Copyright

A guide to major information sources of U.S. intellectual property legal research from the Drexel University School of Law Legal Research Center.

This chart is a great starting place to investigate the copyright status of works that might be in the public domain

Use this handbook from Berkeley Law to determine the status of an item in the US Public Domain

Stanford's Copyright Renewal Database can help determine whether copyright was renewed for works published between 1923 and 1963. After 1963, copyright renewal was automatic.

Use these charts to determine the status of a work in another country's public domain.

Database of works registered and copyright documents recorded with the U.S. Copyright Office since January 1, 1978. Difficult to use but a valuable tool to find copyright ownership.

This toolkit allows instructors to explore their options for displaying and transmitting works online for their courses.

by Michael Brewer & ALA Office for Information Technology Policy. Use this tool to evaluate the probability of Fair Use for usage of copyrighted materials

Columbia University's Fair Use Checklist helps you focus on the facts of your usage in evaluating the four factors of a fair use analysis

This report summarizes research into the current application of fair use to meet the missions of U.S. academic and research libraries.

The Center for Media Studies has developed several codes of best practice for practitioners in many fields.

A free, online course from MIT’s OpenCourseWare. Electrical Engineering & Computer Science course, with specifics on copyright applying to music and audiovisual content. Reading list, syllabus and 4 video lectures.

with sections on multimedia creation, digital libraries and copyright, copyright management, licensing and online presentations.

This site is designed for instructional purposes and offers a variety of methods by which you can educate yourself about copyright law. The information contained on this site is not meant as legal advice. The content was prepared to inform those in the academic community about copyright. If you are seeking legal or expert assistance, please seek the services of a competent legal professional.

An easy to use tool to Section 108 of the U.S. Copyright Code regarding the rights of libraries, archives and their users to make copies for the replacement or preservation of materials.

A free online tutorial developed by the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School and Electronic Information for Libraries (eIFL).

A collection of resources from the American Library Association on a wide vairety of copyright related topics such as creative commons, onlne video use and distance education.

The Web site for the Library Copyright Alliance (LCA), whose members include the American Library Association, the Association of Research Libraries, and the Association of College and Research Libraries.

This blog from Duke University offers explanations for how copyright issues and legislation affect libraries.