Legal Commentary

Do you have some boilerplate language you use in the asterisk footnote of your articles?  Does it preemptively cover copyright permissions?  My plea is that you give the matter some thought and attention.

My own nominee for the best copyright statement is Larry Solum, who teaches intellectual property among other courses at the University of Illinois College of Law.  See why after the break.

I am a  casebook author and a recidivist.  Determining who owns the copyright, getting the permission, negotiating the terms and the fees, these are not the kinds of things I went to school for 7 years to do.  The online services do not improve much on the process.

My publisher sets aside a small amount of money for permissions.  Sometimes I can beg some more money from the Dean.  Sometimes the fees come out of my pocket.  Understand that the author's royalties for these books -- often divided among co-authors -- do not amount to a whole lot of money.  I remember endorsing one of my royalty checks over to my teen age son as payment for yardwork . . . that month.  True story.

I don't know Professor Solum, but I like the man. Why?  Because his boilerplate copyright permission is generous and efficient -- for him and for other authors who might make scholarly use of his work:

"Permission is hereby granted to duplicate this paper for scholarly or teaching purposes, including permission to reproduce multiple copies or post on the Internet for classroom or other scholarly use and to quote extended passages in scholarly work, subject only to the requirement that this copyright notice, the title of the article, the name of the author, and citation to the Northwestern University Law Review be prominently included in the copy or extended excerpt. Permission is hereby granted to use short excerpts (500 words or less each, so long as the total word count of the excerpts does not exceed 50% of the total word count of this work) with an appropriate citation and without inclusion of a copyright notice. In the event of the death or permanent incapacity of the author, all claims to copyright in the work are relinquished and the work is dedicated to the public domain in perpetuity. Even if the author is then living, all copyright claims are relinquished as of January 1, 2050. In the event that the relinquishment of copyright is not given legal effect, an unlimited license of all rights to all persons for all purposes is granted as of that date."

103 Northwestern University Law Review note * at 923.