July 3, 1999: New link!
Due to the Yahoo/GeoCities uproar, we found an excellent web site by lawyer Ivan Hoffman with many helpful articles concerning copyright, publishing, and the web.

Before you try to plow through the actual text of the law, look at this article, Copyrights in Cyberspace, by the publishers of the Nolo Press book on copyright that we’ve recommended in our bookstore.

Also, don’t miss this concise statement of the issue of copyrights from the perspective of an experienced writer and web designer: http://www.wilsonweb.com/copyright/violation.htm

You can read the actual text of the copyright laws of the United States of America at this site: http://lcweb.loc.gov/copyright/

You can also download official copyright registration forms here. http://lcweb.loc.gov/copyright/forms.html

To see what is being developed by the Library of Congress for electronic registration of copyrights, go to http://cords.loc.gov/.

These other sites, maintained by law firms and educational institutions, are also very helpful:
http://www.bitlaw.com/source/17usc/index.html

http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/

The Webguard site has suggestions for ways to protect your rights, especially some helpful ideas on what to do if you find someone has directly linked to your images or text without permission.