Here are some selected resources related to copyright law and fair use:

• Online Digital Slider for Copyright  From the American Library Association’s Office of Information Technology Policy, the most recent useful tool for determining whether a work is still under copyright.  See image below.
• LLRX resources on copyright  Law and technology resources for legal professionals.
• Checklist for Fair Use (PDF)  From the Copyright Management Center at IUPUI.  IUPUI has other reliable information on copyright.
• Fair Use guidelines  From Dartmouth.
• Fair Use Chart  From Association for Research Libraries.
• Teacher’s Guide to Fair Use and Copyright   “Modeling Honesty and Resourcefulness.”
• Creative Commons (CC)  How creators can share their work but retain some rights.
• How to choose a CC license that works for you.

A study released by a Library of Congress digital information program reviewed the impact of various laws on digital preservation of copyrighted works, reports Library Journal.  Proposals were offered for legislative reform, as well as suggestions for non-legislative solutions.

Suggestions included:

• That countries establish “laws and policies” to encourage and enable the digital preservation of at-risk copyrighted materials and that these apply to “all non-profit libraries, archives, museums and other institutions,” provided they do not seek commercial advantage;
• That preservation laws and policies apply equally to all categories of copyrighted materials, including “literary, artistic, musical and dramatic works, as well as motion pictures and sound recordings;”
• That laws cover all copyrighted materials in all media and formats, “hard copy or electronic, born digital or digitized for preservation;”
• That “preservation institutions” be allowed to actively harvest publicly available content (such as web sites) for preservation purposes;
• That “preservation institutions” be permitted to “proactively preserve at risk copyrighted materials before they deteriorate, are damaged or are lost.

The need for more significant research and discussion was also identified in order to form policies and best practices, including research “on the national level” to determine “whether and under what circumstances access to digital preservation copies can be provided without harm to right holders,” and “to reexamine the interaction between copyright and private agreements as it relates to digital preservation.”

Solutions in the digital preservation arena are increasingly urgent.  LJ notes that although the report recognizes that copyright and related laws as just one obstacle to digital preservation activities, it clarifies that “there is no question that those laws present significant challenges.”

The Center for Social Media at American University’s School of Communication has a report on best practices for making online videos within the boundaries of fair use.  Anyone creating videos that might involve others’ work in some way will find the report informative, guiding them through the copyright law maze, along with the Center’s previous report, Recut, Reframe, Recycle.

Some best practice uses include:

• Commenting on or Critiquing of Copyrighted Material
• Using Copyrighted Material for Illustration or Example
• Capturing Copyrighted Material Incidentally or Accidentally
• Reproducing, Reposting, or Quoting in Order to Memorialize, Preserve, or Rescue and Experience, An Event, or a Cultural Phenomenon
• Copying, Reposting, and Recirculating a Work or Part of a Work for Purposes of Launching a Discussion
• Quoting in Order to Recombine Elements to make a New Work that Depends for its Meaning on (Often Unlikely) Relationships Between the Elements

This guide to best practices does not tell you the limits of fair use rights, they say.  It’s not a guide to using Creative Commons licenses, material that is already free to use without considering copyright, nor to using material that someone wants to license but cannot trace back to an owner — the so-called “orphan works” problem.

The best practices address the most common situations today.  “Inevitably, online video makers will find themselves in situations that are hybrids of those described… or will develop new practices.  Then, they can be guided by the same basic values of fairness, proportionality, and reasonableness that inform this code of practices.  As community practices develop and become more public, the norms that emerge from these practices will themselves provide additional information on what is fair use.”  [via iLibrarian]

The Creative Commons Foundation has launched a database of case studies highlighting CC licensed content from around the world, reports Read/WriteWeb.

Creative Commons (CC) licenses provide for a variety of means through which creators can share their work while retaining some control over it.  The case study database is a way to learn from the experiences of others about how well this type of licensing works.

Creative Commons Business and Community Development Manager Jon Phillips says that the database has been in the works for months and was contributed to by quite a few CC community members.

“The breadth of examples already available is very commendable and many of them are quite well developed. The one thing we wish was included in each profile is some discussion of the distribution metrics of each project and any information available about the CC license’s impact on those metrics,” notes RWW.  “We expect that this database will prove very useful for people all around the world and for the Creative Commons Foundation.”

Mobile picture books
Hot sellers in Japan are made-for-mobile picture books for kids.  One publisher plans to have 50 titles and 10,000 downloads by next September. [via iLibrarian]

How Americans use the Internet for purchase decisions
“The internet plays an important role in how people conduct research for purchases, but it is just one among a variety of sources people use and usually not the key factor in final purchasing decisions,” notes this Pew Internet & American Life report (PDF).

Among online Americans who use the Internet for product research, online resources make shopping more efficient by helping them explore options and compare features.  Although many use online resources to look for better deals, few actually make the purchase online.  Among the product purchases examined were music, cell phones, and new housing.

New instant copyright licensing services
In response to growth in blogging and social networking, iCopyright has launched two new instant licensing services – Instant PDF E-Prints and Instant Web Post – to help online publishers promote lawful reuses of their copyrighted content while protecting their rights.  See LISWire for details.

Downloadable digital resources at your library
The New York Times recently featured information about how public libraries are offering downloadable e-books, audiobooks, and video to patrons in its article, What’s New at the E-Library.

If you haven’t explored the resources available at your library, look for digital services provided by Overdrive, Netlibrary, Recorded Books, and TumbleBooks.  Some libraries also subscribe to a service called Next Reads which sends personalized book recommendations to patrons’ email inboxes.

Audio books, especially those that can be downloaded and listened to on an MP3 player, are convenient for people who have trouble getting to the library (they “check” themselves back in when they are due) and for those with difficulties reading print resources.  They are also great for those of us who enjoy having a good story told to us and/or like to carry on reading while doing errands and shopping.

Libraries are adopting downloadable resources to better serve their patrons.  “Technology is not something we’re afraid of, it’s something we’ve embraced and our patrons have embraced,” said Diane Lapsley, assistant director of the Sparta (New Jersey) Public Library.  “Technology is a steppingstone — we don’t know what else is coming down the pike, but we do know that everything we use will allow us to build on that technology and have our patrons build on that knowledge.”  [via iLibrarian]  Photo by Karsh.  Creative Commons license.

Free icons
The icons on this site are either licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License, or they are entirely free for personal or public non-commercial use.

 You can modify the design, but in some cases you must include the provided link back to the author’s site or notify the author.  Some free icons do not require a link.  

Contact the author if you want to use the icons for a commercial purpose.  See the FAQ for more information [via What I Learned Today] 

Photos you can freely use
Free Use Photos is a group of Flickr photos that can be used without any copyright restrictions.  All images are free and no attribution is necessary.

The group description suggests that you can use them in your displays, presentations, publications or anywhere else.   I immediately found some I would like to use in this blog.  You are also encouraged to join the group photo pool and add your own freely shareable photos.  [via Library Crunch] 

Selected visual communication, video publishing tools
Here are some more selected tools at the Robin Good site for those wanting to edit photos or videos, or arrange them in presentations or slideshows.  There are some very interesting tools here.  Most are free or have free-trials.

•  Adobe Photoshop Express
•  Kineticast
•  FlauntR
•  Sketchcast
•  QlipBoard
•  Omnisio
•  Youconvertit
•  Oxytube  
   

Music: Mix it up
ccMixter is a community music site featuring remixes licensed under Creative Commons where you can listen to, sample, mash-up, or interact with music in whatever way you want, they say.  You can download and sample from music on the site and share the results with anyone, anywhere, anytime.  Watch for occasional copyright restrictions, depending on the specific license.

If you are just browsing and listening there is no need to register.  But if you register you get your own artist’s page where you can upload your own music, cut-ups of other artists and loop libraries.  You can leave reviews, and interact in the forums, pick favorites and more. 

Those who create music that they want to retain all rights to should not upload it to ccMixter.

MySpace Music CEO sees money in free tunes
 MySpace Music, the major-label-backed online service slated for a summer rollout, is planning to deliver “all the music in the world” for free.

Once that mission is accomplished, according to MySpace CEO and co-founder Chris DeWolfe, the cash will follow as music fans turn MySpace Music into a money-making machine with multiple revenue streams.

The new service will strip out band pages from the original MySpace — currently the most popular social-networking site — and stream full-length songs and videos for free.  MySpace Music will peddle DRM-free downloads, ringtones, concert tickets, T-shirts and more.

For more information read Wired.com’s in-depth interview with DeWolfe.

I find myself seaching the millions of Flickr photos and images frequently, usually for those with Creative Commons licenses, so I was very happy to hear about Compfight search, and to discover it works as advertised.

From the AJAX-powered search site, a streamlined interface allows you to search using tags or descriptions and limit to Creative Commons or traditional licenses.  Results not only bring up thumbnails of the photos, but those with a blue bottom border will also tell you the size of the original photo if you mouse over them.  Super!

I learned at C|Net news about the pilot project from the Library of Congress that adds 3,000 photos, mostly untagged, to Flickr.  The photos are copyright-free. 

The LOC blog has more background and information.

They say, “The real magic comes when the power of the Flickr community takes over. We want people to tag, comment and make notes on the images, just like any other Flickr photo, which will benefit not only the community but also the collections themselves. For instance, many photos are missing key caption information such as where the photo was taken and who is pictured. If such information is collected via Flickr members, it can potentially enhance the quality of the bibliographic records for the images.

“From the Library’s perspective, this pilot project is a statement about the power of the Web and user communities to help people better acquire information, knowledge and—most importantly—wisdom.”