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OuterNotes: Legal Sites for Writers
http://www.gigalaw.com How about some useful pro bono legal advice targeted to Internet and technical professionals? Gigalaw.com has prepared the briefs. Atlanta native Doug Isenberg is the founder, editor, and publisher of GigaLaw. He's a former news reporter and magazine editor who now practices intellectual property and Internet law. Produced by lawyers and law professors, the site provides legal information in such areas as copyright law, use of domain names, patent law, and privacy issues. In my test drive, the site loaded fairly fast, and I found the articles and discussion board archive sections especially appealing. Articles particularly useful for writers, editors, and Web site developers were "Ten Copyright Permission Myths" and "Authors' Rights in the E-Book Revolution." The discussion board archive contained relevant topics on cyber-defamation, contracts, domain-name disputes, and e-mail spam. Internet law e-newsletters "Daily News" and "Weekly Update" are provided free of charge. --Michael O'Brien [Editor's OuterNote: The indefatigable Mr. O'Brien added a note to this review that he found another site: http://intelproplaw.com -- to also be very useful.] UI Specialist Provides a Great Legal Interface http://bailiwick.lib.uiowa.edu/journalism/mediaLaw/ Need a quick reference on media law or rights issues? Karla Tonella, Academic Technologies Specialist at the University of Iowa's Obermann Center for Advanced Studies has compiled an impressive listing of Internet resources on media law for writers, editors, lawyers, and anyone interested in media issues. With links to resources such as the Cyberspace Law Center, Five Reasons for Lawyers and Law Firms to be on the Net, Freedom of Information Issues, Internet Library of Law and Court Decisions, this site provides a comprehensive look at the wealth of legal information available via modem. --Melanie Barton Zoltán NAA Looks at Publishers' Electronic Rights... http://www.digitaledge.org/monthly/2000_12/copyright.html As digital technology develops new delivery platforms, rights issues are increasing in importance for freelancers. This article from the Newspaper Association of America's Digital Edge site addresses a publisher's right to produce writers' work in electronic format without negotiating an additional writer's fee. According to author Alice Neff Lucan, who advises newspapers on legal issues, the courts have succinctly but amorphously decided that "it depends." As she states, "When a newspaper or magazine publisher sells the content of its original publication to the electronic archivist, posts contents of the original newspaper on its Web site or publishes in some other electronic format, is the product a new publication or is it a revision of the original newspaper/magazine?" She cites two Supreme Court cases, Tasini v. The New York Times, Inc. and Greenberg v. National Geographic, in which freelance writers and photographers are challenging media conglomerates' right to repackage freelance materials without the artist's consent. The court battles continue, so stay tuned... --Melanie Barton Zoltán ...While ASJA Keeps a Watch for Writers http://www.asja.org/cw/cw.php This very useful subsite of the American Society of Journalists' digital domicile offers the latest news and analyses of the never-ending give-and-take between publishers and writers, with a special emphasis on new issues spawned by new electronic means of dissemination. It's available as a weekly newsletter (the ASJA encourages reproduction and distribution of this information for the benefit of freelance writers), or you can peruse archives dating back to 1994. The search engine, unfortunately, is temporarily down, but it's worth a review before you sign your next contributor contract. -- Mariateresa Thiery The Copyright Website: Plain English Explanations http://www.benedict.com/ Copyright is a complicated issue made even more difficult to understand by the use of legal language. The Copyright Website provides copyright information in simple English. Besides getting the basics, you will also find information on varying copyright issues including software and MP3s. Actual cases, such as the sculptor who sued Warner Brothers, are on the Visual Arts page. The Copyright Forms page is the most practical section of the site. Six forms--depending on which media you want to copyright--are available for downloading in Adobe Acrobat format. If you’re serious about writing and want to copyright your work, you'll want to bookmark this site for easy reference. --Debbie Cissell Copyright Questions? You Go, Lawgirl! http://www.lawgirl.com/copyright.shtml Copyright remains one of the the most contentious issues between writers and publications, and the explosion of digital markets is only adding to the confusion. Lawgirl (aka Jodi L. Sax, an entertainment attorney specializing in copyright and new media) says it's simple, and goes on to cogently define what exactly consitutes a publication, what a copyright protects, and what a typical writer really wants to copyright, trademark, or patent. A step-by-step guide showing how to actually register a copyright and discussion board round out this most useful mix. --Karin Call How To Avoid Those Hefty Lawsuits http://www.asja.org/indem01.php What happens when you are sued because of something you have written? How do publishers and writers protect themselves from frivolous and not-so frivolous lawsuits? In "How to Deal with Indemnification Clauses," the American Society of Journalists and Authors analyzes clauses in publisher's contracts that place the financial burden of lawsuits on the writer. Invaluable tips in this article include: Six words you should include as a qualifier when accepting responsibility for factual accuracy; how to purchase professional liability insurance (through the National Writers Union and other writing organizations), and where to draw the line with publishers over settlements vs. trial lawsuits. As they note: "The proliferation of indemnity clauses, especially in the magazine world, appears to be another case of lawyerly overkill.... Insist on modifying the contract terms until you feel the risk you are assuming is acceptable." --Melanie Zoltan 9. Fontsite.com Provides a Quick Latin Primer http://www.fontsite.com/Pages/WritingStyle/W&S0997.html http://www.fontsite.com/Pages/WritingStyle/W&S1097.html Attorneys remain among the most ardent lovers of Latin, and this quick primer will help you make sense of the terms that endure in contracts 1525 years after the fall of the Empire, It is, i.e. (id est, that is) full of exempli gratia (e.g. to you) of Latin terms that can still stet the test of time. The two-part series is also a good read for editors and writers who become wizards of viz, re, cf., etc., et al, etc and other terms that have deservedly remained timeless because of their time-saving qualities. --Mariateresa Thiery OuterNotes is produced using the OuterForce Platform, which allows publishers to easily recruit and manage remote and freelance content creation and export it into their publishing platform of choice. For more information, see http://www.outerforce.com. Copyright 2000 by OuterNotes. All rights reserved. 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