Copyright Resources for Librarians

In my previous post, I shared an interview conducted with Sara R. Benson, the author of “Compact Copyright: Quick Answers to Common Questions”.

In the interview, she mentioned two resources for staying current on copyright:

1. The U.S. Copyright Office 
2. Podcast: Copyright Chat

I want to share some additional resources I have found beneficial in my own work with copyright.

1. U.S. Copyright Office Fair Use Index: “The Fair Use Index tracks a variety of judicial decisions to help both lawyers and non-lawyers better understand the types of uses courts have previously determined to be fair—or not fair.”
2. Center for Media & Social Impact: “CMSI develops tools to better understand how to employ fair use, the right to use copyrighted material without permission or payment, under some circumstances. Filmmakers, journalists, teachers, visual arts professionals, librarians, archivists and more all have collaborated with CMSI to clarify how fair use works with their most common practices.”
3. Stanford University Copyright and Fair Use Center: “ …includes primary case law, statutes, regulations, as well as current feeds of newly filed copyright lawsuits, pending legislation, regulations, copyright office news, scholarly articles, blog and twitter feeds from practicing attorneys and law professors.”
4. Copyright Law of the United States (Title 17) and Related Laws Contained in Title 17 of the United States Code: “This publication contains the text of Title 17 of the United States Code, including all amendments enacted by Congress through December 27, 2020.”
5. Copyright Talk Webinar Archive: “CopyTalk is a series of webinars on specific copyright topics that include orphan works, mass digitization, international copyright developments, pending and recent copyright court cases, the copyright implications of new technologies, and more.” 
6. Copyright Alliance: “The Library Copyright Alliance (LCA) consists of three major library associations — the American Library Association, the Association of Research Libraries, and the Association of College and Research Libraries…The purpose of the LCA is to work toward a vvunified voice and common strategy for the library community in responding to and developing proposals to amend national and international copyright law and policy for the digital environment. The LCA’s mission is to foster global access to and fair use of information for creativity, research, and education.”

These are my “go to” resources on copyright; I hope you find them useful.