UCLA brings back video streaming for spring quarter
By Parisa Mahdad
March 3, 2010 10:02 p.m.
The university will allow professors to resume streaming instructional media on their course Web sites beginning spring quarter.
The Association for Information Media and Equipment, a trade organization, believed UCLA violated Section 101 of the Copyright Act, said Amy Blum, the senior campus counsel.
After the association threatened to pursue legal action unless the university desisted, UCLA temporarily prohibited instructional media on course Web sites during winter quarter.
UCLA is permitting the streaming of media without the consent of the association, Blum said.
On Tuesday night, the university sent the organization a notice informing its representatives that the university will restore the service in hopes that both parties will be satisfied.
UCLA’s position stands that online streaming of media content is within the exemptions of the fair use and classroom use provisions of the Copyright Act.
“The safe harbor of the TEACH Act, which permits transmissions of content for educational purposes, and the face-to-face exemption of the Copyright Act also support UCLA’s uses,” according to a press release from Phil Hampton, the assistant director of university media relations.
Students will be able to access instructional media on their password-protected course Web sites in the same manner they did prior to the ban on streaming came into effect in January 2010.
However, the university has added a new protocol in the process of permitting media streaming.
Faculty must now request the university to add instructional media on their course Web sites. Within these requests, faculty must also describe the pedagogical reason for their choice of instructional media, Blum said.
To more easily facilitate the transition, the Instructional Media Lab’s extended hours at Powell Library will also continue through spring quarter, the press release stated.
“We are primarily interested in enhancing education,” said Jim Davis, the vice provost for information technology.
“We are trying to do this by blending the physical classroom and the virtual classroom together.”
