Georgia K. Harper was the Scholarly Communications Advisor for the University of Texas at Austin Libraries, 2006-2015, where she focused on issues of digital access. She was Senior Attorney and manager of the Intellectual Property Section of the Office of General Counsel for the University of Texas System until August 2006.
She was the original author of the online publication, The Copyright Crash Course, that provides guidance to university faculty, students and staff concerning a wide range of copyright issues and is freely accessible to all universities and colleges.
She conducted local, state, regional and national workshops and seminars on copyright issues. She was named a fellow of the National Association of College and University Attorneys in June 2001, and in 2010 received the inaugural Georgia Harper Copyright Literacy Award from the Center for Intellectual Property at University of Maryland, University College. In 2014 she received the L. Ray Patterson Award from the American Library Association for advocacy on behalf of copyright users' rights, most notably fair use and the public domain.
Ms. Harper graduated with High Honors from the University of Texas at Austin with a B.S. in Education and with Honors from the University of Texas at Austin's Law School with a J.D. degree. She also holds an M.S.I.S with a focus on digital libraries from the University of Texas at Austin's Information School, and an M.A. in Contemplative Education from Naropa University, Boulder, Colorado.
The Copyright Crash Course was originally created in the mid-1990s. At that time, Georgia Harper created several helpful articles and resources on copyright issues that affect university faculty, staff, and students. These were based on the Copyright Act, case law, and discussions and negotiations that were happening at the time. Some of the information contained in these resources may now be out of date.