Copyright Law FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions about copyright law, particularly that of the United States.

This FAQ about Copyright Law was compiled and written by Terry Carroll with numerous contributions by others.

DISCLAIMER - PLEASE READ.

This article is Copyright 1994 by Terry Carroll. It may be freely redistributed in its entirety provided that this copyright notice is not removed. It may not be sold for profit or incorporated in commercial documents without the written permission of the copyright holder. Permission is expressly granted for this document to be made available for file transfer from installations offering unrestricted anonymous file transfer on the Internet. Permission is further granted for this document to be made available for file transfer in the data libraries of associated with the following Compuserve Information Services fora: the Legal Forum, the Desktop Publishing Forum, the Show Business Forum, and the Ideas, Invention and Innovation Forum. This article is provided as is without any express or implied warranty. Nothing in this article represents the views of Santa Clara University or of the Santa Clara Computer and High Technology Law Journal.

While all information in this article is believed to be correct at the time of writing, this article is for educational purposes only and does not purport to provide legal advice. If you require legal advice, you should consult with a legal practitioner licensed to practice in your jurisdiction.

Terry Carroll, the FAQ-maintainer, is a computer professional, and is currently (January 1994) a student in his final semester at Santa Clara University School of Law, is currently Editor-in-Chief of the Santa Clara Computer and High Technology Law Journal, and is seeking employment as an attorney.

If you have any additions, corrections, or suggestions for improvement to this FAQ, please send them to one of the following addresses, in order of preference:

71550.133@compuserve.com
tcarroll@scuacc.scu.edu

I will accept suggestions for questions to be added to the FAQ, but please be aware that I will be more receptive to questions that are accompanied by answers. :-)

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I'd like to acknowledge the following people who reviewed early drafts of this FAQ and made valuable suggestions for modifications, or otherwise contributed to the FAQ:

Richard A. Anderson rand@seq1.loc.gov
Thomas Deardorff tdeardor@u.washington.edu
Stuart P. Derby sderby@crick.ssctr.bcm.tmc.edu
Mary Jensen cnicopy@charlie.usd.edu
David Lassner david@oit.hawaii.edu
George Mitchell gmitchel@library.unt.edu
Ronald Naylor rnaylor@umiami.ir.miami.edu
Carol Odlum carol@dreamer.rain.com
Laura A. Pitta lpitta@scuacc.scu.edu
Hank Roth odin@world.std.com
Craig A. Summerhill craig@cni.org
Peter Stott pstott@pearl.tufts.edu
David W. Tamkin dattier@genesis.mcs.com
Glenn S. Tenney tenney@netcom.com
Marina ___ [full name unknown] marlen@sovam.com