On Wed, 3 Apr 1996 21:11:25 -0500  Elyse Thorson wrote:
>I have watched the copyright debate the last few weeks with some
interest.
> Copyright can be a highly technical subject area as the "rules" are
>different dependent upon the creation date of the work which dictates



which
>statute applies.
>
>Also one must be able to analyze "fair use" and other issues. For
someone new
>to legal issues faced by museums I would recommend the following
books:
>
>Beauty and the Beasts (Smithsonian Institution Press, 1983)
>Rethinking the Museum (Smithsonian Institution Press, 1990)
>
>Both were authored by Stephen Weil who was at the Hirshhorn last I
knew.
>
>The latter has a specific essay entitled "Legal Aspects on the
Display of
>Imitations."
>
>I am sure many of you may have seen these works and they are aimed at


museum
>personnel.  Weil has also authored a treatise on Art Law.
>
>If anyone has other suggestions about relevant reading material on
these
>subjects, I would be interested in seeing them.
>

The treatise on Art Law to which you refer is:
Feldman, Weil, and Biederman, Art Law, 1986 (I think there's a more
recent edition) and it's very good.

A lawyer friend recently recommended two books, aimed at paralegals
(and people like us); they are a sort of Cliff's Notes (do those still
exist?) of law: small paperbacks, very handy:

1. Miller and David, Intellectual Property (Patents, Trandmarks, and
Copyright) in a Nutshell, West Publishing Co., St. Paul, 1990

2. DuBoff, Art Law in a Nutshell, West publishing Co., St. Paul, 1993.

However, one need go no further than the World Wide Web for what seems to
be an infinite amount of information on copyright.  My own hotlist is now
so long it's almost unmanageable... One can start at "The Copyright Website"
at http://www.benedict.com.  Or, go to "Haim Ravia's Legal Links" at
http://www2.NetVision.net.il:80/~ravia.  Click on "Intellectual Property."
It is a yellow brick road (okay, blue hypertext) to scores of other sites,
which lead to other sites -- you know the game. Here you can also find a
link to Copyright FAQs, as well as copyright myths.
Or, try "Copyright and Intellectual Property Resources" at
http://www.nlc-bnc.ca:80/ifla/II/cpyright.htm.
Or, the Library of Congress site, whose URL I don't have in front of me, but
everyone knows this one, right?  (http://www.loc.gov ?)

------------------------------------
name: amalyah keshet
director, visual resources, the israel museum, jerusalem
e-mail: [log in to unmask]
date: 04/08/96

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