The latest issue of Walt Crawford's always interesting Cites & Insights is a special issue devoted to copyright. Walt discusses some recent publications on file sharing; summarizes (and critiques) the statements at the 12 May hearings on HR 107, the Digital Media Consumers' Rights Act, and provides several brief abstracts on some recent articles on database protection.
I was particularly interested to read his discussion of Jason Griffey's thesis on ALA's publishing practices. Crawford points out a number of the many errors in Griffey's analysis of ALA's author agreements, but concludes that Griffey's thesis is nevertheless an important wake-up call to ALA.
If you are looking for a quick review of some of the major copyright issues of interest to librarians, Crawford's newsletter is a good place to start.
Jason:
Thanks for the correction on the issue of whether your important paper is a thesis or not. It points out how easy it is for anyone (including those of us who should know better) to make careless mistakes.
Posted by: Peter Hirtle | June 09, 2004 at 02:12 PM
There have been a series of comments made re: my Master's Paper on my blog at: http://www.ibiblio.org/griffey/wp/index.php?p=204
I've certainly become aware, via both Walt and T. Scott Plutchak of the JMLA, of a number of areas where I was either mistaken about a point in my analysis or simply overlooked something that I should have seen. I'm a bit disappointed that I didn't see some of the things pointed out by Walt and Scott, but am generally pleased with the responses that Perils has garnered.
Technically, it should be noted that the paper is not a thesis...the UNC School of Information and Library Science does not require a thesis, instead opting for a subsitute [a paper of near-thesis length, overseen by one member of the faculty], a stringent course schedule, and a comprehensive exam.
Posted by: Jason Griffey | June 09, 2004 at 12:55 PM