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Copyright Circulars
These provide a basic set of guidelines for understanding copyright in the
context of digital course support projects. These are general guides to help
you understand the law. If, after reading the guides, you still have
questions about a specific use, click here for an email contact form.
Circular 1: is it copyrighted [pdf]
Circular 2: fair use guidelines [pdf]
Circular 3: licensing resources [pdf]
For Further Reading
Nolo Press publishes
books about the law for non-lawyers. These "plain english" guides are a good
introduction to legal concepts and a great place to start learning more about
copyright. (Morris = Yale University Law Library online catalog.)
Some suggested
Library of Congress Subject Headings for doing your own research in Orbis
or in Morris.
- copyright -- united states -- popular works
- copyright licenses
- intellectual property
- industrial property
- legal deposit of books, etc
To do more in-depth research, try these books, available in the Yale University Law library.
Miller, Arthur and Michael H. Davis Intellectual
Property: Patents, Trademarks, and Copyright in a Nutshell.
The Nutshell series is the Cliff's Notes of law school.
This small 471-page paperback has a good introduction to all types of intellectual
property. It is written by a reputable law professor and is a handy reference.
It will not provide an nuanced understanding of all the element of copyright
law, but will be helpful in gaining an overview of intellectual property law
generally.
Nimmer, Melville and David Nimmer, Nimmer on Copyright: A Treatise
on the Law of Literary, Musical and Artisitic Property, and the Protection
of Ideas.
Not for the faint of heart, this ten volume looseleaf set is updated at least
twice a year. Attorneys are the intended audience, but the language is not
so impenetrable as to make it unfriendly to the determined lay reader. This
is the standard treatise on U.S. copyright law and works best for researching
a specific question on a point of law.
Periodical
and journal literature is a good way to keep up with developments in intellectual
property laws.
Noted authors to look for in the legal periodical literature are Pamela Samuelson,
David Nimmer, Marybeth Peters and Lawrence Lessig. Search LegalTrac (through
iConn or at the Law School) or WilsonWeb's Index to Legal Periodicals and
Books for periodical articles. The full text of some may be avilable
on Lexis Academic or Hein Online. All should be available in print
at
the Law Library. Library trade magazines and web sites cover copyright law developments. American
Libraries and AALL Spectrum are good sources for current awareness,
as are the ALA and AALL Washington Office web sites.
The United States Copyright Office in the Library of Congress runs an email
list for those who want to stay current with changes in the copyright law.
You can sign up for this relatively low-traffic list at copyright.gov,
just click on NewsNet under What's New.
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