the Fair Use
Network
INFORMATION & RESOURCES FOR FREE EXPRESSION
Directory of Legal Guides for Creators of All Kinds
Different types of works raise different questions about where control ends and fair use or other free expression safeguards begin. How the balance should be struck depends on the nature of the work, the creators and funders (including taxpayers in some instances), the interests and needs of the people who use or rely on the work, and the culture and history surrounding the work.
We index below guides for creators in various media, topics, and formats. Most of these guides are written for organizations other than the Fair Use Network, and we do not vouch for their thorough reliability or availability. However, we have only selected guides we thought were generally useful and accurate.
- Bloggers
- Read: Electronic Frontier Foundation, Legal Guide
for Bloggers (2005)
Contact: EFF - Collage Artists
- Read: Sarah Ovenall, "Copyright for Collage Artists". (Helpful with respect to specific licensing practices, such as Dover's popular series of art works; but understates fair use rights to transform existing works.)
- Documentary Filmmakers
- Read:
» Documentary Filmmakers' Statement of Best Practices in Fair Use (2005)
» Duke Center for the Study of the Public Domain (2006) Bound by Law? Legal Issues for Documentary Filmmakers
- Gripe, Sux, and Consumer Complaint Sites
-
Read: Paul Levy, Public Citizen, Legal Perils &
Legal Rights of Internet Speakers
Contact: Public Citizen, EFF - Historians
- Read: Daniel J. Cohen & Roy Rosenzweig, Owning the Past [part of a
larger guide for historians on doing history on the Web, "Digital History: A Guide
to Gathering, Preserving, and Presenting the Past on the Web".]
Contact: Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts - Humor, parodies, and satires
- Read: Fair Use Network, Fair User's Guide to Parodies, Satires & Humor (brief outline only; full guide coming soon)
- Podcasters
- Read: Stanford Center for Internet and Society, Podcasting Legal Guide: Rules for the Revolution (2006)
© and first publication: June 15, 2006
Last modified: June 11 2007.