Erica, I teach an online course on "Copyright and Intellectual Property 101 for Museums". I have works in several media that have been copyrighted, have encountered copyright issues in my long career in museums and conservation, and I was the Executive Director of a large international membership organization for songwriters and composers and coordinated educational programs on copyright and IP by several top entertainment and Intellectual Property lawyers here in Los Angeles. This sounds straight forward, but in all things with copyright and IP, it really depends on the details. If the oral histories were recorded by the museum, then the copyright belongs to the museum, who created the recordings into tangible form in both the tapes and the transcripts. That would be true regardless of the waivers. With the waivers there is really no doubt that you own the rights whether the materials were registered with the copyright office or not at the time. The majority of earlier copyrights were grandfathered in by the copyright revision law in 1972. There are some exceptions to that, where the previous law requiring publication before works could be copyrighted, and, also a renewal requirement to maintain copyright. The law in 1972 dropped the publication and renewal requirements and simply made copyright automatic from when the work is rendered into tangible form that lasts for the life of the creator (s) plus 70 years in the current law. Copyright registration allows you to protect more of your legal rights in court. So knowing the context and dates when these oral histories were created may be important. Since these transcripts are in your collections (and hopefully catalogued) the same policy and rules by the museum for researchers or publishers to use them should apply the same as they would for a diary or photos that are in the collections. The usual agreements often contain how the works should be cited and how the institution should be credited. If the copyright for the works were held by creators outside of the museum, then it gets more complicated. Museums and collectors own art works and objects as physical property, but do not own the copyrights unless they have been expressly transferred to the museum by the creator (s) of that work. This is why I had to contact living artists or their heirs or foundations whose works were in copyright, when I, as a conservator, was going to treat them. Since this request for your documents are for use in a dissertation there should be no issues. But, in all things dealing with copyright and intellectual property, you should always consult a lawyer. Cheers! Dave David Harvey Principal Conservator & Museum Consultant Los Angeles CA USA www.cityofangelsconservation.weebly.com On Fri, Jul 17, 2020, 1:24 PM Erica Travis <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > Good Afternoon Listers, > > Our institution was recently approached by someone conducting research for > his dissertation (due next week of course). The researcher is interested in > referencing the transcripts of a series of interviews with African > Americans in our area; the same interviews resulted in the publication of a > book of oral histories. Ideally, the researcher would like to include > digitized pages of the transcripts in his dissertation. > > We've looked through our records and the interviewees agreed to assign > "all rights, title, and interest in any reproduction which may be used from > these original recordings..." The release continues, "I hereby permit the > Museum to use and distribute the information with any restrictions named > below placed on its use." > > In the instance that no restrictions were put in place, it seems pretty > cut and dry to be able to supply this researcher with the scans of the > transcripts--I guess where I'm still at a loss is whether scans of the > transcripts used as images in a dissertation presents any infringement > issues or necessitates some kind of notice or something similar in the > citation? > > I look forward to your replies! > > Thanks in advance, > Erica > > ------------------------------ > > To unsubscribe from the MUSEUM-L list, click the following link: > https://HOME.EASE.LSOFT.COM/scripts/wa-HOME.exe?SUBED1=MUSEUM-L&A=1 > ========================================================= Important Subscriber Information: The Museum-L FAQ file is located at http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ . You may obtain detailed information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "help" (without the quotes). If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "Signoff Museum-L" (without the quotes).