Status Line
- General Information
- Mar 08
- Issue: 220
What’s Up on the Web?
I recently attended a one-hour webinar on copyright that updated me on some basics, but left me eager to find more information and browse what’s currently available on the Web. Some of the resources are obvious, but if you haven’t visited the sites lately, they could be worth a fresh look.
The U.S. Copyright Office web site at http://www.copyright.gov/ offers quick access from its home page to “Copyright Basics” as well as an extensive FAQ. A particularly interesting area of the site is devoted to the history of copyright http://www.copyright.gov/history/index.html and includes articles from the “Copyright Lore” column of Copyright Notices. In the September 2005 issue, Judith Nierman talks about the “world’s biggest card catalog” which she claims is the catalog of the U.S. Copyright Office from 1870 through 1977 with 45 million cards in over 25,000 drawers. Read about it at http://www.copyright.gov/history/lore/2005/092005-lore.pdf.
“Taking the Mystery Out of Copyright,” provided at the Library of Congress site http://www.loc.gov/teachers/copyrightmystery/, is targeted for children and young adult audiences. It includes a short webcast with animated characters and an easy-to-read copyright timeline (“Files on Record”) that includes links to primary source and other documents.
The Copyright Clearance Center’s web site http://www.copyright.com includes a “Copyright Central” section that offers a variety of resources including copyright news and links to several copyright blogs. One such blog is LibraryLaw Blog http://blog.librarylaw.com/librarylaw/. A December 21, 2007, posting by blog contributor Mary Minow describes a survey conducted by ’Brary Web Diva blog author Kelli Staley that tested library professionals’ knowledge of copyright. Read more about this survey at http://blog.librarylaw.com/librarylaw/2007/12/what-do-library.html and test yourself by viewing the survey questions (and answers) at http://www.kellistaley.com/2007/12/what-do-you-know-about-copyright-survey.html.
Another LibraryLaw Blog contributor is Peter Hirtle, Intellectual Property Officer for the Cornell University Library. In a November 9, 2007 posting http://blog.librarylaw.com/librarylaw/2007/11/updated-copyrig.html, he announced the new version of his copyright duration chart, “Copyright Term and the Public Domain in the United States,” accessible at http://www.copyright.cornell.edu/public_domain/. This is a handy reference for determining a work’s copyright status and includes links to other similar useful resources as well.
At the bottom of Peter Hirtle’s above-mentioned copyright duration chart, you will find the following graphic:
- Creative Commons copyright license mark
This is a Creative Commons copyright license mark. Creative Commons is a nonprofit organization that facilitates the implementation of copyright terms falling somewhere between full copyright (creators retaining all rights) and public domain (no copyright). Read more about Creative Commons licenses at http://creativecommons.org/about/.
These sites certainly represent only a small sampling of the plethora of available copyright resources, but they confirm that good information about a topic as complex and important as copyright is easily accessible.
[Ann Gunning, Member Services Librarian, Nylink]