What is Copyright Law? The copyright law of 1976 is a very important law in the United States that governs the unauthorized copying of another author’s work. This law prevents the illegal copying of another person’s work during the author’s lifetime, and for certain number of years after his death. After the copyright expires, the work passes into the public domain, which means it is available to everybody without any restrictions.
I have read about the copyright issues for a lot of my MLIS classes and recently read about it again for my present class. However a new development recently in March 2007 was that the Fair Use act was passed. This act allows for six permanent exemptions that do not infringe copyright law, such as use of a work for educational purposes. The Library Copyright Alliance strongly supports the Fair Use Act, and more can be read about it at the ALA website at http://www.ala.org/ala/washoff/woissues/copyrightb/copyright.cfm
Since copyright is the reason for so many legal issues, I feel that this Fair Use Act will really benefit libraries and other places of education to circumvent legal complications that might otherwise arise. The libraries have had to deal with the DMCA in addition to the Copyright Law for copyright issues related to technology.
