Copyright for Digitization Projects

Posted: January 6th, 2014

Understanding copyright is very important to a digitization project. A project must abide by the rules or face possible litigation. For this assignment, imagine that in front of you are the following three items:

1- Some personal letters written by Mr. Gregory Peterson to Mrs. Melissa Hall dated during the year 1900. The personal letter described an outing that they had taken with a group of friends. Both parties are deceased.

2- A book with the following citation:
Stevens, A. (1871). The history of San Jose and surroundings: with biographical sketches of early settlers. (L. Goodrich [role]), San Francisco: Printing house of A.L. Bancroft and Company no. 721 Market Street

3- Some photographs of S.B. Cwen (1827-1884?) that contain no dates and no information on who took the photographs.

For each item, discuss whether or not the item(s) can be digitized and why.

Cite appropriate copyright laws, rulings, or guidelines you use in making your decision.

In the event that a definitive answer cannot be determined, discuss the ambiguities, why you believe the intellectual property rights to be unclear, and the decision you would advise your institution to make in whether or not to proceed with digitizing the item.

Discuss possible implications of digitizing the item and making it available anyway.