Unit 7: Copyright and the Web

Reading Rosenzweig's chapter on copyright helped frame the world of copyright law in a succinct and meaningful way. I see now that there are grey areas to copyright, especially when the idea of fair use is thrown into the mix. As some of my former classmates may know, I have a general interest in the law and spent a year in law school before deciding the study of law was more a hobby than a profession, so I found this information very interesting.

I also found the video, A Fair(y) Use Tale, entertaining and informative. Having read Rosenzweig's chapter first, I still balked at the use of Disney's opening in the video, even with the disclaimer. Having grown up in the late 80's and 90s, I remember seeing the FBI warning before movies (on VHS) and knowing that it was illegal to copy a movie and resell it. Later in life, however, I've only been exposed to copyright concerns from an academic perspective; I don't deal commercially with copyright issues at work.

Digital projects seem rife with copyright concerns, something I may run into when working on my final project. I've done some browsing on Creative Commons, but as I discussed in my project update, I'd like to include photos and even videos (if available). I may run into a situation where I'm either limited by the amount I'm able to find in the public domain, or I get very friendly with fair use. Under the code presented in The Good News About Library Fair Use, I believe I'm protected. The final project could be considered a digital exhibit, and it certainly isn't intended for commercial use. Furthermore, Section 107 of the 1976 Copyright Act explains that “fair use of a copyrighted work … for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright.” 

Copyright in local museums

Rosenzweig's chapter states “multimedia historians will probably spend a great deal more time fretting about legal issues than their text-based counterparts.” I can see aspects of that concern in local museums in Reston, Loudoun, and Fairfax, but I don’t know if I would call it fretting. I chose to scrutinize these museums because I’ve personally been to all three.

• Reston Museum has a blanket copyright notice in the footer of its main website (just the symbol ©, no written disclaimer), but nothing obvious once you link to the digital collection; the footer copyright is not present in the digital collection. Thumbnail photos of the artifacts can be copied freely, and it’s only when the artifact is enlarged within the photo record that a watermark, “Property of Reston Museum,” is visible. Even more confusing, newspaper clippings from The Reston Times say “Property of Reston Museum,” though I would assume they mean the photo rendering of the article is their property and not the article itself? Very murky.

•  Similarly, the Loudoun Museum has a copyright notice (also just the symbol ©) in the footer of its main page. Within the exhibits page, the museum includes a photography policy which states that “notice of intent to publish is required for all print and digital publications, excluding social media sites” and that “image reproductions may also be purchased for private or commercial use.” This policy and/or its sentiment were not present on the Reston Museum site. However, like the Reston Museum, the Loudoun Museum’s exhibit thumbnails can be copied freely. There is no evidence of watermark or other identifying feature even on the full size images.

• Unlike the first two, the Fairfax Museum and Visitor Center does not have a dedicated website; it is nested under “historic resources” on the City of Fairfax municipal site. The copyright for the site is on a separate page, but bears the generic wording “all content © 2017 City of Fairfax, VA. All rights reserved.” Since this website provides no other exhibits or photos except for the front view of the museum itself, it seems this copyright is more than sufficient.