Author: Chi Song

Legal research can be challenging, even for experienced attorneys; however, there are many resources available to assist both attorneys and non-attorneys with their legal research needs.  The Legal Research in the Blogosphere series will share blog posts and online sites that legal researchers may find useful.

Copyright issues have always been topics of debate. With the constantly changing ways in which we create, share, access, obtain and save information and resources, copyright issues will likely remain a hot topic debate for years to come. If you want to learn more, check out these blogs about copyright issues and hot topics in copyright law.

• In Custodia Legis, “in the custody of the law”, is the blog for the Law Library of Congress and includes a wide variety of blog posts related to copyright issues.
• LLAM, the Law Library Association of Maryland published a series of posts on copyright issues.
• The Copyright Librarian is a blog maintained by the Copyright Program Librarian at the University of Minnesota Libraries.
• The ABA Journal’s Blawg Directory allows you to search for blogs by topic, including Copyright Law. Check out the list of 100+ blogs related to copyright law here.

Also, check out our earlier posts about copyright.gov and copyright law resources available in the Law Library!

Yesterday, we published a post detailing many of the resources
available through the U.S. Copyright Office’s website, www.copyright.gov. My favorite section of the website is the Copyright Lore section, which is a collection of fun facts related to the Copyright Office and its mission.

For example, did you know…

• that the Copyright Card Catalog is housed in the world’s biggest card catalog. This catalog has 25,675 drawers with 45 millions cards. These 45 millions cards, if stacked, exceeds 2,000 miles in length.
• that there have only been 12 Registers of Copyright since the inception of the Copyright Office?
• that the Copyright Office issued a copyright registration for the “Statue of American Independence”, the original name of the Statue of Liberty” on August 31, 1876, ten years before the Statue of Liberty was erected in the New York Harbor?

If you are interested in learning about the history and important dates in copyright history, check out the website’s Copyright Timeline that starts with the 1710 enactment of the Statute of Anne in Great Britain and continues to the 2011 appointment of the Register of Copyrights.

For teachers, the Library of Congress website provides information about copyright and primary sources and an interactive program called “Taking the Mystery Out of Copyright” that includes information about the national and state education standards that the interactive program meets.

Next week, we will publish a post detailing the copyright law related resources available at the Law Library.

Today is the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Book and Copyright Day. “This is a day to celebrate books as the embodiment of human creativity and the desire to share ideas and knowledge, to inspire understanding and tolerance.”* In honor of World Book and Copyright Day, the Law Library will publish a series of four posts this week and next week related to copyright law. Today’s post topic is the website for the United States Copyright Office, which can be accessed at www.copyright.gov.

Created by Congress in 1897, the Copyright Office is a department of the Library of Congress that administers the copyright registration system, provides basic copyright information services to the public and administers statutory licenses that manage and disperse certain monies to copyright owners. The Register of Copyrights, a position also created in 1897, is the director of the Copyright Office and works under the direction of the Librarian of Congress to carry out the Copyright Office’s legal and policy functions.

The Copyright Office’s website provides a wealth of information and resources for those interested in learning about copyright law and related policy issues, registering a copyright, recording a document or searching the Copyright Office’s records.

 The website’s main page highlights the following “How Do I…?” sections.

• How do I register a copyright?
• How do I record a document?
• How do I search records?
• How do I learn about statutory licensing?

 The website is also a good source of research materials.

• You can learn more about the law and policies regarding copyrights and other intellectual property law through access to the applicable U.S. Code provisions and regulations. There’s also a wealth of related information, such as historical documents, Congressional hearings, testimonies and past and open rulemaking proceedings.
• Factsheets, such as factsheets on fees assessed by the Copyright Office, and Forms are available on the website.
• You can access recent annual reports and policy studies. For example, you can read “Copyright and the Music Marketplace”, a study by the U.S. Copyright Office detailing the existing music licensing framework and providing recommendations for changes to the system. Links found on the webpage can lead you to related materials as well as any public comments.
• You can keep up with the Copyright Office’s current events through Federal Register Notices, NewsNet and Press Releases.
• You can access and download the full version of the Compendium of U.S. Copyright Office Practices, which is the administrative manual of the Register of Copyrights that provides the Copyright Office with instruction regarding their statutory duties and provides copyright applicants, practitioners and other members of the public with guidance regarding institutional practices. 

If you have questions about how to use the resources available on www.copyright.gov, online tutorials are available that can guide your through completing your electronic copyright registration and searching the Copyright Office Catalog.** In addition, there are Frequently Asked Questions pages that addresses many topics of interest, such as how to register a work, privacy questions, use questions, information about the services available at the Copyright Office and mandatory deposits.

*Message dated April 23, 2014, from Irina Bokova, Director-General of UNESCO, available at http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0022/002273/227351e.pdf.

**You may need access to PowerPoint or a PowerPoint reader to access these tutorials.