Guides: Music: Copyright Issues

Links to Help You Understand Music Copyright Issues

Here are links to some resources that can help you untangle the increasingly complex subject of copyright and intellectual property:

Digital Rights Management
Informative Wikipedia article about rights to digital content.
Fair Use Checklist
Not sure if your planned use of a created work constitutes fair use? Run it through this tool provided by Columbia University.
Public Domain Information Project
A resource for public domain and royalty free music. The "Copyright Law" tab provides very straightforward, music-specific information about the subject in plain English. There are multiple screens of information. Be sure to use the light blue arrows at the bottom of each screen to navigate through them.
United States Copyright Office
A wealth of information from the U.S. Copyright Office.