Intellectual Property
From Digital Libraries - Fall 2009
Contents |
[edit] Contact & Liaison Info
| Name | Role | Contact |
|---|---|---|
| Danny | Chair | pucci@simmons.edu |
| Katharine | katharine.dunn@simmons.edu | |
| Gilyana | gilyana.dordzhieva@simmons.edu |
[edit] Meetings
[edit] Minutes from meeting, 9/22
[edit] Looked at previous Notable Women DLs:
- All have terms of use page describing “Terms of Use” terms for reproduction, how to cite use, and one (Wunderly) lists each item as “research only” or “public domain.”
- As far as Rights metadata, we think it would be good to have one “Rights” field with 2 options (drop-down menu). Will liaise with Metadata group to figure out what we can do with fields (will we use Dublin Core “rights” element?). We discussed doing something similar to the metadata group, i.e., writing guidelines for class members to use so they can add rights information to each page/image.
- We would like to include that information with each item, so we need to know dates of items in scrapbook, which are in public domain, and which are not; can safely assume published items are PD but photos, letters, ephemera are not.
[edit] Deed of Gift (Helyar Scrapbook to Simmons Archive):
- It appears as though Daisie gave to scrapbook to Simmons to do with as they please, so no restrictions on digitization and use on the Internet. However, since the materials she created (photos and ephemera) are still under her copyright (death date +70 years) safer to put up a note saying materials are for educational/research use only (Fair Use and TEACH). Public domain items get the other "Rights" note.
- We should also look at FERPA for information on privacy and "publishing" of digital educational records -- like personal transcripts.
[edit] Contact Simmons College Attorney?:
- We may want to contact Simmons College attorney (whomever deals with IP issues) to ask if university correspondence is public domain, also if her report card (published by Simmons, but with her personal information) is in the public domain.
- May also want to ask attorney if our 2 rights statements are OK legal language (i.e., covering all bases).
[edit] Minutes from meeting, 9/29
- Overall assessment of the scrapbook to determine what our categories of rights will be. Categories: public domain; not.
- Where do we get the language for our rights statements? Simmons archives? Donna says no. We have to go further than they have in the print environment in terms of rights.
- Do we need to contact anyone else for permissions?
- We will give students two options (public domain; not). We'll check the site when it's up in beta to see if info has been entered correctly.
- Looked at copy of Daisie's deed of gift, a letter to the College. She says (in essence) here it is, the gift is made. She thanks the archivist for taking her scrapbook and hopes it can be of use. Letter was Sept 1976. (She died a month later.) What does this mean in legal terms?
- We will come up with our two statements to give to students and give them to the metadata committee by October 22 (or earlier).
- Should we meet with Simmons lawyer to ask about their take?
[edit] Minutes from meeting, 10/8
- GD will continue to research issues related to IP, copyright, and privacy issues for white paper.
- Discussed issues related to scrapbook items still in copyright as well as items that have privacy issues (e.g., grades, physical measurements, etc.)
- Metadata needs 2 rights statements (PD or "fair use" only) for descriptive metadata template (to be completed as people are entering information for each item). Next week, KD will pull statements similar to those used in Wunderly scrapbook and email Simmons council (Kathy Rogers) to make sure language is proper legalese.
- DP will email registrar for suggestions about how to address privacy-related items, but will wait until/if we hear from Simmons council.
[edit] Minutes from meeting, 10/15
KD emailed Simmons council (Kathleen Rogers) who forwarded the question to an IP attorney (Brenda Ulrich). We asked her how to deal with rights statements at the item level, as well as how to deal with privacy/FERPA issues (grades, course schedules, etc.). Her response was to tweak the statement for copyrighted materials and leave the PD statement simple. For example:
- This work is in the public domain.
- Certain of these materials are protected by copyright law and are made accessible through the Digital Library only for use in scholarship and research, pursuant to Section 107 of the Copyright Act. Copyright protected materials may not be distributed or used for any commercial purpose without the express written permission of the copyright holder. Please contact the Simmons College Archives regarding permissions and proper citation guidelines.
As far as FERPA, she said: "Your FERPA question is an interesting one. The main answer is: if the person has passed away, then their privacy rights, including FERPA, die with them. So if we are sure she is passed away, there is no FERPA issue to worry about.
Finally, we're waiting on an answer to one last question (whether Simmons-published materials can be called "Public Domain"). And, once we've written the complete/global rights statement, we'll send that to the IP attorney for approval.
As for instructions about how to enter rights metadata, here's a draft:
1) You need to determine the proper rights statement for the INDIVIDUAL items on a scrapbook page.
2) Each item will be either "in the Public Domain" or "available for research and educational purposes only." As you're creating metadata at the item level, add one of the following statements to each item:
- This work is in the public domain.
- Certain of these materials are protected by copyright law and are made accessible through the Digital Library only for use in scholarship and research, pursuant to Section 107 of the Copyright Act. Copyright protected materials may not be distributed or used for any commercial purpose without the express written permission of the copyright holder. Please contact the Simmons College Archives regarding permissions and proper citation guidelines.
3) To determine if the item falls into the Public Domain, here are some guidelines:
- To be in Public Domain, the item had to be PUBLISHED before 1923 (newspaper clippings, playbills, postcards WITHOUT personal messages, ***possibly*** Simmons-published materials like commencement programs and invitations).
- UNPUBLISHED items get the "Research/Educational-Use-Only" statement (letters, postcards, photographs, hand-typed notes, grades, course schedules, personal records). These do NOT qualify as Public Domain works.
- If you think an item is questionable, feel free to contact Danny Pucci (pucci@simmons.edu) for further guidance.
[edit] Procedures
[edit] To Do:
Meet at archives 2p next Tuesday 9/29 to look through scrapbook to determine issues. Jason/Donna will give us documentation about the deed of gift when we get there.
Look at Deed of Gift to see what limitations Daisy placed on use of scrapbook.
Determine if we need to get permission for any scrapbook items (from rights holders).
Before meeting in Archive:
Peruse Digital Millennium copyright act, Fair Use, Peter Hirtle copyright table, and TEACH Acts for research purposes.
GD will put together list of “issues” involved with researching copyright. Also issues surrounding what institution should do if it cannot determine copyright. Should it digitize the material anyway?
[edit] For “Terms of use” in DL:
Describe what Fair Use means to those who use materials from our DL (Fair Use as allowed under United States Copyright Law, 17 U.S.C.A. § 107).
Describe what users can fairly do.
Link out to Digital Millenium Copyright Act.
[edit] List of Problematic Copyright Items in Helyar Scrapbook (by page number)
- DP 10/6 -- After reading up on copyright I now realize that anything written TO Daisie is definitely out of copyright (unpublished works are (c) from the death of the author +70 years, so death by 1939 according to Peter Hirtle's table).
- Originally I thought these items might qualify for fair use (under provision 3), because they represent such a small piece of the overall scrapbook. However, I now realize that if we show these copyrighted works in their entirety (e.g., a complete letter -- all pages digitized), that violates Fair Use, even for educational purposes. For that reason, I went through the entire scrapbook again, making note of the problematic items, along with any contact information I could find for the original author. (In my list, I skip photos, dance cards, and invitations, though they may have their own unresolvable issues.)
- One other thing, after creating the list, I had a nice chat with Donna Webber about risk assessment. My feeling is that we're probably safe putting all items online, even if they violate copyright (letters) or have privacy issues (Simmons correspondence), given the age of the materials. Donna said that we need to think about when the items were created and the likelihood that there is anyone left who would be scandalized by their digitization/publication. But, if we really want to cover our bases, we could talk to:
- Donna Dolan (Simmons Registrar) about Daisie's personal records (grades, course schedule, etc.)
- Kathy Rogers (Simmons Council) about copyright issues on letters/manuscripts
- One last thing: Donna also told me that it is Simmons policy to CLOSE student records forever. However, because Daisie donated these materials to the Archive with no restrictions, we might feel safe digitizing/publishing them. Again, it's about risk assessment. Donna said it might be worthwhile to talk to the Registrar (the other Donna) to see what her take on this is. She suggested emailing both Registrar and Council, rather than trying to contact them in person.
Items NOT created by Daisie and NOT in the Public Domain:
- p. 3 (loose) - Personal letter, September 23, 1906 from M.L. Stone, address at time of writing: 525 Fifth St., Brooklyn NY
- p. 25 - Personal letter from "Helen," probably from West Brattleboro; this letter represents a gray area -- certainly we won't be able to get permission (with no last name or complete address), but she writes on the envelope, "To the public: DO NOT READ THIS! S.W.A.K."
- p. 29 (Loose) - Personal letter from "Pandy," probably from 11 Oak St., Brattleboro VT
- p. 61 (Loose) - Personal letter from Marion J. Mann, Spencer MA
Other items we probably need to look into:
- p.3 - Simmons admission letter (probably OK, but technically it's in (c) until 2026 as unpublished corporate authorship is 120 years from date of creation)
- p. 3 (loose) - Letter from Simmons Student Guild, 1906 (as above, probably OK because the author wrote on behalf of Simmons; just in case, she as Eloise C. Miles, 134 Montauk Ave., New London, CT)
- p. 4 - Daisie's class schedule (probably fine, but worth checking)
- p. 6 - Daisie's grades
- p. 14 - Daisie's grades
- p. 16 - Daisie's class schedule
- p. 23 - Daisie's grades
- p. 23 - Daisie's class schedule
- p. 28 - Daisie's grades
- p. 30 - Daisie's class schedule
- p. 33 - Daisie's grades
- p. 33 - Daisie's class schedule
- p. 44 - Daisie's grades
- p. 48 - Daisie's class schedule
- p. 50 - Daisie's class schedule
- p. 51 - Daisie's grades
- p. 58 - Daisie's "Record of Physical Measurements"
