by Kathy Quinn, President-elect
I expected to be informed and educated, but certainly not entertained, when I signed up for a CE course titled Copyright in the Digital Age at the SLA Annual Conference.
However, I was sorely mistaken with my stereotypical opinion of how dry and boring a complicated legal topic such as copyright would be. This “Click U! Live” class was taught by several attorneys affiliated with the Copyright Clearance Center, primarily Mr. Frederic Haber, its Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary.
Copyright is obviously a very complex issue that cannot begin to be fully covered in a four-hour CE course, but this class covered the basics very well. Interestingly, Mr. Haber said that most attorneys take only one class on copyright in law school.
I’d like to share a few tidbits of interesting info I learned:
· There have been several multi-million dollar lawsuits by publishers against companies that were violating copyright, including one that involved email and Intranet distribution of a newsletter.
· In response to a question, Mr. Haber said that web links cannot be copyright protected because they are merely a bibliographic record. The content on a Web page can be protected, but the link itself cannot.
· However, he later stated that “deep linking” (a link on one website to a specific page on another website) is one area of copyright law that does not yet have enough case law and experience to determine whether it’s legal or not. It was recommended that any situation of this nature be discussed with an attorney.
· Most people know that government information is not protected by copyright. However, Mr. Haber clarified that U.S. federal government information is not protected, but information produced by state and local governments usually is protected.
· A copyright notice is not required for protection. Just because something doesn’t have a © or similar notice does not mean it can be used without violating copyright.
· Copyright law extends from the traditional paper format to today’s electronic and digital formats. The format is irrelevant to copyright protection.
The Copyright Clearance Center offers various licensing and permissions services to companies and organizations to assist them in appropriate use of copyrighted materials. Its website, www.copyright.com, has lots of useful information.
Since this CE session is a Click University class, I encourage you to take it if you have any questions or concerns about your or your organization’s compliance with copyright law.
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