Collaborative Electronic Reviews
Department of Library Science and Instructional Technology
Southern Connecticut State University, New Haven CT
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LSC 551-70
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Tennant, Roy. (1999). Copyright and Intellectual Property Rights. Library Journal Digital, August 1, 1999:Reviewed by Eric JonesCopyright Considerations in Digital Library DevelopmentIt is extremely important that a digital library ("DL") developer determine whether he or she has a right to include material within a digital library before actually including that material. Mr. Tennant¹s article from the digital version of Library Journal provides an good overview of the copyright rules and provides useful links for readers interested in obtaining additional information on this important topic. Copyright is a frequently overlooked issue in the development of a digital library. Part of the problem is that there are many misconceptions about the copyright laws of the United States. Most material, published or unpublished, is subject to copyright in the United States, including material available on the Internet. It is generally irrelevant whether the material actually includes a notice that it is copyrighted, and there is generally no obligation that material be registered with the government in order for it to be protected. For more information, readers should see http://www.loc.gov/copyright/faq.html. Material that is in the public domain is not protected and can be republished freely. However, as noted above, simply because material is available on the Internet does not mean it is in the public domain. Material created by the government is created in the public domain. Most other works pass into the public domain after a statutorily prescribed period of time that varies depending on a number of factors. Mr. Tennant¹s article provides links to sources that can help DL developers decide whether works they would like to include within their digital libraries are in the public domain. Thanks to Mr. Tennant¹s links, I was able to learn that material published prior to 1923 (such as articles published in the 1876 Hartford Courant and the 1876 Hartford Times) is in the public domain. Even if material is not in the public domain, a particular use may be a "fair use" and thus not a violation of copyright. However, DL developers must be careful before invoking the fair use principle. It applies only in limited circumstances and generally would not apply to long-term inclusion within a digital library. If material is not in the public domain and its use would not be a fair use, a DL developer must get the copyright owner¹s permission before putting the work in a digital library. In some cases, finding the copyright owner (who may be a person other than the original author) can be difficult task. Mr. Tennant¹s article identifies resources that can be helpful in this regard. In some cases, an organization may already have the right to use a particular digital resource as the result of a license or purchase agreement with the copyright owner. A DL developer must carefully review these agreements before deciding that such material can be included within a digital library. The agreement will identify the organization¹s specific rights and responsibilities with respect to the material and may prevent it from including the material within a digital library. Finally, although Mr. Tennant focuses on the potential pitfalls of the copyright law for a digital library, it is important to remember that copyright law can benefit digital libraries as well. Material that is original to a digital library, such the structure of the digital library and the formatting of its documents, may itself be subject to copyright. DL developers must be aware of the copyright law so that they can ensure that their considerable efforts are protected to the greatest extent possible. Article available at: http://www.ljdigital.com/articles/infotech/digitallibraries/19990801_4925.asp Threaded discussion question:What potential copyright issues have arisen in the development of your digital library and how have you addressed them? Reviewed by Eric R. JonesHensen, Steven L. (1997). Primary Sources, Research, and the Internet: The Digital Scriptorium at Duke, September 1997: http://www.firstmonday.dk/issues/issue2_9/hensen/index.html. It is important for a digital library developer to stay aware of other digital library projects. First, a developer needs to avoid duplicating other digital library projects. Second, the approach and techniques used in other digital libraries may help a developer refine his or her own approach. Although Steven Hensen¹s article is about two years old, it describes Duke University¹s initial digital library projects. Duke University has created a Digital Scriptorium (http://scriptorium.lib.duke.edu), which is intended to allow faculty and students to access digital primary sources. The first element of the Scriptorium was Papyrus Online. Duke has a large collection of Greek and Egyptian papyri. The university wanted to catalog the papyri and place the cataloged data into its online catalog. It also wanted to have the papyri photographed so researchers would be able to use the photographs for primary source research. While the cataloging effort was successful, the two available papyrological photo archives are now defunct. However, during Duke¹s project, the World Wide Web burst onto the scene. The University¹s own Art Department had gained some experience creating a digital database of slides and so was given the task of creating digital images of the papyri. The result was an online collection of 1700 papyri, complete with a searchable catalog. Thumbnails are available for each papyrus and can be viewed in full at the click of a mouse. If the resolution is still not sufficient for research purposes, the researchers can request a high-resolution copy, which can be delivered by e-mail or FTP transfer. Duke has since developed a number of similar projects. For instance, Duke now has a sheet music archive available at its Digital Scriptorium. Mr. Hensen¹s paper interested me because Duke¹s approach to dealing with primary source materials was different than mine. Like Duke, I wanted to make original source material available on the Internet for researchers dealing with a particular topic. However, rather than putting digital images of newspaper articles on my site and then including a well-developed catalog for researchers to use, I have chosen to input the text directly into HTML. Eventually, I hope to incorporate a search-engine that will allow users to perform a full-text search of all articles available on my website. One reason that Duke and I took different approaches, of course, is that Duke had the ability to digitize images of the papyri whereas I am limited in my ability to digitize images of the newspaper articles. In addition, papyri are not written using the Roman alphabet and, therefore, are not as easily put into HTML (although this problem could be solved by creating an appropriate font face for patrons to use in viewing the documents). Nevertheless, Duke¹s approach really represents a different way of looking at the problem of how primary source material ought to be included on the web. QUESTION:To what extent should archival materials be placed on the web as images rather than as text?
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