Reviews court cases regarding copyright ownership of student-produced videos. Makes recommendations concerning a contract between school and student acknowledging the student's copyright but granting the school a nonexclusive license to air the program. Presents a prototype of such a contract. (SR)

Users and producers of copyrighted materials are working to determine "fair use" guidelines, like those established in 1976 for printed materials, music, radio, and television programs, to govern access to online documents. Debate is over the need for and feasibility of extending compensation regulations to electronic materials. (MSE)

Presents the preliminary report of the National Information Infrastructure's Task Force on Intellectual Property. Topics addressed include current copyright law; distribution rights; publication; first sale doctrine; technological protection; copyright management information; public performance right; fair use; licensing; international issues;…

Reviews the litigation the international publisher Gordon and Breach initiated against the author and publishers of serials pricing surveys. Events that led up to and followed the lawsuits are recounted, and reactions to the lawsuits from the library community are summarized. (28 references) (EA)

Introduces the digital object as a logical structure for organizing information expressed as sequences of bits. The characteristics of digital objects are compared to the attributes of fixation in a material objects and shown to be generally equivalent. Copyright rights of distribution, as well as public performance, in a network environment are…

Provides a summary of the controversial "Fair Use Guidelines for Educational Multimedia" (part of "An Interim Report to the Commissioner by the Conference on Fair Use"), which recommends guidelines for instructors and students who create educational multimedia projects. Defines a framework in which writing-classroom participants can comprehend,…

Reports on three workshops offering copyright education for library and computer services staff and administrators. Topics covered included: copyright (e.g., the Copyright Act of 1976 and classroom teaching); digital distance education issues (application of fair use to on-line teaching); and compliance (under the Digital Millennium Copyright…

Describes the origin of the DOI (Digital Object Identifier) as a persistent identifier for managing copyrighted materials and its development; creation of the U.S. Navy digital health sciences library for isolated primary care providers and their patients; Cornell and CNRI prototype architecture for interoperable digital objects and repositories;…

Examines the issue of whether or not federal government-generated databases reside in the public domain. Discusses a 1973 Supreme Court decision (Williams & Wilkins v. The United States), the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, and terms and conditions listed on various government databases. (MES)

The United States has taken only piecemeal steps to ensure privacy of personal information. This article examines the U.S. relating to privacy and data protection. It defines privacy and discusses international agreements relating to privacy, federal data protection laws, and narrowly applicable laws. (AEF)

Discusses how the rise of the Internet and the lure of lucrative online education programs have suddenly made university courses a hot commodity, raising issues of copyright and ownership conflicts between professors and the universities who employ them. Describes relevant legal rulings and actions by various universities and professors. (EV)

Explores the use of multimedia in assignments that are submitted on compact disks. Examines the sources of media available, including video, still images, and sound; techniques for editing and incorporating media files, including appropriate software; compact disk technology; copyright; assessment criteria; equal opportunity considerations; and…

Discusses objections in the library community to the Uniform Computer Information Transactions Act (UCITA), a legal framework being considered by state governments regarding computer information, transactions, and software. Topics include copyright issues; user needs for access to information; license agreements; and costs that may prevent…

Describes the Computer Science Technical Report Project, one of the earliest investigations into the system engineering of digital libraries which pioneered multiinstitutional collaborative research into technical, social, and legal issues related to the development and implementation of a large, heterogeneous, distributed digital library. (LRW)

Presents the legal definitions of copyright and copyright law. Answers questions such as, How does copyright apply to materials published on the Internet? and What might be done to reduce lawsuits? Explains the importance and necessity of using recent materials in life sciences curriculum. Provides a list of several popular publications and…