Resources - Book review - Are you digitally legit? Lawsuits can be lethal, so Eira Hayward enjoys finding safe passage through the legal minefield of copyright and intellectual property issues for librarians.

Law, Libraries and Technology by Mark van Hoorebeek is a useful guide that should give information professionals a good grounding and insight into the increasingly litigious issues of copyright and intellectual property law as it relates to libraries and their use of the internet and other digital technologies.

The book seeks to break down the complex issue of copyright into manageable chunks. There is plenty of tabular information through the book and the chapters have lots of sub-headings. There are also full notes at the end of each chapter and a comprehensive index and references at the back of the book.

The first chapter provides an introduction to intellectual property. Each subject area of intellectual property law comes under an individual sub-heading, where it is first quickly defined before a full explanation is given at greater length. The chapter explains the legal distinctions between tangible and intangible property, the sources of UK law, and what is meant by intellectual property and copyright.

Further chapters go on to explain how copyright works on the world stage, and in ...