Course Technology--InfoWeb: Copyright and Software Law

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Copyright and Software Law

Software copyright law is the focus of an ongoing discussion among American legal experts, law makers, software publishers, and consumers' rights advocacy groups. There seems to be general agreement that current laws should be updated. Cornell University provides a hypertext version of the U.S. Copyright Act that is currently in effect at www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17. If you have questions about what's legal and what's not, you'll find Copyright FAQs at the Electronic Frontier Foundation site www.eff.org/pub/Intellectual_property. For "plain speak" information on the difference between copyrighted, licensed, shareware, and public domain software connect to The Copyright Website at www.benedict.com.

Additional Links

NOLO's Legal Encyclopedia: Patent, Copyright & Trademark Nolo Press, which has been publishing self-help law books and software for over 25 years, presents a Self-Help Law Center on the Web (www.nolo.com/index.html). Their Legal Encyclopedia includes a section on copyright, patents, and trademarks with current information on software copyright issues and links to online resources.

Software Written in plain English that just about anyone can understand, this Web page from Cerebalaw (http://www.cerebalaw.com/welcome.html) includes discussions of shrinkwrap license, the legal concept of "software as a tool," and software warranties. The author, William S. Lovell, Ph.D., specializes in intellectual property law and has a wealth of technical and legal expertise.

FindLaw: Internet Legal Resources, Intellectual Property Mall, and KuesterLaw The Technology Law Resource Software copyright law falls under the more general area of intellectual property law. These three Web sites represent highly rated indexes of legal information on the Internet. FindLaw is a search engine for legal resources, while the other two specialize in technology law and intellectual property, respectively. Each of these resources can help you research topics related to software copyright.