Preprint: http://www.ala.org/ala//mgrps/divs/acrl/publications/crljournal/preprints/Schlosser.pdf
On Wed, Jul 22, 2009 at 10:55 AM, phoebe ayers <phoebe.w...@gmail.com>wrote: > Relevant to the NPG et al discussion: > "Unless Otherwise Indicated: A Survey of Copyright Statements on > Digital Library Collections", by Melanie Schlosser. published in > "College and Research Libraries", v.70(4), pp371-385 (July 2009). > -------- > Unfortunately it's not freely available online, but if you have access > to a good university library you should be able to get it. Here's the > abstract and some excerpts: > > Abstract: "This study examines the copyright statements attached to > digital collections created by members of the Digital Library > Federation. A total of 786 collections at twenty-nine institutions > were examined for the presence of statements and their content > evaluated for common themes. Particular attention was paid to whether > the institutions in question are meeting their obligation to educate > users about their rights by including information about fair use and > the public domain. Approximately half the collections surveyed had > copyright statements, and those statements were often difficult to > distinguish from terms of use and were frequently vague or > misleading." > -------- > Snippets of interest to our discussions: Of the collections examined, > 41% consisted entirely of public domain items; 51% of these had a > copyright statement, but only 10% of the institutions mentioned public > domain implicitly or explicitly in their statement. 86%, however, > mentioned personal or educational use (which is not relevant to public > domain items). Of the collections of copyrighted items, 48% had some > sort of statement; 8% mentioned fair use explicitly while 53% > mentioned personal or educational use. In general, the copyright > status of a collection did not affect whether or not a copyright > statement was present -- only half of the collections had statements > overall, and no institution was consistent in its labeling. > > And: "Quite a few public domain and mixed [copyright status] > collections had Creative Commons licenses or specific or vague > ownership statements, implying that the contents are copyrighted in > some way. It was especially common for statements to acknowledge that > the institution does not hold the copyright to the original item > (either because it had passed into the public domain or because the > copyright was held by a third party) but to assert copyright over the > digital image." > > Schlosser notes that "The definition of a 'copyright statement' used > by this study was somewhat arbitrary. Many of the statements examined > were buried in collection descriptions or looked more like terms of > use statements than copyright statements." She concludes that "It > seems unlikely that libraries are purposely deceiving users with false > or misleading claims of copyright ownership (copyfraud). However, this > study presents evidence that, far from educating users about copyright > or promoting the public > domain, many libraries engaged in digitization projects are omitting a > key tool for copyright education or using it in ways that undermine > users’ needs for accurate copyright information. Once again, it is > outside the scope of this paper to examine the reasons. It is possible > that working knowledge of copyright law in many libraries is not > sufficient for grappling with the complexities involved or that the > issue has simply slipped through the cracks as libraries embark on > difficult and resource-intensive digitization projects." > > Note this article is U.S. institution and law-centric, but gives some > nice background on copyright changes and the actions and position of > libraries. As Schlosser says, "While users push for more content and > functionality at less cost, and copyright holders demand greater > technological and legal protection for their works, libraries are > often caught in the middle." > > -- phoebe > > _______________________________________________ > foundation-l mailing list > foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org > Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l > _______________________________________________ foundation-l mailing list foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
