Copyright Basics

It’s much more complicated than “if it was published after 1923 it’s still under copyright.” This chart provides the details.

Setting a slider on a date range tells you whether a work published in the United States is protected by copyright or is in the public domain.

An essential first stop for information about United States copyright. It provides information about the Copyright Office, copyright basics and registration forms, links to other Web sites devoted to copyright, and new and pending copyright legislation.

Copyright law source materials and links to other Internet resources on copyright and intellectual property topics.

U.S. copyright law and related laws contained in the United States Code.

A primer on copyright issues relating to the Internet, prepared by Thomas G. Field, Jr., Franklin Pierce Law Center.

Benedict O’Mahoney’s site provides “real world, practical and relevant copyright information of interest to infonauts, netsurfers, webspinners, content providers, musicians, appropriationists, activists, infringers, outlaws, and law abiding citizens.”

Free tools that let authors, scientists, artists, and educators easily mark their creative work with the freedoms they want it to carry. You can use CC to change your copyright terms from “All Rights Reserved” to “Some Rights Reserved.”

Search the Supreme Court Decisions site at the Legal Information Institute, Cornell University for syllabi containing the word “copyright.”

Search CURRENT CONGRESS for Text of Bills by Word/Phrase “copyright” for recent House and Senate bills.

Full text of the section of the United States Code relating to copyright.

Short "lessons" on copyright, trademarks, patents, and state laws protecting intellectual property from the National Paralegal College.

The primary function of the society is the gathering, dissemination and interchange of information concerning protection and use of rights in intellectual property. The Society’s FACE (Friends of Active Copyright Education) site is a new initiative whose goal is “to provide a broad range of resources to foster and support copyright awareness.”

"Confronts cutting-edge issues defending free speech, privacy, innovation, and consumer rights today. From the beginning, EFF has championed the public interest in every critical battle affecting digital rights."

The Center for the Study of the Public Domain at Duke Law School was founded in September of 2002, as part of the school’s wider intellectual property program. Its mission is to promote research and scholarship on the contributions of the public domain to speech, culture, science and innovation, to promote debate about the balance needed in our intellectual property system and to translate academic research into public policy solutions.

Sponsored by the Office for Information Technology, American Library Association, this site is a “way for librarians to learn about copyright and to get help when they have copyright troubles.”