Online Teaching During Pandemic Raises Copyright Concerns

The sudden shift to online teaching is raising a host of copyright questions for educators.

Grade-school teachers are unsure about whether it’s okay to read books to students online. College professors wonder about posting copyrighted course materials that students left behind when campuses closed because of the new coronavirus. Using music or photographs in online courses triggers second-guessing.

The situation highlights some uncertainties about how copyright law applies to common educational practices when teaching shifts quickly from classrooms to an online environment.

The classroom can be something of a “sacred place,” Harvard University copyright adviser Kyle Courtney said, where instructors ...