Copyright in Special Collections and Archives
The issue of copyright ownership is frequently raised in the course of normal use of collection materials. The vast majority of content in the archives was not produced by Special Collections and Archives, and therefore original copyright does not lie with the department. In limited cases, copyright may have been formally transferred to the department by the donor. Additionally, some material may or may not reside in the public domain based upon its age. In all cases, department representatives will consult the Head of the department regarding copyright.
It is the patron’s personal responsibility to locate the copyright owner and secure permissions to reproduce any materials gathered from Spec in the course of their research.
Nearly all materials may be legally protected by copyright laws, even if they were never published or registered with a copyright office. This means that material within the archives may be copyright protected. Though most archival research is personal or scholarly (and so falls into the category of “Fair Use”) it’s important to understand how copyright works and how you can use copyrighted materials.
The copyright holder must license the work or give permission to anyone who wants to reproduce, adapt, distribute, display, or transmit it. To be cautious, assume that all creative works (including audio and video recordings, photographs and other images, documents, writing drafts, and drawings and sketches) are copyright protected unless you can prove otherwise. To re-use copyrighted material in your own work, you may need to seek a license or permission to use the work from the copyright holder. It is the responsibility of the user to determine if their intentions fall within Fair Use, who holds the copyright, and how to obtain permissions. The University of Idaho Library is not liable for any violations of the law by users. (Language adapted from University Libraries at University of Colorado Boulder).
The legal exception of Fair Use under copyright law allows for the reproduction of copyrighted works under certain conditions. In general, patron requests can be judged against the following criteria:
MORE LIKELY to be Fair Use
| Purpose & Character of Use | If the work created is:
|
| Purpose & Character of Original Material | If the archival material used is:
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| Amount of Original Material Used | If intended to take from original material:
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| Effect of Use on Potential Market | If:
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Content adapted from Amy Dygent, “Copyright services and the university,” Society of American Archivists Annual Meeting 2020.
LESS LIKELY to be Fair Use
| Purpose & Character of Use | If the work created is:
|
| Purpose & Character of Original Material | If the archival material used is:
|
| Amount of Original Material Used | If intended to take from original material:
|
| Effect of Use on Potential Market | If:
|
Content adapted from Amy Dygent, “Copyright services and the university,” Society of American Archivists Annual Meeting 2020.
Duration of Copyright and Public Domain
A copyright may remain in effect for a long time. Determining the precise term can be complicated and, in the United States, depends on when the work was first created and published. For more information about copyright duration, please see Duration of Copyright
The public domain is generally defined as consisting of works that are either ineligible for copyright protecting (including documents authored by the U.S. government) or works whose term of copyright has expired. No permission is needed to copy or use these works. Further information about public domain works and their use can be found in this copyright guide’s Public Domain section.
If you have questions about copyright or our copyright policies, please contact libspec@uidaho.edu.