I'm working with some folks at my institution to open up policy on
fair use and online digital collections. Our counsel has made it clear
that we’ll see more success if we can point to examples from other
large digital collections. A lot of surveying of copyright and TOS
pages from many online collections has given me a good general idea
what collection posters are telling their patrons about fair use, but
I need some examples of what administrators are telling the collection
posters about what they can and can't claim (esp. in regards to
collections open to the world that may contain large numbers of orphan
works). It does seem clear that many have decided that a
low-resolution digital image of a collection item (even if that item
might be in copyright) is ok w/in the spirit of fair use if it's
clearly posted for educational purposes. I just need some
documentation of that policy.
What I’m hoping to find is documentation (internal or otherwise) that
basically states, “we think it’s legally ok (for fair use or other
reasons) to post online a digitized image of a collection object even
if there’s a chance that object is under copyright protection.”
If there is any chance you could point me in the direction of such
documentation or someone who would know how to locate it I would be
much obliged.
Derek Merleaux
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