Apologies for the late reply.
Photographs are protected by
copyright just as any other created material. As far as copyright, the
digitization of photographs is not terribly different from the
digitization of books. The first and most useful determination is when
the photograph was taken, which would let you know what the copyright
law is associated with that type of material at a given point in time.
Hirtle's Public Domain Chart is very useful in this respect: http://www.copyright.cornell.edu/training/Hirtle_Public_Domain.htm
For
recently created works, no notice of copyright is necessary. The item
is automatically copyrighted on creation. For older works, there may
have been formalities involved before copyright protection was given.
This may require research on your part. There are a few other things to
consider with photographers. In some cases, the photograph is a work
for hire, so the hiring party would own the copyright (assuming U.S.
copyright law). There are often contracts involved with professional
portraits, however, and the photographer is often the owner of the
copyright.
If
you don't have copyright permission, you'll need to rely on a copyright
exemption for the digitization, usually in the form fair use or the
Section 108 library and archives exemption. The library and archives
exemption is fairly restrictive regarding digitizaed materials. The new
orphan works bill and the Section 108 group might make some of these
processes easier, hopefully. ^_^
If your institution has an accessibly attorney, it might be a good idea to clear these types of uses.
Hopefully, hopefully, we'll have some copyright and digitization resources available at ALA's
librarycopyright.net website over the next couple of months.
Carlos Ovalle
On 6/2/06, Bishop O'Rourke Library
<[log in to unmask]> wrote:This is an off-shoot of the recent question about privacy and portraits on
the web.
What about the copyright issues with digitizing portraits? Modern
professional
photographers often stamp the back of their prints with copyright claims.
Do these copyright claims have legal basis? What about older photos (many
of ours are '40-'60s) which
bear the name of a company or studio, but nothing else?
Thanks,
Melissa Martinez
Librarian, Bishop O'Rourke Library
St. John's Catholic Newman Center
Phone: (217) 255-6610
Email: [log in to unmask]
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]>