Tuesday, April 22, 2008

copy, right?

Since the topic of class discussion this week is copyright and I've just finished assigned reading on the topic - I must say that this is a concept that doesn't sink in right away. I've sat through discussions on copyright and intellectual property in several of my library courses and even attended a full-day library symposium on the topic last year and I still could not speak with authority on the matter. There is a lot of gray area with plenty of room for interpretation when it comes to fair use. In fact, the keynote speaker at the library symposium I attended emphasized this fact and said that we as librarians can use it to our advantage. His name was Ken Crews and he really helped break down the issue and put it in layman's terms. He maintains a website called "Copyright Management Center," which has a handy-dandy fair use checklist.

1 comment:

falblute said...

Have you taken 520 yet? The required text for that course (at least, with Linda Marion)is a book called Complete Copyright, which actually does a pretty good job of explaining some of the major aspects of copyright law that are important to librarians.