Hello everyone,
Recently there has been a flurry of questions related to copyright,
of which the Internet is now a huge part of that issue. I recently
took a very intensive copyright class at my university as a part of
my technical writing degree, but in general, the class was fabulous
for all of its applications in my life. I highly recommend if you can
afford it and it’s available to you, check out your local
universities and see if they have a copyright class that you can
take. It doesn’t make you a lawyer, but it will give you a more solid
foundation of knowledge for your business and your jewelry creations.
If you want to just buy the textbook and not bother with finding a
class, the textbook is: Burgunder, Lee (2007) Legal Aspects of
Managing Technology, 4th edition. Mason, OH: West Legal Studies in
Business. Burgunder’s book is pretty good, although on occasion we
found areas in the class in which he could have expounded just a
little more. But it does cover many subtopics of copyright, trademark
and patent law. Topics even such as website linking and framing are
discussed. Cases that set a precedent for our laws are discussed, and
international law is discussed as well.
Additionally, there were three sites we had to read. The first one
is a copyright primer which simplifies copyright law and makes it
more digestable for folks like us. The second one is the Digital
Millenium Copyright Act, and deals with technological applications
regarding copyright. The third link is a book in the form of a comic
on copyright, and focuses on the film industry. I provided this one
because the questions and problems presented in the book can also
provide a good background of copyright as jewelry
designers.
http://www-apps.umuc.edu/primer/
I hope some of you will find this helpful.
Regards,
Miachelle