New Tools and Out of Date Rules
Okay, they’re not really out of date rules, more like out of date forms, but rules rhymes with tools, so the muse demanded I go with that.
Anyway, the new tools are a some applications the Copyright Clearance Center is playing around with. I haven’t had a chance to do more yet than just take a look, so no opinion yet on whether there’s anything particularly useful, but I am excited that this organization is continuing to look into the future with excitement and clever ideas (unlike many companies, who are merely panicking about changes in society, or as “grumpy old man” from the old Saturday Night Live skit used to say, “That’s not how we did things when I was a kid!”) There’s a nice little review of the new service here.
The out of date rules/forms refer to the inadequacy of registration materials for seeking copyright of websites. Nothing from the US Copyright Office exactly fits a website, and although that does not in any way prevent the actual registration of a website, I suspect that in practice, many websites have gone unregistered due to uncertainty on the part of the would-be registrant as to hwo to proceed. Most website designers have a graphics background, which means they are visually oriented rather than verbally oriented, and the need to interpret seemingly inapplicable registration language may just be too daunting. Some tips are offered here.
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