Copyright and Fair Use

Copyrights are the exclusive legal rights granted by a government to an author, editor, compiler, composer, playwright, publisher, or distributor to publish, produce, sell, or distribute copies of a literary, musical, dramatic, artistic, or other work, within certain limitations (fair use and first sale). Copyright law also governs the right to prepare derivative works, reproduce a work or portions of it, and display or perform a work in public. Such rights may be transferred or sold to others and do not necessarily pass with ownership of the work itself. Copyright protects a work in the specific form in which it is created, not the idea, theme, or concept expressed in the work, which other writers are free to interpret in a different way. A work never copyrighted or no longer protected by copyright is said to be in the public domain. (from ODLIS)

Fair use means conditions under which copying a work, or a portion of it, does not constitute infringement of copyright, including copying for purposes of criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Understanding fair use conditions is definitely to librarians. It is also a very complicated topic. If interested, you can find more information from following links.

Standford Univeristy libraries, Copyright and Fair Use.

ALA Fair Use and Electronic Reserves

DMCA: Digital Millennium Copyright Act

EFF "Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA)" Archive

The Future Of Copyright/Intellectual Property

RIAA's view of Fair Use

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