Fair Use, Free Use, and Use by Permission: How to Handle Copyrights in All Media

The first part of the book is great. It explicitly tells you how to copyright something, and things that cannot be copyrighted. It explains the differences between patent, trademark, and copyright, the different versions of copyright law over the last century, and the public domain.But for a book that claims to tell you how handle copyright in all media, it is sorely lacking. I wanted to learn more about derivative works, and fair use as they applied to visual media including drawing and video. In the creative section, there was a few vague paragraphs about fair use, but not a deep explanation. It hardly covers how to handle copyright in all media. Instead, there are many long-winded hypothetical examples as they pertain to a few examples, mostly in which someone (you) take or borrow something that isn't completely yours to take without the proper checking up, and you get in usually get in trouble because you're a bonehead, but sometimes you get lucky and narrowly miss it. Even with all these examples, they do not really cover all media, nor does it often suggest alternatives.I think rather than the many lengthy hypothetical situations, the book could have used real examples of when people have been accused of infringement and the reasons they won or lost. In the appendix, there are forms and fair use checklist. The footnotes on one part of the checklist, lead to descriptions in tiny font of two different real copyright court cases, and their results. I would have liked to have seen more of that in the text as it is more concise and relevant.

The book arrived in excellent condition within the scheduled delivery time.Thank you,Francine Keehnel