Notes on Copyright and the Web

Blue bar

Copyright limitations have become a real problem for historians working on the web. This is particularly true for historians who focus on the post-1945 world, as a lot of materials can simply not be used on the web because of copyright restrictions, and those restrictions have become ever more stringent in the last fifty years. This is particularly the case with photos and video. And to be quite frank, I have run into all kinds of copyright restrictions with my different digital projects.

One good case of the problematic nature of copyright restrictions involves Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I have a dream speech." which is no longer considered to be in the public domain. Here is a short version of the issue. See also this post. The King Center's lengthy statement of archival terms and conditions is pretty detailed.

The Rosenzweig textbook has a particularly well-written chapter on copyright law and its recent evolution. I find especially interesting the idea that the US Congress, by enacting ever more protective laws for copyright holder authors, has routinely avoided benefiting the public interest with its versions of copyright law (and probably skirted the intent of the Constitution).

Copyright in the United States is currently bound by the provisions of the Berne Convention Implementation Act (1988) and the Copyright Renewal Act of 1992. In the U.S., copyright protection basically lasts 70 years past an author's death. There is no requirement to file for copyright protection; copyright is in effect as soon as something is fixed, for example, written down or created. Check the quick link chart below for an illustration of a simple copyright approach.

Fair Use is the procedure for establishing whether an item can be used with, or without, a licensing fee or an author's permission. Whether you can use a copyrighted item under the fair use provision (section 107) of copyright law can become an extremely complicated question. I highly recommend that you take a look at the Association of Research Libraries, Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Academic and Research Libraries. In a non-profit, educational setting, there are quite a few alternatives around copyright restrictions. In any case, it is always best to try and get permission first for use from the owner of the copyright.

You might not have been aware of the fact that there are six different levels of Creative Commons licenses. Creative commons allows a creator to share a work with some relaxed copyright stipulations on its further use. Use the search engine to help you find creative commons objects, like photographs.

When it comes to web-based content for my projects, I try to use (1) my own content, photos, texts; (2) then materials that are clearly no longer copyright-protected; (3) objects for which I have obtained the permission of the owner. If I use an item that I am uncertain about, I do take care to cite and give credit. In all cases, my work is non-profit, and I am clearly not trying to profit from another's work. "Use but don't forget to cite and credit."

Some sources that will help you determine whether a work is (or is not) under copyright protection:


Some further interesting sites dealing with copyright:

Things that I probably should say more about with regard to copyright implications but haven't gotten around to writing: