Greetings! Welcome to the Copyright Toolkit, which I created for INFO 281, Digital Copyright — a course taken during Fall 2015, as part of the MLIS program at San José State University’s School of Information. I still periodically update this with new articles and resources.

Audience: This toolkit is primarily aimed at librarians and LIS professionals. Secondary audience includes educators and persons interested in copyright and fair use issues.

You can access information in two ways: by specific topic via the tag cloud links in the sidebar — or by posts on broader topics in the Articles navigation menu and page. Several topics overlap within the posts, as you’ll notice by the tags applied, but I try to avoid listing the resources redundantly.

Disclaimer: This website focuses on laws, guidelines, and issues in the United States, unless otherwise noted. Moreover, I am not a lawyer, so please do not take all the content herein as The Final Word regarding copyright or intellectual property (IP).

Outline of articles

Jump to these pages to suit your needs or curiosity:

• The history of copyright in the U.S.
• How to determine copyright and public domain status
• How to determine fair use
• How to find permission and licensing information
• How to understand the DMCA and DRM, and their effects on you and media consumption
• Learning about open access (OA) and publishing
• How to find and create content
• Learning more about copyright
• Learning about privacy
• Further news and organizations to follow

Should you have suggestions or corrections, please contact me at library {at} iwaruna [dot] com. Thanks!