Copyright Resource Page Copyright FAQ This is an HTML front end for my Copyright FAQ. The FAQ was last updated in January 1994, and as such is slightly out of date in a few details. However, the majority of the information is still correct, and I've provided an update for some changes since then. The FAQ includes: * Part 1 - Introduction * Part 2 - Copyright basics * Part 3 - Common miscellaneous questions * Part 4 - International aspects * Part 5 - Further copyright resources * Part 6 - Appendix: A note about legal citation form, or, "What's all this '17 U.S.C. § 107' and '977 F.2d 1510' stuff?" * Copyright FAQ Addendum - Changes since the last FAQ update. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Other sources on my site Here are some other sources of copyright (and other) law I've made available: * Definitions - Section 101 only of the Copyright Act, which has most of the Act's definitions. I've marked this up so that you can follow links to other defined terms in the section. * Section 121 - This section was added to the Copyright Act on September 16, 1996. It permits certain copies to be made for blind and disabled persons without infringing. Also included is President Clinton's statement signing it into law. Note: I realize this is now a couple years old, but section 121 is not yet included in Cornell's online copy of Title 17 (see "Other sources elsewhere on the Internet", below), so I'll leave this up for the time being. * Copyright Protection For Typeface Designs: A Copyright Proposal - My law journal article from 1994, arguing that typeface design is copyrightable subject matter. Originally published in Volume 10 of the Santa Clara Computer and High Technology Law Journal. Persons interested in this topic may also find the TypeRight.Org web site to be of interest. * DMCA [New!] - the "Digital Millennium Copyright Act." This bill was signed by the President on October 28, 1998. I've also included the President's October 28 Statement on signing the bill, in which President Clinton raises constitutional issues relating to certain provisions that require additional duties and activities on the part of the Regsiter of Copyrights. I also have made available a PDF format version of the law. This law: 1. implements the terms of the WIPO Copyright Treaties (Title I); 2. prohibits circumvention of technological measures that control access to copyrighted works (e.g., copy protection schemes) (also Title I); 3. provides limitations for liability to online service providers (Title II); 4. provides exemptions for use of diagnostic computer programs (overturning the result of, but unfortunately not the rationale behind, MAI v. Peak, 991 F.2d 511 (9th Cir. 1993)) (Title III); 5. provides two years of protection for certain designs for useful articles (Title V); and 6. makes other miscellaneous changes (Title IV). For more a more detailed summary of Titles I and II, please see the Summary of the bill prepared by congressional staff. Finally, I have an excellent U.S. Copyright Office Summary of the DMCA (in PDF format). It's probably best to start with this document before diving right into the statute itself. It provides a very useful orientation to a rather complex piece of legislation. * S. 505 [New!] - Senate Bill no. 505, "To amend the provisions of title 17, United States Code, with respect to the duration of copyright, and for other purposes." The bill is also available in PDF format. This bill was passed by both houses of Congress on October 15, 1998 and became law when signed by the President on October 27, 1998. The new law extends the term of most copyrights by 20 years, and provides a music licensing exemption for food service and drinking establishments. For more a more detailed summary, please see the Summary of the bill prepared by congressional staff. Note that the Summary reflects the bill as introduced in March 1997, and does not include the musical licensing exemption, which was added by amendment in January 1998. * Cyber Promotions v. AOL - Text of Judge Charles R. Weiner's opinion holding that the First Amendment does not prevent an online service from blocking email spam. * CORDS notice of inquiry - The Copyright Office announced a Notice of Inquiry relating to the proposed adoption of a different design for certificates of registration issued through the Copyright Office Electronic Registration, Recordation, & Deposit System (CORDS). 62 Fed. Reg. 13715, Mar. 21, 1997. This is a copy of the notice as it appeared in the Federal Register, in PDF form. Although I also have a text version available, the text version includes only the text from pages 13715-17, and omits the graphic specimens of the proposed Form CORDS as printed on pages 13718-22; therefore, the PDF version is preferred. * H.R. 3048 - House of Representatives Bill no. 3048, "The Digital Era Copyright Enhancement Act." Also available in PDF format. * H.R. 3460 - House of Representatives Bill no. 3460, "To Establish the Patent and Trademark Office as a Government Corporation, and For Other Purposes." Also available in PDF format. * Intellectual Property Working Group "Green Paper" - Formally titled A Preliminary Draft of the Report of the Working Group on Intellectual Property Rights, this is the first draft of the so-called NII "White Paper" (see below). Also available in WordPerfect format, as prepared by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office. This document is here as a matter of posterity, because the USPTO has removed the draft from its web site. * Intellectual Property Working Group "White Paper" - Formally titled Intellectual Property and the National Information Infrastructure: The Report of the Working Group on Intellectual Property Rights, this is final report of the IP Working Group, which recommended substantial changes to U.S. copyright law. The Report is also available in PDF format and Microsoft Word format. I've also included the Commerce Department's Media Alert and Press Release about the Report. Finally, I've included an ASCII mark-up that I prepared of the statutory changes that were proposed by the paper. I prepared this because the mark-up in the ASCII version of the Report was useless; the italic and strikeout features that are used to show the mark-up in the Acrobat and Word versions do not show up in ordinary ASCII. I've had these files on my FTP site since September 6, 1995. That was the day after the Report was released, and long before I had a web page. I put them on my FTP site as a public service, because the USPTO web site (and the Commerce Department's Information Infrastructure Task Force Gopher site were almost immediately saturated due to demand for the Report. However, it never occurred to me to link to them from this page, so that's sort of new. Further official information, including the Report in ZIPped PostScript format and PDF versions of individual portions of the Report are maintained on the USPTO IPNII web page. * Cal. A.B. 1710 - California Assembly Bill 1710, introduced January 28, 1998. This bill, if passed, would amend the California Civil Code to limit recovery for damages resulting from the "Millenium Bug," i.e., computer failures due to software incorrectly processing the Year 2000 date transistion. Also available in PDF format. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Other sources elsewhere on the Internet Here are some other useful sources of copyright & related areas of law elsewhere on the Internet: * U.S. Copyright Act - The U.S. 1976 Copyright Act, courtesy of Cornell University law school. * Berne Convention - the 1971 Paris Text of the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works. The U.S. is party to this version of the treaty. * UCC - The 1971 Paris Text of the Universal Copyright Convention. The U.S. is party to this version of the treaty. * Copyright Office - The U.S. Copyright Office WWW page. * The Economic Espionage Act of 1996 - H.R. 3723, "The Economic Espionage Act of 1996," was enacted by Congress and became Public Law no. 104-294 on October 11, 1996. The statute amends the United States Code Title 18 (which deals with federal crimes) to add criminal penalties for trade secret misappropriation. The Statutes At Large version of this law is also available in either ASCII or PDF formats. Also available are the congressional reports: House Report no. 104-788, in either ASCII or PDF form, and Senate Report no. 104-359, in either ASCII or PDF form, and President Clinton's statement signing it into law. * H.R. 632 - H.R. 632, "An Act to enhance fairness in compensating owners of patents used by the United States," is a minor change to patent law that was enacted by Congress and became Public Law no. 104-308 on October 19, 1996. The statute amends the United States Code Title 28, section 1498(a), to allow patent plaintiffs to obtain costs and attorneys fee's, in addition to compensatory damages, when suing the U.S. government for patent infringement. Also available: the Statutes At Large version, in either ASCII or PDF formats, and the accompanying House Report no. 104-373, in either ASCII or PDF formats. * 10 Big Myths About Copyright Explained - maintained by Brad Templeton of ClariNet. * Oppedahl & Larson's copyright page - General information about copyrights, from the firm of Oppedahl & Larson. You may wish to check out their home page, as well -- it has a great deal of other information regarding other areas of intellectual property and computer-related law. * Benedict Mahoney's Copyright Website - an entertaining and readable web page discussing copyright issues. * Copyright duration table - Laura Gasaway's excellent table showing when works pass from copyright into public domain. * The First U.S. Copyright Act [Old!] - A copy of the Copyright Act of 1790, "An Act for the Encouragement of Learning, by securing the Copies of Maps, Charts and Books, to the Authors and Proprietors of such Copies, during the Times therein mentioned." * WSU Copyright Page - A copyright information page set up by Washington State University. * Edward Barrow's Copyright Page - This page is mostly regarding copyright in the U.K. Persons visiting Edward's site for the first time should start at his very informative copyright quiz. * Tekijänoikeus: vastauksia usein esitettyihin kysymyksiin - A Finnish Copyright FAQ (in Finnish). * Domain name "Green paper" - Formally entitled A Proposal to Improve Technical Management of Internet Names and Addresses: Discussion Draft, this is the U.S. Department of Commerce "Green Paper" on proposed revision schemes for Internet Domain Name Service (DNS). ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Note: software for reading PDF files may be found on Adobe Systems, Inc.'s web site at http://www.adobe.com/prodindex/acrobat/readstep.html. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- This page and all pages under the ~carroll heirarchy are Copyright © 1996-97 Terrence J. Carroll. No claim of copyright is made for any work of the U.S. government. Feedback regarding the contents of this page should be addressed to carroll@tjc.com. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- [back-arrow] Return to Terry Carroll's Home Page