Is your museum grappling with intellectual property issues (e.g., trademark
or copyright)?

The American Association of Museums (AAM) seeks your help in identifying
intellectual property issues of concern to the museum community.  AAM
recently was awarded a grant from The Pew Charitable Trusts to collaborate
with the Getty Information Institute and the J. Paul Getty Trust in
developing and disseminating a primer on the creation, ownership, use, and
legal and ethical issues of intellectual property for museums.   To ensure
that this primer covers the particular intellectual property concerns of
the museum community, we are asking those in the community  to send us
questions, case studies, and any best practices and procedures you may have
developed on intellectual  property issues.  With your valuable examples
and insights, we hope to develop a primer that addresses  a broad array of
intellectual property issues specific to the museum community.

Some examples of the kind of questions and real life issues we have
received to date include the following:

* What copyright issues must a museum consider when setting up a home page
on the World Wide Web?

 * When a museum buys a painting from a living artist, who has the right to
create reproductions of the painting?

* Does the museum have to obtain permission and pay a  royalty to ASCAP for
music played during an opening  event? Would a museum need to pay ASCAP
fees for music used on a local cable television program designed to build
its audience?

* Who owns the copyright for research done on behalf of a  museum?

 * A museum is planning an exhibition that includes reproductions of
newspaper articles. The newspapers are defunct and the writers and
photographers are unknown.  How does the museum get permission to use these
materials? Is the museum legally required to obtain permission? Who should
it contact?

* A museum is being given a collection of children's books and wants to do
an exhibit based on these books. However, the donor does not hold the
copyright. Can the museum blow up images from the books for the exhibit?




Please send your particular queries, examples, or comments to us at:

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If you have any questions about the project, please direct them to me at
the email address listed below.

Thank you.

Diane

Diane M. Zorich
Project Manager, Museums and Intellectual Property Primer Project
c/o 7925 Via Ensenada
Carlsbad, CA 92009
Voice# 760 942-3633
Fax#   760 942-3566
Email: [log in to unmask]



Diane M. Zorich
Project Manager, Museums and Intellectual Property Primer Project
c/o 7925 Via Ensenada
Carlsbad, CA 92009
Voice# 760 942-3633
Fax#   760 942-3566
Email: [log in to unmask]