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someone who merely possesses a copy or phonorecord without having acquired ownership of it. Acquisition of an object embodying a copyrighted work by rental, lease, loan, or bailment carries with it no privileges to dispose of the copy under section 109(a) or to display it publicly under section 109(b). To cite a familiar example, a person who has rented a print of a modern picture from the copyright owner would have no right to rent it to someone else without the owner’s permission.
SECTION 110. EXEMPTION OF CERTAIN PERFORMANCES AND DISPLAYS
Clauses (1) through (4) deal with performances and exhibitions that are now generally exempt under the “for-profit” limitation or other provisions of the copyright law, and that are specifically exempted from copyright liability under this legislation. Clauses (1) and (2) between them are intended to cover all of the various methods by which systematic instruction takes place.
Face-to-face teaching activities
Clause (1) of section 110 is generally intended to set out the conditions under which performances or displays, in the course of instructional activities other than educational broadcasting, are to be exempted from copyright control. The clause covers all types of copyrighted works, and exempts their performance or display “by instructors or pupils in the course of face-to-face teaching activities of a non-profit educational institution,” where the activities take place “in a classroom or similar place devoted to instruction.”
There appears to be no need for a statutory definition of “face-to-face” teaching activities to clarify the scope of the provision. “Face-to-face teaching activities” under clause (1) embraces instructional performances and displays that are not “transmitted.” It does not require that the teacher and his student be able to see each other, although it does require their simultaneous presence in the same general place. Use of the phrase “in the course of fact-to-face teaching activities” is intended to exclude broadcasting or other transmissions from an outside location into classroom, whether radio or television and whether open or closed circuit. However, as long as the instructor and pupils are in the same building or general area, the exemption would extend to the use of devices for amplifying or reproducing sound and for projecting visual images. The “teaching activities” exempted by the clause encompass systematic instruction of a very wide variety of subjects, but they do not include performances or displays, whatever their cultural value or intellectual appeal, that are given for the recreation or entertainment of any part of their audience.
Works affected.—Since there is no limitation on the types of works covered by the exemption, a teacher or student would be free to perform or display anything in class as long as the other conditions of the clause are met. He could read aloud from copyrighted text material, act out a drama, play or sing a musical work, perform a motion picture or filmstrip, or display text or pictorial material to the class by means of a projector. However, nothing in this provision is intended to sanction the unauthorized reporduction of copies or phonorecords for the purpose of classroom performance or display, and the
