Interesting questions. I'm not a lawyer. I study copyright a bit, and here's
my take...
1) I would probably considered these unpublished, because I believe that for
purposes of copyright status publication generally requires the intent of
the copyright holder. I've asked similar questions regarding things posted
to websites. I could be wrong, though. ^_^;
2) The childen would hold the copyright to their works. An online exhibit
may be a fair use, but note that noone could say with 100% certainty if a
given use is fair or not outside of a court of law. You'll need to make a
fair use evaluation as to whether or not you think the use is fair. The four
factors of fair use are the purpose of the use, the nature of the work, the
amount of work used, and the effect on the market or potential
markets.Youdon't have to meet each of these factors, but have to
evaluate the use as a
whole. Noncommercial uses are more likely to be fair than commercial uses.
Using factual, less creative works is more likely to be fair than using
highly creative works. Using less of the work is more likely to be fair than
using the entire work or the "heart" of a work. Not having an effect on the
market is more likely to be fair that affecting the market (serving as a
substitute for the sale of an product, for example). I would guess that your
uses of these works are fair (digitization and putting them online),
assuming you are doing this for noncommercial purposes. There might be
privacy or other implications if children are involved as well, though. If
you can consult a lawyer, I'd check to make sure. ^_^
For other optinions, though, feel free to as on the forums of
librarycopyright.net. Some of the librarians there might have similar
experiences. The more info you provide, the better we can try fair use
evaluations. ^_^
Carlos Ovalle
On 6/8/06, Heather Crocetto <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> Hello, Everyone!
>
>
>
> I have two crazy copyright questions that I'd like to bounce off of you
> all. I know copyright seems to be discussed ad infinitum around here, but
> please bear with me!
>
>
>
> 1) As a local history collection, we have a ton of anonymous photos,
> usually of buildings or general outdoor scenes. We can usually give it a
> time frame, but don't know who took the photo; of course, there are no deeds
> of gift. Many of these photos have been used in local publications, such as
> the local historical society magazine, without thought of copyright. This
> was done years ago. We just acquired the historical society's photo
> collection last summer, and have not received any requests for their
> magazine. My question is: do we consider those anonymous photos published
> works? Even though they were done with no one's consent, probably in
> violation of copyright? I have the charts, but am trying to figure out where
> these anonymous photos (taken in the first half of the 20th century) fit
> in the charts.
>
>
>
> 2) After 9/11, our fire department received dozens of letters and cards
> from schoolchildren across the country. Many of these were hand-drawn, with
> text and illustrations. For the 5th anniversary of 9/11, we are planning
> to display some of these in our room, and we would also like to put together
> an on-line exhibit. Of course, our deed of gift was from the Fire
> Department, and the copyright for the cards would be held by these kids, the
> creators. Right? I am assuming an on-line exhibit would be considered fair
> use; there are lots of lawyers in these parts, and we don't want some lawyer
> mom or dad freaking out that their kids' artwork is being put on the web.
> I'd just like my suspicions about fair use confirmed or denied, so we can
> proceed (or not) with planning the online exhibit. If anyone here has done a
> similar type of online exhibit, using children's artwork, I'd be interested
> in how you handled any of these issues.
>
>
>
> Thanks for any responses you can provide, either to the list or directly
> to me.
>
>
>
> -Heather
>
>
>
> ------------------
>
> Heather Crocetto
>
> Archivist
>
> Virginia Room, Arlington County Public Library
>
> Phone: (703) 228-7724
>
> Fax: (703) 228-7720
>
>
> http://www.arlingtonva.us/Departments/Libraries/history/LibrariesHistoryArchives.aspx
>
>
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>
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]>