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Copyright Act: Secondary Sources

This guide is to help law students who are researching the Copyright Act through the identification of primary and secondary sources of law

Copyright Treatises

SSRN

Link to S S R N

Social Science Research Network
Search for forthcoming and accepted scholarly articles under the Legal Scholarship Network. 

HeinOnline Law Journal Library

Westlaw and Lexis are not the only places to find law reviews and articles.  HeinOnline's collection has PDFs of an extensive collection of law reviews and typically goes back to the first published volume of each particular journal.

HeinOnline Search Law Journal Library

 

Copyright books & texts

Encyclopedias & ALR

Don't forget to search the legal encyclopedias such as AmJur or Corpus Juris Secundum and ALR to see if there are any relevant annotations for copyright law.  These resources can be found in both Lexis and Westlaw.

UBorrow

UBorrow is an exciting new service that enables FSU library patrons to request materials from any one of the 37 participating state university library branches throughout Florida. The turnaround time is faster than interlibrary loan and it is also a way of borrowing books that are currently checked out and not available from FSU. Items will be delivered to any one of the FSU Libraries for you to pickup.

Search the FSU libraries for an item. If the item is not available at FSU you can use UBorrow to locate and order this item from another library for you.  In order to do that just click on the UBorrow icon located in the upper right-hand corner of the screen of the FSU library catalog. For more information on UBorrow, read over these FAQs or ask a librarian.

Search the FSU Library Catalog

Sources for CRS reports

The Congressional Research Service (CRS) is a division of the Library of Congress that prepares non-partisan reports for the U.S. Congress on a wide variety of topics.  The CRS does not provide a website for the public to access the reports but some of the reports available through third-party subscription or free websites. Search for "Copyright Act" to find relevant reports on a variety of copyright issues.

Intellectual Property Law Collections

HeinOnline's Intellectual Property Law Collection contains almost 2 million pages of legislative histories, treatises, documents and classics relevant to copyrights, patents and trademarks. 

BNA has an Intellectual Property collection which among other things includes the Intellectual Property Law Resource Center, Patent, Trademark & Copyright Journal, and the Patent Trademark & Copyright Daily.

Westlaw has collections of Intellectual Property Cases, Intellectual Property Texts & Treatises, Intellectual Property Briefs, Practicioner Guides, and Intellectual Property Statutes and Court Rules. The easiest way to find these collections is to type "copyright" into Westlaw Next and a dropdown list will appear.

You can add a subtab in Lexis for Copyright Law which includes briefs, motions, pleadings, treatises, emerging issues and primar law.  Go to area of law by topic (on the main page) >View more > and choose copyright law. You can then add a subtab to easily access these resources in the future, or you can use the info from this page.

VitalLaw

VitalLaw is a great resource to get both primary and secondary materials. For Copyright Act materials search and browse the Intellectual Property Practice Area.  VitalLaw requires users to register with a FSU email address and you will create your own password.
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