Fifty years ago, the Copyright Act of 1976 was signed into law October 19, 1976 as Title 17 US Code to revise the existing copyright law and modernize copyright for a changing world. Legislation since 1976 has updated the act, but the majority of Title 17 US Code has remained in place since its inception. Law schools, universities, and various organizations have been commemorating this milestone during 2026:
- The Authors Alliance has been releasing a series of blog posts exploring each section of the Copyright Act, examining how it was enacted and what might have been.
- The Editor of The Copyright Society launched an interview series on the making and interpretation of copyright law over the last 50 years. The first panel includes a brief history of copyright revision as an excellent introduction to the law with live with today.
Here at USF Libraries, our Copyright Services team loves a bit of history and discovering the forces that have shaped revisions to copyright law. It helps them provide the best information to our USF community on how copyright affects research and creative projects. We also like the coincidence that our new department, Integrated Research & Impact Services (IRIS), in which the Copyright Services team resides, will be celebrating its first birthday this October. In celebration, we wanted to share some of our favorite copyright related resources:
- Copyright Term and the Public Domain: A table created by Peter Hirtle and maintained by Cornell University Library. It tracks the movement of copyright expiration and the how copyrighted materials were protected over several iterations of US Copyright law.
- SPARC Author Addendum: Helps authors negotiate with their publishers during the publication process to retain valuable rights in their published chapters and articles.
- Openverse: A successor to the CC search that was launched by Creative Commons, Openverse searches the web for images, and audio that are shared with an open license.
Copyright Services at USF Libraries are available to guide faculty, students, and staff through copyright and intellectual property issues. We are happy to meet with you on a variety of topics, including:
- The permissions process
- Use of copyright material in theses and dissertations
- Author rights management
- Copyright status investigation
- Creative Commons licenses
- Publication contracts
- Use of copyright material in the classroom
Reach out to us with your question or check out our Copyright LibGuide.