This just in. . . . On February 19 the Supreme Court of the United States agreed to hear a case challenging the constitutionality of the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act of 1998 -- for background on that case, see the the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard.

Guidelines for Copying for Educational Purposes

Guidelines are just that -- useful suggestions that, while helpful, do *not* have the force of law. The "safe harbors" that these guidelines suggest may -- or may not -- be recognized by any given court. Follow these guidelines with some confidence, but not total assurance.



• Guidelines for Classroom Copying of Books and Periodicals
  http://www3.utsystem.edu/ogc/IntellectualProperty/clasguid.htm
  
  
• Guidelines for Off-Air Recordings of Broadcast Programming for Educational Purposes
  http://www.musiclibraryassoc.org/Copyright/guiderec.htm
  
  
• Fair Use Guidelines for Educational Multimedia
  http://www.indiana.edu/~ccumc/mmfairuse.html
  
  
• CONTU Guidelines on Photocopying under Interlibrary Loan Agreements
  http://www.cni.org/docs/infopols/CONTU.html
  
  
• CONFU -- The 1996-97 Conference on Fair Use attempted to negotiate differences between publishers (representing owners of copyrights) and users of copyrighted materials in order to develop new guidelines for the digital age -- it failed
  http://www.utsystem.edu/OGC/IntellectualProperty/confu.htm
  
  
  

  Laura Ingalls Wilder Library copyright case
  
  

• Legal Brief in the Laura Ingalls Wilder Library case
  http://www.ago.state.mo.us/wildmo.htm
  
  

  Unfortunately, I've not been able to locate any additional information on the web -- though there was an indication that an early court decision was in favor the the LIW Library.
  
  
  

  General Resources for Copyright and Intellectual Property Issues
  
  

• American Libraries for February 2002 has an article on theft of web page content -- one of the stories should sound familiar!
  
  
• 10 Big Myths about Copyright Explained
  http://www.templetons.com/brad/copymyths.html
  
  
• US Copyright Office at the Library of Congress
  http://lcweb.loc.gov/copyright/
  
  
• See Copyright Law at the LC site (especially chapter one, sections 106, 107, 108 and 110)
  http://lcweb.loc.gov/copyright/title17/
  
  
• See the recent Digital Millennium Copyright Act Report from LC
  http://www.loc.gov/copyright/reports/studies/dmca/dmca_study.html
  (requires Adobe Acrobat reader)
  
  
• A new listserv devoted to Digital Copyright issues has been created at the University of Maryland's University College. Subscribe by sending to listproc@listserv.umuc.edu the following message: Subscribe Digital-Copyright John Doe [if your name is John Doe; otherwise use your own name]
  
  
• Copyright Information for Faculty from UT Libraries is a good compendium of straight-forward help about the complex world of copyright in the digital age
  http://www.lib.utk.edu/plan/copyrt/
  
  
• Bruce Lehman (Assistant Secretary of Commerce and Commissioner of Patents and Trademarks)'s statement before Senate and House Subcommittees
  http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/com/doc/ipnii/nii-hill.html
  • Explains the issues and how the law should be adapted to protect creators/authors and users in light of the new technologies and the Internet.
  
  
• WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organization)
  http://www.wipo.org/eng/index.htm
  
  
• University of Texas Office of General Counsel has developed a crash course in copyright.
  http://www.utsystem.edu/ogc/intellectualproperty/cprtindx.htm#top
  
  
• Another valuable resource is the Copyright Management Center at Indiana University - Purdue University Indianapolis
  http://www.iupui.edu/~copyinfo/home.html
  
  
• The Copyright Website has some interesting examples to examine.
  http://www.benedict.com/
  
  
• Brewster Kahle wants to archive the entire Internet -- Is it legal?
  http://info.uibk.ac.at/sci-org/voeb/kahle.html
  
  
• The University of Tennessee's General Counsel's Web page -- a copyright resource for the UTK community.
  http://toltec.lib.utk.edu/~gco/copyright.html
  
  
• Digital Future Coalition
  http://www.dfc.org
  
  
• Copyright Resources from IFLA (International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions)
  http://www.ifla.org/II/cpyright.htm
  
  
• Overview of European copyright issues
  http://www.kaapeli.fi/eblida/ecup
  
  
• Yale University's Copyright Resources is a major collection of copyright sites.
  http://www.library.yale.edu/~okerson/copyproj.html
  
  
• Stanford University's Fair Use Page
  http://fairuse.stanford.edu/
  
  
• A Fair Use Checklist developed by Dwayne K. Buttler
  http://www.iupui.edu/%7Ecopyinfo/fucheckintro.html
  
  
• CNI Copyright Basics
  http://www.cni.org/docs/infopols/US.Copyright.Basics.html
  
  
• EFF's Law Primer
  http://www.eff.org/pub/CAF/law/ip-primer
  
  
• W3C Intellectual Property Policy Page
  http://www.w3.org/IPR/
  
  
• Copyright Clearance Center -- helps institutions and businesses manage copyright cooperation
  http://www.copyright.com/
  
  
• Trademark Wars on the Web
  http://www.web.net/~misha/trademark.html
  
  
• Copyright for Educators
  http://www.lesley.edu/faculty/kholmes/SSECcopyright.html
  
  
• Copyright Reources on the Internet from the Groton, CT, public schools
  http://groton.k12.ct.us/mts/pt2a.htm
  
  
• Another fair use booklet
  http://www.cetus.org/fairindex.html