What teachers need to know about copyright, fair use and AI-generated material

Teachers use other people's work every day: a poem on a slide, a film clip in a lesson, a chart in a handout. US copyright law gives educators more room than most people, but that room has edges. This guide, part of our copyright basics and FAQ section, covers the classroom exemption, the rules for online teaching, fair use for handouts, and what changes when you or your students use AI tools.

It is general information for US teachers. Your district or college may have its own policy, and that policy can be stricter than the law.

01Face-to-face teaching and section 110

The clearest rule for teachers is section 110(1) of the Copyright Act. It says that performing or displaying a work is not infringement when it happens "in the course of face-to-face teaching activities of a nonprofit educational institution, in a classroom or similar place devoted to instruction."

In practice, that means a teacher in a public or nonprofit school can, during class:

• show a full film or play a full song, if it relates to the lesson;
• read a whole book aloud or project images of artworks;
• have students perform a play or a piece of music.

There are limits. The exemption covers performing and displaying, not making copies. It applies to nonprofit institutions only. And for films and other audiovisual works, the copy must be lawfully made: a streamed or downloaded copy you knew, or had reason to believe, was pirated does not qualify.

What about personal streaming accounts?

Section 110(1) is about the copyright side. Many streaming services' terms of use limit accounts to personal or household viewing. Showing a film from a personal account in class may break that contract even when copyright law allows the performance. Many schools license services for classroom use to avoid this gap.

02Online classes and the TEACH Act

The Technology, Education, and Copyright Harmonization Act, known as the TEACH Act, was signed on November 2, 2002 and rewrote section 110(2). It lets accredited nonprofit institutions and government bodies transmit performances and displays as part of online teaching, under several conditions:

• Amounts: whole nondramatic literary and musical works may be performed, but only "reasonable and limited portions" of other works, such as films and dramatic works. Displays should match what would be shown in a live class session.
• Supervision: the material must be part of a class session directed by an instructor and directly related to the teaching content.
• Audience: access must be limited, as far as technology allows, to students enrolled in the course.
• Safeguards: the institution must have a copyright policy, give students notice that course materials may be protected, and use technology that reasonably prevents students from keeping or sharing copies beyond the class session.
• Exclusions: it does not cover material made and sold mainly for online education, such as commercial courseware, or copies that were not lawfully made.

Because of these conditions, many schools rely on licensed databases and fair use for online classes instead of the TEACH Act alone. Ask your instructional technology or library team which approach your school uses.

03Fair use for handouts and slides

Copying a chapter for students, putting an article on a course page, or adding images to slides is not covered by section 110. These uses depend on fair use under section 107, which names "teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use)" as one of its example purposes.

Teaching purpose helps, but it does not settle the question. Courts still weigh the four factors: purpose, nature of the work, amount used, and effect on the market. Our full guide to how the four fair use factors work explains each one.

Habits that keep classroom copying on safer ground

• Use a limited excerpt that serves a specific lesson, not a whole book.
• Link to an article or video rather than copying it, where you can.
• Limit access to enrolled students, for example through your learning platform.
• Do not copy workbooks, tests or other material made to be used up and bought by each student.
• Do not reuse the same large excerpts term after term in place of buying the material.
• Add a copyright notice and the source on each copy.

04AI-generated material in class

Many teachers now use AI tools to draft quizzes, make images for slides, or summarize readings. Two copyright questions follow.

Is the AI output protected?

Often not. In Part 2 of its Copyright and Artificial Intelligence report, published January 29, 2025, the US Copyright Office concluded that "prompts alone do not provide sufficient human control to make users of an AI system the authors of the output." Material an AI system generates on its own is not protected, though your own edits, selections and arrangement can be.

Can the output copy someone else?

Yes. An AI image or passage can closely resemble a protected work it learned from. Treat AI output the way you would treat a found image: check it, avoid outputs that copy recognizable characters or text, and cite the tool where your school asks for it.

Student work and AI rules

Whether students may use AI on an assignment is a school rule about honesty, not a copyright question. Our page on whether using AI counts as plagiarism explains the difference. If a student's work is flagged as AI-written, look at drafts and version history before reaching a conclusion; our guide to evidence of human authorship lists what to ask for. No detector score should be the only evidence in an academic misconduct case. For the student side of these questions, share our copyright guide for students.

05Who owns the lessons you make

Under section 201(b) of the Copyright Act, the employer owns a "work made for hire," which includes work an employee prepares within the scope of their job, unless both sides agree otherwise in a signed written document. Lesson plans, slides and tests made as part of a teaching job can fall into that category.

In practice, ownership of teaching materials often depends on your contract, a collective bargaining agreement, or a district or university intellectual property policy. Colleges in particular often have written policies that leave scholarly and course materials with faculty. If you plan to sell lesson plans online, read those documents first, and ask your union or a lawyer licensed in your state if they are unclear.