[Sca-librarians] copyright on scribal artworks

[Judith A Kirk]

I can help you with an answer here. I am the Middle Kingdom Chronicler, and copyright is my passion :-) I attended a conference on copyright at Ball State in 2011 and my job in an academic library keeps me abreast with copyright developments (I read the Copyright and New Media Law newsletter regularly and have been in contact with the editor for permission to use pertinent bits from the Q&A that are similar to SCA situations). I have also worked on a digitization project of the Middle Kingdom Great Booke and worked with the SCA Publications Manager on how to deal with old images where the creators or subjects are no longer available to ask permission. (dead, gafiated, otherwise unable to locate). I have worked in the same library for nearly 27 years and worked in print, publishing a kingdom A&S newsletter. Current corporate decisions regarding use of images from Wikimedia come directly from copyright issues on websites in my kingdom. You -don't- know if images on Wiki are owned by someone else, unless you go and check into it. That takes time and people are lazy. They assume if they see it on the internet, it's free and that is most definitely not the case. Since my position also oversees the Middle Kingdom webminister, I have my feet in both print as well as pixels. :-) Now, to your questions: ----- Original Message -----
> From: "FV/Rafaella" <rafaella13 at yahoo.com>
> To: "SCA-Librarians" <sca-librarians at lists.gallowglass.org>
> Sent: Saturday, June 2, 2012 11:45:45 PM
> Subject: [Sca-librarians] copyright on scribal artworks
> Here's the big question: If we digitize the photos/slides, can we put
> them up on the web (without getting anything signed? no one collected
> any sort of permissions in the past, either from scribes or
> photographers.)
Guarded YES. Definite YES if you're going to be putting these on a non-SCA-official website (like a personal website). If you're intending on making this an official AnTir/SCA scribal website, then we're back to Guarded Yes. > My inclination is "no" but before I tell that to my superior (and take
> the time to digitize) I'd like to get my justification in order. I may
> end up digitizing for preservation (and make sure to include "goes
> into public domain" notes in the metadata) but maybe it's time to
> start a "hunt for the scribes and get clearances" project.
Consider these as 'orphan works**.' When possible, you should make reasonable attempts to locate the creator or artist (could be different, if you're digitizing photos someone took of someone else's work). "Reasonable" is up for debate, but given the wide use of social media, the avenues are open and varied for putting out a call. Even email forwarded across the Known World works, it worked for me. That also follows US copyright law for 'orphan works'. **"Orphan works" are those for which no responsible party can be found (photographer, subject of photo, item in photo, etc.) SCA rules for PRINT resources are more restrictive than for ELECTRONIC ones. The rationale is: once something is in print, physically in your hands, it's hard to retract it if there is a copyright problem. If it is electronic only, it can be removed if someone objects. It has to be the person who created the work/took the photo or the subject of the photo who can legitimately complain. For example, if I don't like a particular photo on X website, if that photo is not one I took being used without my permission OR it's an unflattering photo of me, I can ask you to remove it. But if I'm not the one who took the photo or the person IN the photo, I don't have legal grounds to ask you to remove it. There is no SCA policy statement on this, since it's already covered in modern US law. So you have a bunch of old photos. Anything on hand created before January 1, 2011 is much safer to digitize. Read on: The SCA release forms came into being at the end of 2010, and this is a significant date. All photos taken after December 31, 2010 require an SCA Photograph Grant of Use Form be filled out by the photographer, and a copy retained by the project coordinator AND the photographer. (see Release Forms FAQ for Webministers here: http://www.sca.org/docs/pdf/ReleaseFormsFAQsWEB.pdf) Note this says nothing about the creator of the work, only the photographer. The creator would be the scribe, ok? :-) Most scribes have no problems having their work digitized and made available, but there can be a few exceptions. I dealt with that while trying to find all the artisans involved with the Midrealm's Great Booke, completed in roughly 1990. I found almost all of them, prior to 2000, using email and requests to forward. I had a list of SCA names to look for. Only two had issues: one had left the SCA under very bad circumstances and threatened to sue if she found her work on the internet. Another was a professional artist who did not want his pages freely available to the public. Everyone else was either lost or agreed. Now one of the contributors has passed away. BUT...this was in 2000, I did not ask specifically for permission to post their work in the Great Booke on a website, we didn't even -have- a Kingdom website in 2000 (lol). I had asked only for permission to make slides or hard copies. So, the permissions forms I had were no good. I had worked on this with the SCA corporate copyright lawyer, those were the original permissions forms that TI used for many many years. But no one could anticipate the future, nor could we ever have anticipated having that Booke professionally digitized, creating very large TIFF images. SO...I had old permissions that didn't cover what I really wanted to do with the digitized images. Since these images were done prior to Jan 1, 2011 AND the original art by the scribes had been done in the 1980's and 1990's, I worked with the Publications Director of the SCA and she determined we treat these as "Orphan Works". So, the short answer is: if your collection of photos all date prior to January 1, 2011, you can digitize to your heart's content. I would recommend that you put a statement asking for help in tagging/identifying scribes on your website, and one that says if the photographer or creator of the work does not want the photos on the site, to contact you with the request and you will remove them. The corporate office is very much aware of the creation of many SCA history websites. This is to be encouraged, surely! There are ways we can do it PRE 2011 and POST 2011. PRE 2011 materials are much easier to digitize and use, but anything you have dating after 1/1/11.....get permissions. That includes from the scribes....but it may be easier to have an opt-OUT policy; make it known publicly that any scroll created for AnTir populace is subject to being digitized for preservation purposes, unless the scribe specifically indicates NOT to allow their work to be digitized. Banbharun Siobhan O'Neill, CL, CP Middle Kingdom Chronicler Please feel free to ping me privately, and if you want to check with the Publications Manager, go ahead :-) She would probably like to know about your project anyway :-) > The visual arts dillemma of photographer vs. artist-of-the-artifact is
> what causes me confusion in these situations.
> I was speaking with my Laurel (who has her OL in C&I) and she said
> "but we did these for Kingdom, isn't that like work?" and I said that
> volunteer art wasn't Work For Hire, but it is an interesting line of
> thought.
> I've roamed through VRA (visual resources assoc) and ARLIS/NA (art
> libraries) websites, without much luck. The new ARL fair use
> guidelines* apply to teaching in higher ed, not so much for volunteer
> educational organizations. :-)
> Input appreciated.
> --Rafaella
> Mestra Rafaella d'Allemtejo, OL
> Scribal Archives & Library Deputy
> AnTir
> *http://www.arl.org/bm~doc/code-of-best-practices-fair-use.pdf
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