Copyright Law and UST Policy

UST Policy

The University of St. Thomas respects the rights of the owners of intellectual property and seeks to comply fully with U.S. copyright law. Ultimately, the users of copyrighted works are responsible making their own decisions on the appropriate use of materials. Further, the University, in most cases, allows UST creators to retain the rights to their works.

Laws & Guidelines

Provisions on copyright are included in:

• the U. S. Constitution (Article I, Section 8),
• federal statutes including Title 17 of the U.S. Code, and
• in “classroom guidelines” which are intended to help users determine a reasonable course of action, but which do not have the force of law.

Various recent acts have addressed the use of copyright in educational settings, including the:

• Digital Millennium Copyright Act,
• Technology, Education and Copyright Harmonization Act of 2002 (TEACH), and the
• Higher Education Opportunity Act.
• The University of St. Thomas seeks to comply with the provisions of the HEOA regarding peer to peer file sharing.
  

Key provisions of these acts affect UST users:
DMCA: One provision of the DMCA relates to the limitation of liability for online service providers. The University of St. Thomas is an online service provider under the definition in this act and has elected to take advantage of this limitation of liability. We are required under the DMCA to appoint an agent to receive notification of claimed infringement from the copyright holder. This would occur where infringing copies are posted on the University's computer network. The University's agent is:

Chris Gregg
IRT
Mail AQU 320
University of St. Thomas
2115 Summit Ave.
St. Paul, MN 55105
(651) 962-6265

TEACH: This act liberalized the provisions of section 110 of the Copyright law as it applies to the fair use of copyrighted materials in distance education. The revisions expanded the type of works allowed for display or performance, the permissible locations for viewing them, provisions for digitization, storage, and access in the context of institutions providing distance education for their students.

HEOA: This act includes provisions that are designed to reduce the illegal uploading and downloading of copyrighted works through peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing. See Copyright Infringement and File Sharing: What Students Need to Know.