Archiving the Covid-19 pandemic

Ownership, copyright etc. are complicated fields of law. These are some basic tips to help with the kind of material you are likely to want to archive in the context of the pandemic. When you are looking at collecting, think about:

• Who owns the Intellectual Property Rights?
  • Does the copyright owner know they own the copyright?
  • Is there any financial value in the item?
    • If the answer to both is 'yes', avoid sharing the item and making it digital
    • If the answer to both is 'no', the risk of breaking copyright law is low
• Permissions - Orphan works (items that have no obvious or traceable authorship)

Always make a reasonable effort to find out who owns the copyright. However, there are ways of dealing with unclear copyright. One is to have a takedown policy, which offers the option for anyone who is unhappy about their material being used to easily address that. Make sure that:

• You include a takedown policy on your website
• If the rights owner contacts you with objections, you are required to remove the item as soon as possible
• You include a statement that shows you have made every effort to make sure the materials comply with copyright
• You tell people what to do if they want to make a complaint

You can find an example takedown policy on the Norfolk Sound Archive website.

One of the most common issues with copyright for community archives is around photography. With photographs, you should remember two things:

• The copyright of a photograph is owned by the photographer or their employer, not the subject
• Owning the photograph doesn't mean owning the copyright

Donors are often confused about this, so you need to be clear. You can try to make it clearer by asking the right questions of your donors. Instead of asking if they own the copyright, you can ask:

• If they know who took the photo
• Who is shown in the photo
• Whether they have permission to give it to you