Copyright Resources: Electronic

Statutes & Legislative Materials

Current Legislation

The U.S. Copyright Office free, current versions of Title 17 in HTML and Adobe Acrobat formats. Users can download the entire Title and amendments, or specific Chapters, in both formats.

The Copyright Office also has posted a very good summary of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act in the Adobe Acrobat format. (Researchers can refer to specific DMCA provisions by searching the Office's electronic version of the Copyright Act.)

Proposed

Electronic sources generally do a better job than print resources for breaking news of copyright and related legislation.

1. THOMAS: THOMAS is most effective for materials from 1995 to present. In order to find information on copyright legislation in the current Congress, enter "copyright" as a search term in the input box next to "By Word/Phrase." (Tip: While THOMAS is the ultimate source for the pending copyright bills, the Copyright Office gives users a better way to access information without having to search THOMAS' entire legislative database.)
2. U.S. Copyright Office: The Copyright Office maintains an index of pending copyright and related legislation on its website that begins with the 105th Congress. The index provides the title of the bill, the bill number and the date the bill was introduced to Congress. If the bill became law, the index indicates the public law number.
   
3. U.S. Congress Judiciary Committees: The Judiciary Committees of both the Senate and the House of Representatives have primary legislative jurisdiction over intellectual property issues, including copyright. Both Committees post the language of proposed copyright bills to their respective websites.
4. U.S. Congress Commerce Committees: Occasionally, the Senate Commerce Committee and the House of Representatives' Energy and Commerce committee may consider copyright legislation issues if the issue also involves interstate commerce.

Regulations

While other websites carry versions of the Code of Federal Regulations, the U.S. Copyright Office's version is the easiest to use. The regulations are available in HTML and Adobe Acrobat formats, and users can download specific Parts in both formats.

Cases

It has become commonplace for copyright opinions to be available online almost immediately after the court has decided the case.

1. Federal Court Websites: Most of the nation's 107 federal district and appeals courts maintain websites; the United States Supreme Court also maintains a website. Many federal courts make opinions available to the public even before they are available on Westlaw and Lexis, and the federal court opinions are free. While case posting times vary widely across the federal court system, the Supreme Court generally is the best federal court at posting decisions online soon after the Justices have written an opinion.
2. Legal Information Institute: Cornell's Legal Information Institute provides free opinions from all of the federal appeals courts, and a good amount of federal trial courts. LII also has keeps a section of its site reserved for copyright decisions from the nation's federal appeals courts.
3. Online Databases: Both Westlaw and Lexis post new and particularly important cases soon after the court releases an opinion.
4. Party Websites: Parties or amici that are involved in copyright litigation often will post court briefs, motions pleadings, and decisions to their website. Many times, key decisions involving the parties are posted within hours of the release of the decision.