Good points Pam, Seems that the consensus is that such a document should be registered. One point of clarification though...Failing to put a written "in part or whole" statement on the document in no way implies that the document is free to be copied as long as the institution is credited. A good idea, but not necessary. If that misperception is circulating in registrar/director land(or any other land), then it should die the urban myth death it deserves immediately. A copyrighted document is fully and completely copyrighted, as long as the notice accompanying it meets the basic criteria(copyright, date, name). There are no partial or weak copyrights that do not require permissions. Such a use of the map would be a direct violation of the institution's copyright, unless the user has written permission. The document itself does not need to say so. It is the "in part" thing that gets most people in trouble, since there is no stated standard for what percentage of a work can be reproduced before violation occurs. Fair use is a case-by-case situation. That is the point of keeping all documentation on the creation, publication, and copying of the map. That will serve as your proof if someone ever violates said copyright directly or through derivative works. Even these dated e-mails in the museum-l archives, or printed out, might help serve that purpose, if it ever arose. Registering the document makes keeping all that documentation moot. Mark Janzen Registrar/Collections Manager Edwin A. Ulrich Museum of Art Martin H. Bush Outdoor Sculpture Collection Wichita State University (316)978-5850 Pamela Silvestri <PodunkLander@AOL .COM> To Sent by: Museum [log in to unmask] discussion list cc <[log in to unmask] SE.LSOFT.COM> Subject Re: Basic Copyright Question 11/15/2005 07:50 PM Please respond to Museum discussion list <[log in to unmask] SE.LSOFT.COM> Along with the information already posted for this question, regarding registering the copyright with the Library of Congress...I highly recommend this also, which would require the fees and a deposit of a copy of the map. If your museum does not, and someone else creates a similar map, or recreates your museum's and submits a registration on their own (and maybe claim that they produced theirs before yours and independently of yours) then they would own the copyright. If they earned a profit by selling/reproducing the map in any way, shape or form the burden of proof of ownership would be to the museum to prove otherwise. However, you should include, with the copyright information printed on this map -anything similar to the effect that, 'Any use and/or reproduction of this map in part or whole including original data contained within, must be requested in writing and approved by this museum/organization'. If you do not add any statement such as this, than it is implied that the map can be reproduced as long as it is properly credited to the museum. If the map your staff created is in any way extracted from any existing maps and data, then what you may have is a 'rendition' or a 'version' and not an original - but you can still register a copyright for it as such. Since the map was created by staff for the museum, it is considered 'work for hire' and therefore the museum owns all rights to the map. The creators of the map relinquish their right to profit and reproduce the map for personal gain without permission from the museum. Pam In a message dated 11/15/2005 3:50:17 P.M. Eastern Standard Time, [log in to unmask] writes: Hello, There is a map which is part of an exhibit. It was created by the museum staff. We wish to reproduce the map for community outreach purposes but before we do, we'd like to copyright the map. Does just adding at the bottom @ ( or copyright sign) +2005+name of museum suffice? Susan Pamela Silvestri, Museum Assistant Northeast States Civilian Conservation Corps Museum Shenipsit State Forest 166 Chestnut Hill Road Stafford Springs, Connecticut 06076 Telephone: (860) 684-3430 e-mail: [log in to unmask] ========================================================= 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). ========================================================= 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).