Hello everyone in Archives Land! I have another question for the list. I have several videos in my collection that are home movies. These movies were not professionally released or part of a movie or anything like that. Most of the movies have, according to my files, no restrictions from the donors and no copyright notice at all. Two of the movies (the most important ones of course) have a restriction mentioning that the movie is “in private domain and is not to be reproduced in any form. It is restricted to one-time use all rights reserved”. These home movies are from the 20’s to the 40’s. Unfortunately, the donors are all dead, the information I have in my files is sketchy at best, and quite frankly the restriction I mentioned above is a little confusing to me (restricted/ one time use?). My question involves using the films for educational purposes. Meaning other museums have approached me wanting to use the footage in an exhibit. Obviously I would never sell this footage for commercial use, but I was wondering if I could allow another museum to use the footage for display or educational purposes? Does this situation equal fair use? Let’s say it is not covered under fair/educational use. If the interested museum promises to get copyright permission from the donor or their family should I require proof of this permission in writing before I release the film? Or would you give them a copy and leave it up to them to get all of the proper permissions? Sorry for the long post, but I find many aspects of copyright rather confusing. And I would hate to keep something wonderful locked up in my vault for no one to use, if it can actually be used in some circumstances. Thank you all so much for your advice. Amy Hooker The Petroleum Museum 1500 I-20 W Midland, TX 79701 432-683-4403 A posting from the Archives & Archivists LISTSERV List sponsored by the Society of American Archivists, www.archivists.org. For the terms of participation, please refer to http://www.archivists.org/listservs/arch_listserv_terms.asp. To subscribe or unsubscribe, send e-mail to [log in to unmask] In body of message: SUB ARCHIVES firstname lastname *or*: UNSUB ARCHIVES To post a message, send e-mail to [log in to unmask] Or to do *anything* (and enjoy doing it!), use the web interface at http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/archives.html Problems? Send e-mail to Robert F Schmidt <[log in to unmask]>