Reviewed by Joseph Duffy
This site is really quite beautiful. Apparently the U.S. Copyright Office is
part of the Library of Congress, which in itself was news to me. This site is
very well organized with a site search, a tab for registration, forms and
publications. The forms page has a list of printable forms in pdf format, and a
link to download Adobe Acrobat Reader in case you don’t already have it. You may
also request forms by mail.
There is also a link to a page that provides the information in Spanish and one
for Hot Topics such as “Anticircumvention rulemaking”. The page is very
up-to-date, with the latest additions being posted 10-15-03. There is no listed
information about the creator or maintainer of the page. There is a biographical
link to Marybeth Peters, who has served as the Register of Copyrights since 1994
and the is the author of the “General Guide to the Copyright Act of 1976.” I did
follow the link back to the Library of Congress homepage, but there is no credit
given for the web creation on that site either.
As a governmental site, it is pretty straightforward and to the point, but it is
still very easy on the eye with a mostly white background and dark green letters
with a dark and light green border. It is not ornate in any sense but it is
still attractive without being decorative.
The site is as biased as any governmental site that must adhere to
non-discriminatory guidelines. The is a link titled “Testimony: Peer-to-Peer
Networks “ which has the transcript of Marybeth Peters’ testimony before a
Judiciary committee on the copyright violations inherent in downloading music
from the Internet, but that is as ominous as it gets. There is not a lot of
opinion on the site, just information.
There is a whole page of contact information including maps and floor plans of
the Library, visitor information, hours of operation, contact information,
telephone numbers and addresses. There are links for e-mail, faxes and an online
form that allows you to ask a specific question on a variety of subjects.
This is an excellent site which is information, useful and very well organized.