Recommended Reading
Nolo Press
Copyright Series
Nolo Press (a subsidiary of MH Sub I, LLC) publishes do-it-yourself legal guides. According to the company website, “Our mission is to help consumers and small businesses find answers to their everyday legal and business questions.”
In 2011 they combined with Divorcenet.com and AllLaw.com to form the Nolo Network. Nolo itself has been publishing since 1971, and “The Copyright Handbook: What Every Writer Needs To Know” is now in its 14th edition.
But what if you’re not a writer? They also publish books about music, trademarks, patents, and offer other information, referrals, and miscellaneous advice on their site.
I am, naturally, most interested in copyright. I have a copy of the Copyright Handbook and have read some parts of it several times. The laws governing intellectual property (hereafter abbreviated as IP) are extensive and complex, and it takes time and study to understand them – time and study that some lawyers have invested to make themselves experts.
This book is an invaluable resource for writers, as well as other creatives who are concerned with copyrights.
This book won’t make you an expert at that level, but it will give you a good basic education in IP, and it will help you see where your individual situation may spawn questions. It makes a solid basis for a layman’s understanding of the law, and it can provide you with enough information to handle a lot of your own basic needs.
Disclaimer: I certainly don’t advocate going the do-it-yourself route for all your legal needs!
But even if you intend to use an attorney for IP matters – and there are definitely circumstances where you should – knowing the basics of IP law is a good thing. For instance, you can gain an understanding of the terminology your attorney might use for a lot less than paying them by the hour to explain what it means. Additionally, attorneys specialize and your attorney - the one who handled a divorce, or adoption, or incorporating your small business – may know a lot about family matters, or business requirements in your state, but not be well-versed in federal IP law.
Yes, IP law is federal, not state or local, jurisdiction. In fact, the Founding Fathers considered ownership and control of intellectual property so important that they included it in the Constitution. Article I Section 8 - Clause 8 – Patent and Copyright Clause of the Constitution. [The Congress shall have power] “To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries.”
You may have no desire to handle your own legal affairs as they relate to your intellectual property – and remember that your creations are your legal intellectual property – but knowledge is power.
Knowing your rights, knowing what you can and can’t do with your work, is something every creator should aspire to, and this is a topic we will come back to later, probably several times, from different angles.
It is something we all need to deal with at some level, with or without expert assistance.
But in the meantime, I highly recommend that you read “The Copyright Handbook,” or another of the Nolo Press publications that relates to your specific creations. Gain a basic understanding of what constitutes IP and how it can be bought and sold, licensed, divided, and inherited.
https://www.nolo.com/