"The new information landscape is raising more questions than ever about intellectual property. The advent of Google, YouTube, iPods and URLs has led to a plethora of court cases involving copyrights, trademarks, and patents." "Against this rapidly changing background, copyright expert Timothy Wherry takes a look at intellectual property issues and provides the perspective and tools library patrons and staff need." "Containing examples, trivia, and accounts of real-life court cases that bring alive the issues in intellectual property, this book protects you from overstepping the bounds of legal use in a fast-changing digital environment."--BOOK JACKET.

This volume is a guide to intellectual property. Under intellectual property law, owners are granted certain exclusive rights to a variety of intangible assets, such as musical, literary, and artistic works; discoveries and inventions; and words, phrases, symbols, and designs. This work includes an introduction to the basics of copyrights, patents, and trademarks and written especially to serve the needs and questions of librarians. The issue of what constitutes fair use, modern-day disputes over file swapping services such as Napster, common misconceptions about patent, among many other topics, is presented in easy-to-understand terms.

Imagine sending a magazine article to 10 friends-making photocopies, putting them in envelopes, adding postage, and mailing them. Now consider how much easier it is to send that article to those 10 friends as an attachment to e-mail. Or to post the article on your own site on the World Wide Web. The ease of modifying or copying digitized material and the proliferation of computer networking have raised fundamental questions about copyright and patentâ€"intellectual property protections rooted in the U.S. Constitution. Hailed for quick and convenient access to a world of material, the Internet also poses serious economic issues for those who create and market that material. If people can so easily send music on the Internet for free, for example, who will pay for music? This book presents the multiple facets of digitized intellectual property, defining terms, identifying key issues, and exploring alternatives. It follows the complex threads of law, business, incentives to creators, the American tradition of access to information, the international context, and the nature of human behavior. Technology is explored for its ability to transfer content and its potential to protect intellectual property rights. The book proposes research and policy recommendations as well as principles for policymaking.

Professor Litman's work stands out as well-researched, doctrinally solid, and always piercingly well-written.-JANE GINSBURG, Morton L. Janklow Professor of Literary and Artistic Property, Columbia UniversityLitman's work is distinctive in several respects: in her informed historical perspective on copyright law and its legislative policy; her remarkable ability to translate complicated copyright concepts and their implications into plain English; her willingness to study, understand, and take seriously what ordinary people think copyright law means; and her creativity in formulating alternatives to the copyright quagmire. -PAMELA SAMUELSON, Professor of Law and Information Management; Director of the Berkeley Center for Law & Technology, University of California, BerkeleyIn 1998, copyright lobbyists succeeded in persuading Congress to enact laws greatly expanding copyright owners' control over individuals' private uses of their works. The efforts to enforce these new rights have resulted in highly publicized legal battles between established media and new upstarts.In this enlightening and well-argued book, law professor Jessica Litman questions whether copyright laws crafted by lawyers and their lobbyists really make sense for the vast majority of us. Should every interaction between ordinary consumers and copyright-protected works be restricted by law? Is it practical to enforce such laws, or expect consumers to obey them? What are the effects of such laws on the exchange of information in a free society?Litman's critique exposes the 1998 copyright law as an incoherent patchwork. She argues for reforms that reflect common sense and the way people actually behave in their daily digital interactions.This paperback edition includes an afterword that comments on recent developments, such as the end of the Napster story, the rise of peer-to-peer file sharing, the escalation of a full-fledged copyright war, the filing of lawsuits against thousands of individuals, and the June 2005 Supreme Court decision in the Grokster case.Jessica Litman (Ann Arbor, MI) is professor of law at Wayne State University and a widely recognized expert on copyright law.

It is absolutely essential that today’s law librarians are digitally literate in addition to possessing an understanding and awareness of recent advancements and trends in information technology as they pertain to the library field. Law Libraries in the Digital Age offers a one-stop, comprehensive guide to achieving both of those goals. This go-to resource covers the most cutting-edge developments that face today’s modern law libraries, including e-Books, mobile device management, Web scale discovery, cloud computing, social software, and much more. These critical issues and concepts are approached from the perspective of tech-savvy library leaders who each discuss how forward-thinking libraries are tackling such traditional library practices as reference, collection development, technical services, and administration in this new “digital age.” Each chapter explores the key concepts and issues that are currently being discussed at major law library conferences and events today and looks ahead to what’s on the horizon for law libraries in the future. Chapters have been written by the field’s top innovators from all areas of legal librarianship, including academic, government, and private law libraries, who have strived to provide inspiration and guidance to tomorrow’s law library leaders.

Including real-world scenarios and best practices, this text presents the important topics of patents, trademarks, and copyrights in relation to intellectual property creators and consumers. Comprehending intellectual property rights is critical in today's world in order to negotiate the challenges associated with all kinds of intellectual properties, from patents to trademarks to copyright. Created for courses but useful for a wide range of readers, Intellectual Property and Information Rights for Librarians teaches intellectual property literacy, allowing teachers and students to easily understand the range of intellectual property issues, including both creator and consumer rights. Author John Schlipp, an intellectual property librarian and professor, guides readers through intellectual property and information rights issues for today's professionals in information-based careers. Real-world issues are emphasized, including fair use, which is covered in reference to the First Amendment. Information rights topics examined include legal and ethical issues such as freedom of information, internet regulations, privacy, cybercrime, and security. This text serves as a comprehensive reference and a collection of best practices that addresses all types of intellectual properties in one book.

Taking into consideration the variety of information being created, produced, and published, the acquisition and archiving of e-resources by digital libraries is rapidly increasing. As such, managing the rights to these resources is imperative. The Handbook of Research on Managing Intellectual Property in Digital Libraries is a pivotal reference source for the latest scholarly research on strategies in which digital libraries engage in the management of increasing digital intellectual property to protect both the users and the creators of the resources. Featuring coverage on a broad range of topics such as copyright management, open access, and software programs, this book is ideally designed for academicians, researchers, and practitioners seeking material on property rights and e-resources.