-ray disc protected by the Advanced Access Content System, or via a digital transmission protected by a technological measure, and the person engaging in circumvention under paragraphs (b)(1)(i) and (b)(1)(ii)(A) and (B) of this section reasonably believes that non-circumventing alternatives are unable to produce the required level of high-quality content, or the circumvention is undertaken using screen-capture technology that appears to be offered to the public as enabling the reproduction of motion pictures after content has been lawfully acquired and decrypted, where circumvention is undertaken solely in order to make use of short portions of the motion pictures in the following instances:

(ii) For educational purposes:

(A) By college and university faculty and students or kindergarten through twelfth-grade (K–12) educators and students (where the K–12 student is circumventing under the direct supervision of an educator), or employees acting at the direction of faculty of such educational institutions for the purpose of teaching a course, including of accredited general educational development (GED) programs, for the purpose of criticism, comment, teaching, or scholarship[.]