The author uses the example of a text a student was not allowed to display on his course Web site to explore how and why institutional ideologies particular to the historical development of composition and creative writing--especially when viewed in conjunction with current copyright law--render students' multimedia compositions illegitimate. He…

Compares the development of copyright in the United Kingdom and the United States in relation to writing, literary works and other forms of intellectual property, and computer programs to show how writing is a unifying principle for documents and computers. (68 references) (EAM)

Answers questions on basic applications in the field of speech communication of the Copyright Act of 1976. Defines copyright, explains what is and what is not copyrightable, details the procedure for copyright registration, and discusses "fair use" of copyrighted materials in classroom teaching, scholarly and commercial writing. (PD)