Technology, Education, and Copyright Harmonization Act of 2001

Revises Federal copyright law to extend the exemption from infringement liability for instructional broadcasting to digital distance learning or distance education. Excludes from such exemption (thus subjecting to infringement liability) any work produced or marketed primarily for performance or display as part of mediated instructional activities transmitted via digital networks, or a performance or display that is given by means of a copy or phonorecord that is not lawfully made and acquired and the transmitting government body or accredited nonprofit educational institution knew or had reasons to believe was not lawfully made and acquired. Allows under specified conditions the performance and display of reasonable and limited portions of any copyrighted work in an amount comparable to that which is typically displayed in the course of a live classroom session, by or in the course of a transmission.

Revises the conditions of such transmission to:

1. require the performance or display to be made by or at the direction of, or under the actual supervision of an instructor as an integral part of a class session offered as a regular part of the systematic mediated instructional activities of a governmental body or an accredited nonprofit education institution;
2. limit its reception to students officially enrolled in the course for which it is made or officers or employees of governmental bodies as a part of their official duties or employment; and
3. require the transmitting body or institution to take specified actions to promote faculty, student, and staff compliance with copyright law. Requires the transmitting body or institution also, in the case of digital transmission, to:

1. apply technological measures that reasonably prevent retention of the work in accessible form by transmission recipients for longer than the class session, and any unauthorized further dissemination of the work in accessible form by such recipients to others; and
2. refrain from engaging in conduct that could reasonably be expected to interfere with technological measures used by copyright owners to prevent such retention or unauthorized further dissemination.

Exempts governmental bodies and accredited nonprofit educational institutions from liability for infringement by reason of the transient or temporary storage of material carried out through the automatic technical process of a digital transmission of the performance or display of that material. Extends the current ephemeral recording exemption, under specified conditions, to copies or phonorecords embodying a performance or display in digital and analog form for use in making transmissions authorized by this Act.

Declares that this Act does not authorize the conversion of print or other analog versions of works into digital formats, except that such conversion is permitted only with respect to the amount of such works authorized to be performed or displayed if:

(1) no digital version of the work is available to the institution; or (2) such digital version is subject to technological protection measures that prevent its use.

Requires the Undersecretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property to report to specified congressional committees on technological protection systems that have been implemented, are available for implementation, or are proposed to be developed to protect digitized copyrighted works and prevent infringement, including upgradeable and self-repairing systems, and systems that have been developed, are being developed, or are proposed to be developed in private voluntary industry-led entities through an open broad based consensus process.