Posted-By: auto-faq 2.4
Archive-name: Copyright-FAQ/part5

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT COPYRIGHT (V. 1.1.0)
Part 5 - Further copyright resources.

Copyright 1993 Terry Carroll
(c) 1993 Terry Carroll


This article is the fifth in a series of six articles that
contains frequently asked questions (FAQ) with answers relating to
copyright law, particularly that of the United States.  It is
posted to the usenet misc.legal, misc.legal.computing, and
misc.int-property newsgroups monthly, on or near the 17th of each
month.  The FAQ maintainer is currently investigating the
requirements for posting the FAQ in the news.answers and related
newsgroups.

The most current copy of the FAQ is always available for anonymous
ftp from charon.amdahl.com [129.212.33.1], in the directory
/pub/misc.legal/Copyright-FAQ, filenames part.1 - part.6.

If you do not have direct access to FTP, you can use the FTP mail
service offered by the DEC Western Research Laboratory to obtain a
copy by mail [note: I have been unable to get this to work - once
the FAQ is set up for *.answers, it will be available for email
transfer by way of the rtfm.mit.edu mail-server].  To do this,
send an email message to [email protected] with the following
commands in the body of your message:

  connect charon.amdahl.com
  get /pub/misc.legal/Copyright-FAQ/part.1
  get /pub/misc.legal/Copyright-FAQ/part.2
  get /pub/misc.legal/Copyright-FAQ/part.3
  get /pub/misc.legal/Copyright-FAQ/part.4
  get /pub/misc.legal/Copyright-FAQ/part.5
  get /pub/misc.legal/Copyright-FAQ/part.6
  quit

For further information on the FTPmail service, send an email
message to [email protected] with a single command "help" in
the body of your message.


DISCLAIMER - PLEASE READ.

This article is Copyright 1993 by Terry Carroll.  It may be freely
redistributed in its entirety provided that this copyright notice
is not removed.  It may not be sold for profit or incorporated in
commercial documents without the written permission of the
copyright holder.  Permission is expressly granted for this
document to be made available for file transfer from installations
offering unrestricted anonymous file transfer on the Internet.
Permission is further granted for this document to be made
available for file transfer in the Legal Forum and Desktop
Publishing Forum data libraries of Compuserve Information
Services.  This article is provided as is without any express or
implied warranty.  Nothing in this article represents the views of
Amdahl Corporation, Santa Clara University, or the Santa Clara
Computer and High Technology Law Journal.

While all information in this article is believed to be correct at
the time of writing, this article is for educational purposes only
and does not purport to provide legal advice.  If you require
legal advice, you should consult with a legal practitioner
licensed to practice in your jurisdiction.

Terry Carroll, the FAQ-maintainer, is a computer professional, and
is currently (7/93) a student in his final year at Santa Clara
University School of Law and Editor-in-Chief of the Santa Clara
Computer and High Technology Law Journal.

If you have any additions, corrections, or suggestions for
improvement to this FAQ, please send them to one of the following
addresses, in order of preference:

 [email protected]
 [email protected]
 [email protected]

I will accept suggestions for questions to be added to the FAQ,
but please be aware that I will be more receptive to questions
that are accompanied by answers.  :-)


FAQ ORGANIZATION.

The following table indicates the contents of each of the parts of
the FAQ.

 Part 1 - Introduction (including full table of contents).
 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?"

TABLE OF CONTENTS (for this part).

Part 5 - Further copyright resources.

5.1) Where can I get more information on copyright?
5.2) What materials related to copyright are available on the
    Internet?


5.1) Where can I get more information on copyright?

The U.S. Copyright Office General Information Package 118 provides
general information on copyright law.  Copyright Office Circular
2, "Publications on Copyright," provides a complete list of
publications relating to copyright which are available from the
Copyright Office.

These materials and many others may be ordered (generally free of
charge) by calling the Copyright Office Hotline at 202-707-9100
and leaving a voice mail message.  Call the Hotline only if you
already know the number of the publication you want.  If you don't
know the publication number, the Copyright Office maintains a
prerecorded information line at 202-707-3000.  This line provides
an automatic voice mail attendant that provides information
according to responses presented from a touch-tone keypad.  Much
of the information in section 2.6 was obtained from this
information line.

The book "Intellectual Property in a Nutshell," by Arthur R.
Miller of Harvard Law School and Michael H. Davis of Cleveland-
Marshall College of Law (West Publishing, 1990, ISBN 0-314-75738-
4), provides a fine introduction not only to copyright law, but
also to patent and trademark law.  It's typically available from
college or law school bookstores for about $15.

The authoritative secondary source for information on copyright is
the five-volume loose-leaf opus, "Nimmer on Copyright."
Originally written and maintained by the late Professor Melvin
Nimmer and now maintained by his son, David Nimmer, this is the
most respected source of copyright information, short of the texts
of the statutes, regulations, and cases themselves.  Nimmer is
frequently cited by courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court, as
an authority to justify their opinions.  I've been surprised to
find short essays on even the most obscure copyright questions
(e.g., whether a food recipe is subject to copyright).  I heartily
recommend it as an initial source for research.  It is, however, a
bit dense for casual reading.

Several readers have recommended L. Ray Patterson & Stanley W.
Lindberg, "The Nature Of Copyright" (1991), ISBNs 0-8203-1362-9
(paperback) and 0-8203-1347-5 (hardback).  Patterson and Stanley
reportedly argue for a broad interpretation of a user's rights in
a work, and a more narrow interpretation of the right of the
copyright holder.  Be aware that this interpretation may or may
not match the law of your jurisdiction.

In preparing this FAQ, I consulted the casebook that was used in
my Copyright class in Fall of 1991 at Santa Clara University
School of Law: Joyce, Patry, Leaffer and Jaszi, "Copyright Law,
Second Edition" (1991), ISBN 0-8205-0115-8.  Like most casebooks,
it contains edited versions of most of the landmark decisions in
the law, including most of the cases that are cited in this FAQ.
It's not for beginners, but it's well-written, and often contains
illustrations of the works being discussed in the cases (a very
useful feature, since copyright questions often turn on questions
of similarity or originality that can only be determined by seeing
the work).  The book's best features are a good review of the
history of copyright, an excellent description of the
international treaties covering copyright, and a detailed
bibliography at the end of each chapter.  An unfortunate feature
is the index, which is not the best organized, and often provides
incorrect page numbers (perhaps because of the editors' hurry to
include the Feist case that had been decided only a few months
before the book was in stores).

Nolo Press publishes two books on copyright for the lay reader:
"The Copyright Handbook: How to Protect and Use Written Works," by
Stephen Fishman, ISBN 0-87337-130-5 ($24.95) and "How to Copyright
Software," by M.J. Salone, ISBN 0-87337-102-X ($39.95).  My
knowledge of these books is limited to the entries in the catalog,
but Nolo Press generally enjoys an excellent reputation for
publishing accurate and understandable books on law.  Nolo's
telephone number is (510) 549-1976.


5.2) What materials related to copyright are available on the
Internet?

The following is a list of materials relating to copyright that I
have been able to verify are available on the Internet.

STATUTES:

- FATTY.LAW.CORNELL.EDU -

Most portions of the current copyright law have been made
available by Cornell University.  To review the statute, enter the
command

 telnet fatty.law.cornell.edu 8210

and sign on with a user ID of "www."  No password is necessary.
This will allow you to use the World Wide Web software to navigate
the copyright law.  It also includes access to the Berne
Convention.

TREATIES:

- THE MULTILATERALS PROJECT -

The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy maintains the
Multilaterals Project, an anonymous ftp site with a number of
multilateral treaties, at jade.tufts.edu.  This archive includes
versions of both the Berne Convention and the Universal Copyright
Convention.  The treaties are in directory /pub/diplomacy.  The
following files are of particular interest:

 README - A one-page description of the Multilaterals Project, by
Peter Stott, its director.

 INDEX - An index of all the treaties and other documents
available from the project.

 BH006-1971.txt - The 1971 Paris text of the Berne Convention for
the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works.

 UNTS11850.txt - The 1967 Stockholm text of the Berne Convention
for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works.  The United
States is not a party to the this text.

 UNTS13444.txt - The 1971 Paris text of the Universal Copyright
Convention.

In addition, The Berne Convention may also be viewed via telnet to
fatty.law.cornell.edu as noted above, under "STATUTES."

OTHER RESOURCES:

- THE CNI-COPYRIGHT MAILING LIST -

The Coalition for Networked Information (CNI) sponsors CNI-
Copyright, an Internet mailing list devoted to copyright issues.
To join, send a message to [email protected] with a single line of
text in the body that says:

SUBSCRIBE CNI-COPYRIGHT your name

If that doesn't work, send a message to [email protected] (Craig
Summerhill) and ask him to manually add you to the list.  After
joining, messages may be sent to the list at CNI-
[email protected].

Archives of the CNI-COPYRIGHT list are available and may be
searched online via telnet.  To access them, telnet to a.cni.org,
login with the ID "brsuser" (no password is required), and follow
the instructions presented.  CNI-COPYRIGHT archives are in the
COPY database.

CNI is a not for profit corporation and is a joint project of the
Association of Research Libraries (ARL), CAUSE, and EDUCOM.  It
promotes the creation of and access to information resources in
networked environments in order to enrich scholarship and to
enhance intellectual productivity.

- COPYRIGHT GUIDE FOR PHOTOGRAPHERS -

FTP site moink.nmsu.edu (128.123.4.58) has a repository,
/pub/rec.photo, for files related to photography.  Among the files
contained in this directory is the Copyright Guide For
Photographers, produced by the American Society of Media
Photographers, Inc.  While the Guide is particularly oriented
towards photographers, much of the information it provides will be
of use to anyone interested in copyright.  The file
asmp-copyright-guide is an ASCII version of this document.  A TeX
version is also available, in asmp-copyright-TeX.tar.z.

- USENET NEWSGROUPS -

There are several newsgroups that from time to time discuss
copyright issues.

misc.int-property: Discussions of intellectual property;
copyright, patent, trademark and trade secrecy, and their
alternatives.

misc.legal.computing: Legal issues related to computers.
Copyright and patent issues predominate.

misc.legal: the main newsgroup covering legal issues, including
copyright law.

comp.patents: Moderated newsgroup discussing issues related to
computers and patents, including software patents.  The newsgroup
is moderated by [email protected] (Peter Treloar).
Please note that the focus of this group is more on patent law
than copyright law.

comp.software.licensing: Trends, practices, and techniques in
software licensing.

gnu.misc.discuss: Discussions in this group frequently include
issues of software patents, copyright, and "copyleft."


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