Catherine’s post on Nolo inspired me to head over to their site to check out the specifics on copyrights, a long-evasive and confusing topic to me. Their coverage was excellent, especially for those (me) who get most of their exposure to law through five-hour marathons of Law & Order. I found their specific examples of “fair use” situations interesting, particularly because so many bloggers interpret this as loosely as an 11th grader’s saggy pants.

If you feel more comfortable navigating writer sites, Bob Brooke’s Writers’ Corner has a great section on copyrights (Know Your Rights–and boy am I glad he didn’t call it “Know Your Writes”–and All About Copyrights). Know Your Rights is a quick guide to types of copyrights with some lingo you may recognize, depending on the variety of your gigs, while All About Copyrights is more extensive coverage on what you as a writer need to know regarding copyrights. Brooke comments on fair use:

“Without the “fair use” doctrine no one would ever have his or her book reviewed. But “fair use” can be tricky. Quoting small amounts from a work have been held to be copyright infringement where the quoted matter was crucial to the work and the copying contributed to the decline in commercial value of the work. On the other hand, entire passages quoted from books have been held to be “fair use”. To be safe, ask permission from the author.”

And of course, without fair use, I wouldn’t have been able to quote Bob Brooke’s interesting point that without fair use, there would be no NY Times Review of Books, etc. Vicious circle.