[Posted on behalf of AALL]
AALL Model Law Firm Copyright Policy and Guidance Document have been finalized and are available on AALLNET.
Patricia Barbone, Director of Library Services at Hughes Hubbard & Reed LLP, passed on the following information about the Model Policy:
I am pleased to announce that the AALL Model Law Firm Copyright Policy has been updated and posted on AALLnet. The AALL Board approved the new update at their last board meeting on April 8th, 2016.
As stated on the website, AALL’s Model Law Firm Copyright Policy is a model of a copyright policy and will require revision to fit the specific needs of your law firm. Your firm’s General Counsel or Intellectual Property attorneys should review the policy before it is adopted. The Model Policy should be read in conjunction with the Model Law Firm Copyright Guidance Document. The Guidance Document provides clarification and insight into copyright law and more nuanced aspects of the policy. The Guidance Document should also be revised to meet the needs of your law firm. Should your firm adopt a copyright policy, it will require revision if laws change.
The newly updated Model Law Firm Copyright Policy can be found here: http://www.aallnet.org/mm/Advocacy/recommendedguidelines/model-law.html
The Model Law Firm Copyright Guidance Document can be found here: http://www.aallnet.org/Documents/Leadership-Governance/Policies/guidance-document.pdf
The AALL Copyright Blog’s posting on the policy can be found here: http://community.aallnet.org/blogs/kelly-leong/2016/05/06/new-model-law-firm-copyright-policy
The policy was updated under the auspices of the AALL Copyright Committee. Many people contributed to this three year endeavor to update the Model Law Firm Copyright Policy. An early task force of private law librarians helped to share their copyright pain points; then the membership was surveyed on copyright concerns via the Private Law Librarians & Information Professionals SIS communities list. Several librarians shared their existing firm copyright policies with Carolyn and me.
Fellow Copyright Committee member Carolyn Hersch (Ropes & Gray) and I reviewed the survey to find issues that members needed addressed in a revised policy. Then the work of drafting began. We were assisted by Kelly Leong (UCLA School of Law), Pam Brannon (Georgia State University College of Law), as well as my firm’s General Counsel, James B. Kobak, and Intellectual Property attorney, Genevieve Perez. Thanks also go out to our AALL Board liaison Emily Florio (Finnegan) for getting some last minute updates approved by the Board. To everyone who was a part of this process, I offer my thanks and gratitude.