COPYRIGHT CLEARANCES.

This article discusses copyright limitations and risk analysis for information professionals. The scope of copyright has bulged with the establishment of the digital age. Copyright's expansion has been particularly acute since 1998, when U.S. President Bill Clinton signed into law the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Since the act's passage, the publishing industry has suggested that librarians steal content and give it away to others; the entertainment industry has taken to suing several members of its customer base over alleged copyright infringement; and U.S. Congress and the federal courts have been dragged into debates over intellectual property rights that seem as much a plea to protect the content industries' economic interests as it is an attempt to halt illegal distribution of its work. It is easy for information professionals to think that any use of copyrighted works is illegal unless it is explicitly sanctioned by a license, release or other written agreement. Most people will be surprised to know that a copyright owner's exclusive rights are outlined in a single section of the copyright law, but there are 16 statutes that limit those exclusive rights. There are several limitations on a copyright owner's exclusive rights and four of them apply specifically to information professionals.