Copyright Resources and Current Issues

I was browsing iTunesU for interesting video and found a video series at Central Washington University by Sherry Gordon. So if you'd like to see a good overview of fair use, or get a sense of how others teach introductions to fair use, this is a very good resource.

Go to iTunes, iTunesU then find Central Washington University on the list of contributing schools. On the Central Washington University page, you'll find a box called:

Activities, performers, guest speakers and sports.

In that box there will be a series called Featured Audio and Video and the Sherry Gordon series on Fair Use and the TEACH Act are in that series.

Posted by Lorre Smith at 10:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Michael Carrol's publications form an interesting reading list for those who wish to explore copyright issues:

http://www.law.vill.edu/academics/faculty/publications/results.asp?authorid=8

What attracted me initiallly was "Fixing Fair Use", however now that I've seen the list I'm looking foward to reading them all.

Posted by Lorre Smith at 10:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Managing IPR in Digital Learning Materials: A Development Pack for Institutional Repositories
Authors John Casey, Jackie Proven and David Dripps have prepared this online guide for use by respository managers and higher education professionals.

"The largest UK Higher Education funding council HEFCE issued guidance to the senior management of higher education institutions about IPR (Intellectual Property Rights) in e-learning. A key points was:

“Every HEI needs to establish a clear, preferably plain English, IPR policy and disseminate it widely across the organisation, including IT guidelines and codes of practice for staff and students.”

Intellectual Property Rights in E-learning Programmes: good practice for senior managers , HEFCE, 2006

The objective of this institutional development pack is to empower people to undertake this task and help them put in place the necessary supporting measures in their institutions. To do this we have been working across a very broad front that takes in educational factors, culture and organisational issues, technology, the law, the commercial environment and policy development. "

http://trustdr.ulster.ac.uk/outputs.php

Posted by Lorre Smith at 11:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It's been awhile since I investigated orphan works, but since I'm getting ready to do a class, I thought I'd browse some sites. Here are some of the more interesting ones I found today:

Background from the U.S. Copyright Office page [from the Federal Register]
http://www.copyright.gov/fedreg/2005/70fr3739.html

American Library Association update:
http://www.ala.org/ala/washoff/woissues/copyrightb/orphanworks/orphanworks.cfm

American Intellectual Property Law Association "Orphan Works Draft Points"
http://www.aipla.org/MSTemplate.cfm?Section=Orphan_Works_Draft_Points&Site=Copyright_Law&Template=/ContentManagement/ContentDisplay.cfm&ContentID=7584

technorati "Orphan Works"
http://technorati.com/tag/Orphan%20Works

Public Knowledge [search results] on Orphan Works
http://www.publicknowledge.org/search/node/orphan+works
If this link does not work, go to www.publicknowledge.org/ and search for orphan works.

Posted by Lorre Smith at 10:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

"The Chilling Effects Clearinghouse is a unique collaboration among law school clinics and the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Conceived and developed at the Berkman Center for Internet & Society by Berkman Fellow Wendy Seltzer, the project is now supported by clinical programs at Harvard, Berkeley, Stanford, University of San Francisco, University of Maine, George Washington School of Law, and Santa Clara University School of Law clinics, and the EFF.

Chilling Effects aims to support lawful online activity against the chill of unwarranted legal threats. We are excited about the new opportunities the Internet offers individuals to express their views, parody politicians, celebrate favorite stars, or criticize businesses, but concerned that not everyone feels the same way. Anecdotal evidence suggests that cease and desist letters often silence Internet users, whether or not their claims have legal merit. The Chilling Effects project seeks to document that "chill" and inform C&D recipients of their legal rights in response.
"

http://www.chillingeffects.org/index.cgi

Posted by Lorre Smith at 01:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This page is a very rich resource for all the topics listed in the title. I particularly like the currency of the links and their organization. Being of a medium length and level of detail, it links out to more detailed resources in the various categories:

Current Awareness
Reference
Organizations
Initiatives & Projects
Articles, Papers & Reports
Laws, Policies & Court Opinions

If you're going to pattern your page after an existing one, you could do a lot worse!

http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/Copyright/

Posted by Lorre Smith at 10:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Columbia Law School Professor, writer for several popular magazines, and general thoughtful scholar Tim Wu provides useful perspective on copyright issues.

Many gems regarding copyright can be found in this list:

http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/cf_dev/AbsByAuth.cfm?per_id=159088

Posted by Lorre Smith at 10:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This page deserves note for its list called:

Copyright Licensing Organizations & Publications Rights Clearinghouses.

These links deliver a wealth of information for US, UK and Canada.

http://www.copyright.gov/resces.html

Posted by Lorre Smith at 01:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A part of the Intellectual Property section of the Free Advice site, this page offers links on the following subjects:

General Questions
Bands
Music agents
Music publishers
Producing and Recording
Record companies
Royalties
Sampling

So doesn't that cover just about everything?

http://law.freeadvice.com/intellectual_property/music_law/

Posted by Lorre Smith at 01:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

BASE - Bielefeld Academic Search Engine

On today's version of the page they describe themselves as having: 5,316,448 Pages of 400 Content Providers

From their "about" page:

In comparison to commercial search engines, BASE is distinguished for the following features:

* Intellectually selected resources
* Only document servers that comply with the specific requirements of scientific quality and relevance are included
* A data resources inventory provides transparency in the searches
* Searches full text plus meta data (depending on the resource)
* Discloses web resources of the "Deep Web", which are ignored by commercial search engines or get lost in the vast quantity of hits.
* The display of search results includes precise bibliographic data (if provided in the resource)
* Several options for sorting the result list
* "Refine your search result" options (authors, resources, document type, language etc.)

Try it - you might like it!
http://www.base-search.net/index.php?i=b&l=en

Posted by Lorre Smith at 06:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

What Artists Need to Know About Copyright & Trademarks
For filmmakers, visual artists, and writers
Edited by
David Bollier, Gigi Bradford,
Laurie Racine and Gigi B. Sohn

From 2005, this 116 page monograph describes itself thuswise: "...It is designed to give readers an understanding of the historic balance between copyright and the public domain as it was written into the U. S. Constitution; how copyright and trademark laws have evolved over time; what they are intended to accomplish; and how you can make sure you understand, benefit from, and follow them. This book is not a how-to or a practical compendium, but rather
a clear explanation of a topic that can appear so complex that those who need to know about it often avoid the topic altogether."

Posted by Lorre Smith at 01:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I've been doing presentations and this is my handout of a list of links for a basic introduction to copyright.

General resources
Intellectual Property and Copyright Resources
http://library.albany.edu/divs/digital/copyright.html

American Library Association Washington Office
http://www.ala.org/ala/washoff/WOissues/copyrightb/copyright.htm

Copyright Management Center
http://copyright.iupui.edu/

Cornell Law School
http://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/index.php/Copyright

North Carolina State
http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/scc/main.html

University of Texas - Crash Course
http://www.utsystem.edu/ogc/IntellectualProperty/cprtindx.htm

University of Maryland Center for Intellectual Property
http://www.umuc.edu/distance/odell/cip/cip.shtml

Copyright law
Subject matter and scope – copyright law
http://www.copyright.gov/title17/92chap1.html#102

Exclusive rights – copyright law
http://www.copyright.gov/title17/92chap1.html#106

Fair Use
http://www.copyright.gov/title17/92chap1.html#107

Library Copying
http://www.copyright.gov/title17/92chap1.html#108

Copyright guidelines
http://www.copyright.iupui.edu/fu_overview.htm

Document Delivery policies- UMinn example
http://www.lib.umn.edu/copyright/intdocdel-std.pdf

International copyright
WIPO treaty
http://www.wipo.int/treaties/en/ip/wct/trtdocs_wo033.html

The Public Domain
When Works Pass Into the Public Domain
http://www.unc.edu/~unclng/public-d.htm

Copyright term and the public domain in the U.S.
http://www.copyright.cornell.edu/training/Hirtle_Public_Domain.htm

How to Investigate the Copyright Status of a Work
http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ22.pdf

Getting Permission
Securing Permission – IUPUI
http://www.copyright.iupui.edu/permsec.htm

NC State Permissions Guide
http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/scc/misc/contents.html

Permission Letter
http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/scc/forms/duplicate.html

The Watch File
http://tyler.hrc.utexas.edu/

Orphan Works
Orphan Works
http://www.law.duke.edu/cspd/orphanworks.html

Author rights
Creative Commons
http://creativecommons.org/license/

Posted by Lorre Smith at 03:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Directory of Open Access Repositories

They describe it best themselves on their home page:

"OpenDOAR is an authoritative directory of academic open access repositories. Each OpenDOAR repository has been visited by project staff to check the information that is recorded here. This in-depth approach does not rely on automated analysis and gives a quality-controlled list of repositories."

http://www.opendoar.org/

Posted by Lorre Smith at 09:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Digital Copyright Canada forum discusses many things regarding Canadian Copyright, and the links page is a good Canada-centric list of interesting links.

http://www.digital-copyright.ca/links.shtml

Posted by Lorre Smith at 04:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The University of Wisconsin Extension Clearinghouse has a good selected list of copyright resources of interest to professionals in higher education.

It is kept up to date and has good annotations. It points to organizations, discussion lists, a blog or two and good tutorials among other things.

Lorre Bob sez check it out.

http://www.uwex.edu/disted/intprop.cfm

Posted by Lorre Smith at 06:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I took part in an engaging panel discussion over the weekend: To "Quote" or Not to Quote
Understanding Intellectual Property Rights for Writers of Fiction, Nonfiction, and Poetry and selected resources to show the audience.
Here's the list:

General
Intellectual Property, Copyright and Fair Use Resources
http://library.albany.edu/digital/copyright.html

American Library Association Resource Page on Copyright Issues
http://www.ala.org/ala/washoff/WOissues/copyrightb/copyright.htm

Copyright law
Subject matter and scope of copyright:
http://www.copyright.gov/title17/92chap1.html - 102

Exclusive rights in copyrighted works
http://www.copyright.gov/title17/92chap1.html - 106

Limitations on exclusive rights: Fair Use
http://www.copyright.gov/title17/92chap1.html - 107

* * * * * * * * * *

International copyright
WIPO Copyright Treaty
http://www.wipo.int/treaties/en/ip/wct/trtdocs_wo033.html

* * * * * * * * * *

Public Domain
When Works Pass Into the Public Domain in the United States
http://www.copyright.cornell.edu/training/Hirtle_Public_Domain.htm

“When works pass into the public domain” by Lolly Gassaway
http://www.unc.edu/~unclng/public-d.htm

* * * * * * * * * *

Getting permission
Sample Permissions Letter
http://www.umi.com/hp/Support/DServices/copyrght/AppxA.html

Sample permission letter:
http://www.umi.com/umi/dissertations/copyright/AppxA.html
http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/scc/misc/contents.html

* * * * * * * *

Orphan Works
Center for the Study of the Public Domain
http://www.law.duke.edu/cspd/orphanworks.html

* * * * * * * * *

Author Rights
Creative Commons
http://www.creativecommons.org/learn/licenses
http://creativecommons.org/license/

Actions Faculty Members Can Take
http://www.ala.org/ala/acrl/acrlissues/scholarlycomm/scholarlycommunicationtoolkit/faculty/actnowfaculty/actnow.htm

Retaining Rights to Use Your Works: Copyright Challenges for Faculty
http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/scc/misc/language.html

Reserving Rights of Use in Works Submitted for Publication:
Negotiating Publishing Agreements
http://www.copyright.iupui.edu/nego_doc.htm

Posted by Lorre Smith at 08:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

From the Standford University Libraries Copyright and Fair Use Site, this page is a good place to find out some of the subtleties of the public domain.

http://fairuse.stanford.edu/Copyright_and_Fair_Use_Overview/chapter8/8-b.html

Today there's a right column advertisement for Stephen Fishman's book The Public Domain, 3rd edition, and while I can find plenty of commercial web sites trying to sell the book, I'm still hunting up a review or some sort of critique worthy of putting here in the blog.

Posted by Lorre Smith at 01:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The emphasis on the use of music is very helpful, and I like the site arrangement.
The outline:
1 Introduction

2 Rights of Copyright Owners

3 Use by Educators

* Reproducing
* Recording
* Preparing Derivative Works
* Distribution
* Performance

o Face-to-Face Exemption
o Distance Education Exemption

+ Music for Worship Exemption
+ School Concert Exemption

* Display

4 Duration of Copyright

5 Penalties For Infringement

http://www.menc.org/information/copyright/copyr.html

Posted by Lorre Smith at 07:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Here's another area of the University of Texas site on copyright with a neat index to topics of special interest for teachers. Although it's obviously aimed at the Texas faculty, it's got a good deal of general information that'll be useful for all of us.

http://www.utsystem.edu/ogc/IntellectualProperty/asklaw.htm

Posted by Lorre Smith at 10:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This is an interesting, if somewhat brief list of links regarding IP by a group that's certainly effected by IP issues daily.

"CPSR is a global organization promoting the responsible use of computer technology. Founded in 1981, CPSR educates policymakers and the public on a wide range of issues."

http://www.cpsr.org/issues/ip/

Posted by Lorre Smith at 02:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Created at the prestigeous Franklin Pierce Law School, the IP Mall describes itself: " As an extension of the home to the most extensive IP Library in the United States, Pierce Law presents the IP Mall [www.ipmall.info], an internationally acclaimed IP resource Website providing a unique collection of Pierce Law hosted intellectual property resources and links to the most valuable IP resources in the world (patents, copyrights, trademarks, trade secrets, licensing, technology transfer, etc.). "

http://ipmall.info/

Posted by Lorre Smith at 04:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Although compiled in 2003, this University of California guide still contains plenty of live links to permissions resources. The "Guides for locating copyright holders" are good additions to anyone's list of resources concerning places to look for copyright holder information.

I particularly like the link to Kenneth Crews's page:

Crews, Kenneth D. When You Cannot Get Permission: Dealing With the "Dead End" of a Copyright Quest. Copyright Management Center, Indiana University-Purdue University, Indianapolis (IUPUI). 2002.

Copyright Permission Resources
http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/copyright/permissionsresources.html#guides

Posted by Lorre Smith at 01:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Open Access activists in research institutions have built several consortial organizations and this SHERPA site is an excellent place to begin becoming familiar with their work.

From the SHERPA "About" page:

"The original SHERPA partnership was formed for the SHERPA project (2002-2006) and drew from research-led universities with an active interest in establishing an example of a then-new concept - an open access institutional repository. After a year, the original 7 development partners were joined by 6 more partners to form a partnership of 21 individual institutions. We now have 26 institutions overall, consisting of 24 HE institutions, the British Library and the AHDS."

http://www.sherpa.ac.uk/index.html

SHERPA: Securing a Hybrid Environment for Research Preservation and Access

Posted by Lorre Smith at 03:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

WSU's site provides concise pages regarding fair use, getting permission, the public domain, music and copyright and other worthy topics. I like the site design very much and feel like it helps retrieve relevant information neatly and quickly. The site index will get you anywhere in the pages quickly if you can't find something on the clearly organized menus.

http://publishing.wsu.edu/copyright/index.html

Posted by Lorre Smith at 01:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

WATCH: Writers, Artists, and their Copyright Holders

The WATCH file a well-done database to be used for locating copyright holders and requesting permissions. The Harry Ransom Center of the University of Texas at Austen and Reading University Library have worked together to make it all happen. Besides the database, there is a bit of useful information about U.K. copyright, and some very good links to online resources on copyright.

http://tyler.hrc.utexas.edu/

Posted by Lorre Smith at 10:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The statement is best described by itself:

"DOCUMENTARY FILMMAKERS’ STATEMENT OF BEST PRACTICES IN FAIR USE
By the Association of Independent Video and Filmmakers, Independent Feature Project, International Documentary Association, National Alliance for Media Arts and Culture, and Women in Film and Video (Washington, D.C., chapter), in consultation with the Center for Social Media in the School of Communication at American University and the Program on
Intellectual Property and the Public Interest in the Washington College of Law at American University, and endorsed by Arts Engine, the Bay Area Video Coalition, the Independent Television Service, P.O.V./American Documentary, and the
University Film and Video Association.

This Statement of Best Practices in Fair Use makes clear what documentary fi lmmakers currently regard as reasonable application of the copyright “fair use” doctrine."

http://www.documentary.org/resources/src/Fair_Use/bestpractices.pdf

Posted by Lorre Smith at 01:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Copyright & Permission page lists several very interesting and useful links regarding copyright. I'm most impressed by the chart of AAP members and contact info for permissions requests and queries. It is located in pages located by the "How do I contact an AAP member to request permission to use their copyrighted material?" link.

http://www.publishers.org/copyright/index.cfm

Posted by Lorre Smith at 11:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The O'Keefe Library of St. Ambrose University has put together this compact list that has a few dead links but several very good links for an overview of copyright. It's aimed at professors, so sticks closely to higher education issues.

http://library.sau.edu/bestinfo/Faculty/copyrite.htm

Posted by Lorre Smith at 10:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Attorney Lloyd J. Jassin composed a page in 2004 about this topic which shows a good variety of ways to seek permissions. In 1998 Jassin and colleague Steven Schecter wrote: The Copyright Permission and Libel Handbook: A Step-by-Step Guide for Writers, Editors, and Publishers and this page reflects the in-depth knowledge accrued in Jassin's experience. An update would be nice, but there's much to be gleaned from this very good page.

http://www.copylaw.com/new_articles/permission.html

Posted by Lorre Smith at 10:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

ARL has created a concise page of links to TEACH act resources. Following those links will provide just about the best background and supporting materials that you will need to understand the act, and the various requirements and policies which should be considered in choosing an organizational method of compliance.

Technology, Education, and Copyright Harmonization (TEACH) Act
http://www.arl.org/info/frn/copy/TEACH.html

Posted by Lorre Smith at 09:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

"About the “Current copyright literature” website:

The "Current copyright literature" website is a resource for keeping informed of current articles related to U.S. copyright law. This service is edited by Tobe Liebert, the Assistant Director for Collection Development & Special Projects at the Tarlton Law Library.

Here's the process: I review law journals and law reviews (and a great many other legal periodicals) as they are received in the library. I examine the table of contents of all of these publications and identify any article concerning U.S. copyright law. I then input the basic bibliographic information about each article into this database, and scan the first page of the article. The availability of the first page of the article should better enable readers to know if they are interested in reading the whole article."

http://web.austin.utexas.edu/law_library/copyright/

Posted by Lorre Smith at 01:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The pointer in today's entry is to the Copyright Basics section of this site, because I think it has some of the best examples and links for those in search of basic copyright information and guidelines. There are also very good links concerning getting permission and there are two pages of general links that I'll be browsing for a while to come.

KSU Intellectual Property Information Center
http://www.k-state.edu/academicservices/intprop/copyright.htm

Posted by Lorre Smith at 12:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)