For research help contact Meg Garrett, Media Studies Librarian, x77101, or meg.garrett@libraries.claremont.edu  with a question or for an appointment.

“Intellectual property is considered to have economic value.” (1)
“Copyright law has grown too complex for even the lawyers to fully understand…” (2)

These two quotes illustrate that copyright is a complex, ever-changing area, and that is rooted in the issue of ownership. Compensation to the owner or creator of intellectual property is where the complexity comes in—when is it necessary? When is it not? What if there is more than one owner?

Doing research on the subject of copyright and the media can include these subject areas: Law, business, media studies, ethics, news, philosophy, history.  Depending on the focus of your research you may need many different types of materials from books to journal articles to newspaper articles to web sites. Here are some sources that may be of help:

Places to start
Crash Course in Copyright  © 2001 Georgia K. Harper, University of Texas.
http://www.utsystem.edu/ogc/IntellectualProperty/cprtindx.htm
Recommended as a great starting place. Contains clear explanations of many difficult topics.

“Someone owns just about everything
Fair use lets you use their things
 - But not as much as you'd like to
Sometimes you have to ask for permission
Sometimes you are the owner - think about that!”

Copyright Sources on the Internet. Groton Public Schools. Guide site.
http://groton.k12.ct.us/mts/pt2a.htm

Digital Library SunSITE at Berkeley.  Large linking  site. http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/Copyright

Fair Use
Copyright  and Fair Use.  http://fairuse.stanford.edu  has an excellent site including articles on Fair Use and Multimedia.

What is Fair Use? http://www.utsystem.edu/ogc/intellectualproperty/copypol2.htm

Public Domain
When Works Pass Into the Public Domain. http://www.unc.edu/~unclng/public-d.htm  Chart by Lolly Gasaway, University of North Carolina.

Permission  and Compensation
Getting Permission. http://www.utsystem.edu/ogc/intellectualproperty/permissn.htm Overview of permission on many types of media with links.

Copyright.com: The Copyright Clearance Center  http://www.copyright.com
A not-for-profit organization, ”the largest licenser of text reproduction rights in the world… CCC provides licensing systems for the reproduction and distribution of copyrighted materials in print and electronic formats throughout the world.”  You may request permission for the use of copyrighted material through your account at their site.

The Law
United States Copyright Office.  http://www.loc.gov/copyright/
Includes copyright basics, FAQs, and ‘how to’ information.

US CODE TITLE 17 – COPYRIGHTS  http://www.access.gpo.gov/uscode/uscmain.html
The full text of the code is available here through GPO Access (U.S. Government Printing Office.)

Copyright and Intellectual Property (Association of Research Libraries) http://www.arl.org/info/frn/copy/copytoc.html
Has links to  “Recent Copyright and Intellectual Property Statutes”

Finding Journal Articles

These databases will help you find articles (fulltext electronic or citations to print):
OmniFile (Social Sciences Abstracts, Humanities Abstracts, Readers Guide)
MLA  (authorship: some media, more literature)
ABI Inform (business)
Music Index (music)
Legal Research File in Lexis Nexis Academic (law journals)

Suggested Search Terms

Copyright
Copyright and (second subject)
Intellectual property
Public domain

Selected Resources in Honnold

• Coombe, Rosemary J. The cultural life of intellectual properties.  HON  KF2979 .C66 1998
• Howell, Dorothy J.  Intellectual properties and the protection of fictional characters : copyright, trademark, or unfair competition?  HON  KF3050 .b9 1990
• Lessig, Lawrence. The future of ideas: the fate of the commons in a connected world. HON  K1401 .L47 2001
• Loewenstein, Joseph. The author's due : printing and the prehistory of copyright. HON  Z325 .L84 2002
• McLeod, Kembrew. Owning culture : authorship, ownership, and intellectual property law. HON  KF2979 .M35 2001
• McSherry, Corynne. Who owns academic work? : battling for control of intellectual property. HON  KF2979 .M37 2001
• Perspectives on plagiarism and intellectual property in a postmodern world. HON  PN167 .P47 1999
• Shiva, Vandana. Protect or plunder? : understanding intellectual property rights. HON  K1519.B54 S533 2001
• Vaidhyanathan, Siva. Copyrights and copywrongs : the rise of intellectual property and how it threatens creativity.  HON  Z642 .V35 2001
• Zoellick, Bill. CyberRegs : a business guide to Web property, privacy, and patents. HON  KF889.3 .Z6114 2002
  
  

1. Walker, J.  Intellectual Property in the Information Age: A Classroom Guide to Copyright. 1997. http://www.cas.usf.edu/english/walker/papers/copyright/ipdummie.html#fairuse
2. Cherry, Steven M.  Getting copyright right. IEEE Spectrum; Feb 2002.