The digital age and the growing popularity of digital
photographs raise a lot of issues about photos as artifacts and copied photos
as artifacts. And there are those pesky copyright issues.
Having done extensive historical research on extremely controversial events
in early 20th century history, I looked at every available photograph purported
to be part of the historical record and evaluated them for their documentation
value.
If original negatives existed with provenance, and those negatives were not
altered in any way, the photos had value as artifacts. Photographics prints
with provenance also had value as historical documents if there was no sign
of alteration--photo editing attempts were so clumsy in the early 20th century
that they were quite obvious. I borrowed many photographs and had copy negatives
made with permission, but again noted the provenance of the originals and
have always credited the owner if a photo has been published with an article
or book--but this is what I had permission to do.
I am shocked that you would duplicate and distribute photos if that right
has not been transferred to you. You could find your museum in deep trouble
if the owner of a photo loaned to you objected to this practice. I hope you are not selling these copies.
Digital photos are so easily and seamlessly altered that their value as documentation
is of course limited. And as has been pointed out, magnetic media for storage
has evolved so quickly that 10 years may be the maximum useful life for digital
archives. Twenty years ago, many thought that 8 inch floppy diskettes would
be useful forever and even the 3.5 inch 1.4 megabyte diskette was just a
dream--and now it is on its way out.
To spare your museum from future litigation, I would suggest sending release
forms to as many people as possible to obtain permission for your previous
copying activities. Some people might want a royalty if you are selling photographs.
Others might waive such rights to benefit the museum.
But the best thing you can do is start obtaining written permission right
away as new photos are copied and keep those permissions--on paper--on file
in a safe place. And always give credit to the people who allowed you to
copy the photos. Just one little scandal would make others reluctant to trust
your museum in the future.
Susan Felker
Assistant Director for Outreach
Virginia Museum of Natural History
http://www.vmnh.org
Sabine Goerke-Shrode wrote:
Curator, Vacaville Museum
"For our exhibits we generally have photographs on loan. We make a copy for display purposes and return the original to its owner. Nowadays, we often just scan the image and use a printout. This is normally done without a title transfer.
. . . Other photographs are very popular, get many requests for duplication, and yes, we claim them as our collection."