Currently viewing the category: "Copyright Information Notes"

E-textbooks: the state of play

On August 29, 2008 By

As the new school year begins there has been lots of reporting about E-textbooks, and the welter of stories offers an opportunity to assess the overall state of play.

This story from Inside Higher Ed outlines some of the “next steps” for E-texts, as well as the “remaining obstacles,” which are substantial. [...]

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New tools for recording copyrights

On July 9, 2008 By

Several new tools have recently become available to make copyright record keeping and searching somewhat easier, although it still is not what could be called simple. Perhaps more importantly, another set of “best practices” in fair use has been issued by The Center for Social Media at American University, which offers the opportunity to comment [...]

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How “real” is intellectual property?

On July 3, 2008 By

Toward the end of a session on copyright at the American Library Association’s annual conference last week, Carrie Russell, who is the Director of the ALA’s Program on Public Access to Information, exhorted the audience never to speak about copyright “ownership.” “Rights holders,” she said, do not own anything at all; holding IP [...]

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Use case on NIH Public Access

On June 10, 2008 By

Another question that is becoming common is about how to comply with the National Institute of Health Public Access Policy. The answer presented here was to an inquiry about an article accepted for publication in the journal “Nature,” whose policy about compliance is fairly well-publicized and easy to find. The specific steps that an [...]

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A copyright use case on film screenings

On May 31, 2008 By

I have recently been answering several questions that seem to recur, in one form or another, quite frequently. As an extension to the copyright widgets that were well-received over the winter, therefore, I want to offer somewhat generic versions of these questions, along with my answers. I hope they will be useful to others, [...]

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Copyright reform suggestions, part 1

On February 12, 2008 By

I am a little ashamed to admit that, at the American Library Association meeting last month, I learned about a very problematic provision of the U.S. copyright law that I had never heard of before. Representatives of the Association for Recorded Sound Collections and the Music Library Association spoke to several groups during [...]

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Where does a publication contract fit in? (Final widget)

On February 5, 2008 By

A publication agreement with a book or journal publisher is a contract between the author and that publisher; it may be either a copyright transfer or a license. The most important point in this regard is that all authors should read any publication agreement before they sign it to determine which way it [...]

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What is the Creative Commons? (weekly widget)

On January 24, 2008 By

Creative Commons is an organization that was founded to help authors and creators who are interested in sharing their work avoid the very restrictive rules of copyright, and their subsequent chilling effect on users. The licenses available through Creative Commons allow authors and creators to attach a recognizable legal document to their work, especially [...]

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How do licenses work? (weekly widget)

On January 17, 2008 By

Often a copyright owner (or the owner of any other kind of right) does not want to give her rights away, but does want to allow some people to use the subject of the rights in some way. This permission to use the subject of an exclusive right without liability is called a license. [...]

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How is copyright transferred? (weekly widget)

On January 10, 2008 By

Copyright, like most other “property” rights, can be sold, inherited through a will, given away or otherwise passed to other people (or corporate bodies). Since copyright is really a bundle of rights – reproduction, distribution, public performance, etc. – it can also be divided up and the different pieces transferred to different people under [...]

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