Digitizing and Copyright
Pictured – a book from our collection that covers digital copyright pretty comprehensively.
One thing that many of our libraries like to do is get their local yearbooks digitized by the folks down in OK. This is a cool service, but the next thing that our libraries want to do is put those files up on their websites. I’ve gotten a few questions about how to do this and I always ask “who has the copyright to these files”. Many times, the person asking the question can’t answer that one right away. Generally, the publisher of the yearbook – unless it’s from 1923 or before – has the copyright and could object via lawsuit to those images being posted on a library’s site. There are some subtleties to this – it’s not 100% black and white and the general legalities are covered nicely at The Legal Genealogist. If your local school published those yearbooks locally, you could be in luck – just ask and they’ll likely give their permission (get that in writing though – you want to be able to show that when future administrators come asking).… Read the rest