U. S. Copyright Office According to the U. S. Constitution, the Copyright Office was established, “To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries."
Copyright Watch Collects and monitors copyright laws worldwide.
Copyright Clearance Center The CCC is a global rights broker for licensing content (primarily textual such as books, journals and magazines). Libraries, businesses, and organization use the service to quickly obtain permission and rights to use materials. They also have an Education page to assist in understanding copyright law.
Harry Fox Agency The HFA is an, "information source, clearinghouse and monitoring service for licensing musical copyrights."
Swank Motion Pictures Inc. Swank licenses films for non-theatrical use where public performance rights (PPR) are required. Although they do not work with all films in distribution, they are a great place to start when seeking rights. There is a special division called Movie Licensing USA that licenses feature films for K-12 and public libraries.
European Patent Office (E.P.O.) Intergovernmental organization founded in 1977 to adminster European patents. The site includes a patent registry and search.
Freedom to Tinker Blog initiated by Ed Felten, Professor of Computer Science, Princeton University that explores legal regulation of technology. Numerous experts from Princeton's Center for Information Technology Policy now post to the blog.
Center for Social Media & Social Impact School of Communication, American University. CSM is an organization that uses media for social action. The site includes many free documents including the Documentary Filmmakers' Statement of Best Practices in Fair Use, Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Scholarly Research in Communication, Honest Truths: Documentary Filmmakers on Ethical Challenges in Their Work, Code of Best Practices for Sustainable Filmmaking, and Clipping Our Own Wings: Copyright and Creativity in Communication Research. See the "Documents" page for additional resources.
Center for the Study of the Public Domain Duke Law site devoted to promoting global understanding of public domain issues. Includes the graphic novel Bound by Law that explores a filmmaker's exploration of copyright for a documentary film.