The Copyright Handbook: What Every Writer Needs to Know [With CDROM]

by Stephen Fishman

Book Overview

If you work with words, you need this book No writer likes to see their hard work or creativity copied by others--or to be accused of copying. Fortunately, The Copyright Handbook provides everything... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1413308937
• ISBN13: 9781413308938
• Release Date: September 2008
• Publisher: NOLO
• Length: 527 Pages
• Weight: 2.02 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 7.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Copy This!

I have to grit my teeth in anger when I think of all the wasted hours I've spent reading web site and magazine articles written by people who had no idea what they were talking about in regard to the often confusing world of copyright law. The simple purchase and reading of Fishman's book would have saved me all that time, trouble, and confusion. He does a great job of laying out everything I've ever wanted to know about copyright law, in understandable terms...and alleviates any doubt by presenting brilliantly clear "examples" of almost every point. If you want to learn as much as possible about copyright, without having to spend years becoming a copyright attorney, this is the book for you.

Every Writer Should Own and Read This Book --- Now

When I started out as a writer in 1967 I signed away all of my writes for 5 cents a word. The magazine was sharp enough to take away all of my rights and I was naive enough to let them. I blame it on being barely out of my teens and not knowing my options. But today there's no excuse for that. The title of this book says it all. Every writer "should" be armed with this information. Rights to what you create are important. They can be used as a bargaining chip. You may not want to sell all of your rights. You may want to keep some rights for many reasons. In fact, it's seldom in your best interest to transfer "all" rights to your work in my opinion. Clients often think they are buying all rights when they hire a copywriter, for example. The truth is they are not. Unless the contract specifies the work is a work for hire, the creator actually owns the work. By having this knowledge, the writer can craft intelligent contracts that protect both the client and the writer. But a writer also needs to know about using the works of others. What are his liabilities in certain instances? What can he do and what shouldn't he do when it comes to the use of other people's work? What about using charts, pictures, etc? All this is in this great book. Copyright is one of the biggest issues facing the writer. It's an area where most people have very limited knowledge. You should protect yourself and this book should be on your desk at all times. If you're like me, you'll refer to it often and it will be a book you'll both read and use. But you get a bonus with this book. You get a CD with all the forms you could ever need! This is really valuable. The CD is worth the price of the book if you didn't read a word. If you download the forms from the U.S. Copyright Office, you'll need a typewriter or you'll have to fill them out by hand. With the CD, it's a snap. In addition, you actually get understandable instructions --- something the government isn't keen on supplying. So buy this book if you buy no other book this year. It can save you a ton of headaches and probably many lawsuits.

The best handbook on how to protect and use written works.

This is one of more than 30 Nolo books I have been using for the last 3 years in my small business. As usual, Nolo doesn't disappoint in this comprehensive book on copyright law and instructions on how to protect your written works. The book comes with many tear out forms with the electronic versions of the forms on CD-ROM. Common and not so common topics are addressed. I was immediately interested in the Chapters on Copyright Basics, Copyright Notice, and Copyright Registration. These three chapters gave me the most vital information I needed to know about Copyrights. For example, I didn't know that works don't need to be registered to be protected by the Copyright Law but if registered with the Copyright office in a timely fashion, the owner gets some special benefits in the case of copyright infringement. I also understood the different treatment given to published and unpublished works. The sections on copyrights in the online world was of even greater interest to me as I am in the process of creating some websites with online content. I had not known that I could register my online work (as long it met the same requirements for registering copyrights on normal works). The chapter on online works also has detailed information on how deep links are treated, etc.The section on Fair Use was very helpful as it explained as clearly as possible the circumstances under which you CAN copy a copyrighted work as long as it met the Fair Use guidelines. Even the less frequently researched topics like 'Transferring Copyright Ownership' and 'International Copyright Protection' are addressed in sufficient detail.All in all, this is a very important book if you have any kind of work that you want to copyright or if you are considering the implications of copying somebody's work under the Fair Use guidelines. The book is by no means an easy read but Nolo does an excellent job of explaining this fairly complicated subject in plain English for the ordinary person (which seems to be the goal in all of their books). I went to the Nolo website for the latest information on the Copyright Law and wasn't disappointed there either. They have a terrific FAQ section that explains in great detail some of the latest information pertaining to the Copyright Law (especially as applicable in the online world). I hope you are able to benefit to the same extent that I did, and good luck!

My Copy is Getting Dog-Eared

After doing quite a bit of research on the internet on copyright law, I purchased several copyright related books. The best of the bunch, in my mind, is "The Copyright Handbook," by Stephen Fishman, written to address copyright as it applies to written works. Published in March, 2000, the 5th edition of this book is still up to date with the copyright law of the United States.Fishman does a good job of simplifying complicated issues. This is consistent with the goal of the publisher, Nolo, in publishing "quality law books & software for non-lawyers?" that are "easy to use." Included in the book are segments on issues and topics such as what is covered by copyright, what works are protected, duration of copyright, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, the Sony Bono Copyright Extension Act, fair use, electronic publishing, and protecting works on the internet. I keep my copy on a shelf just above my computer that I can readily reach when copyright questions arise.

Simple, Understandable.

Fishman has taken the very complicated world that is copywrite law and simplified it in this text. The book itself is easy to read, well organized, and gives practical, interesting, and topical examples to highlight the explanations of the caveats of the law. For each example Fishman has sighted one to two, sometimes more, cases for reference. The cases range from 1934 (was the oldest I saw) to 1996, but examples of real-life situations are given of events more recent than 1996. Overall, this will help anyone who needs to learn about copywriting (specifically) the written word understand that better. This book is great for authors of all kinds, lyricists, scientists, etc.. who want to know if their material is copywriteable or not. The best part is that not everyone will have to read every chapter to find out the information that applies to them. The discussions on public domain are wonderful, and some of the highlights of the book.