Material such as Civil War letters were automatically under copyright owned by their writer(s). If these copyrights were not renewed within the lifetime of the writer(s) plus 75 years (which is highly unlikely, of course), then the letters are now in public domain. In other words, nobody now owns the copyright to the actual content. (However, if your organization produced a printed version of the letters, that version would be copyrightable.)

If a scholar transcribes the material, then the scholar owns copyright to that transcription, unless it was a work made for hire and was so designated by agreement between the scholar and the museum. Copyright would then cover the actual physical copying of those transcript pages; the content is still public domain. The difference, in academic terms, would be that a researcher would cite the transcript (a secondary source) rather than the letters.

Regarding the amount of material used, again, if we're talking about something in the public domain, using an entire letter or quoting a single sentence would make no difference. Ditto for whether it was used alone or as part of a broader publication. In either case, researchers should give proper attribution for the material as a primary source. On the other hand, if your organization produces a printed version, then anyone quoting from that version should seek the organization's permission.

On Mon, Nov 29, 2010 at 7:47 AM, Aderman, Ella <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

There has been much on the discussion list about copyrights of images, but I am wondering if any one can point me to some resources related to publication rights of archival material in an organization's collection, such as transcription of Civil War letters and their subsequent publication. So not an image of the handwritten letter, but its content. Is that copyrightable material? If a "scholar" does the transcribing, can the institution still retain copyrights, or should they? If the material is made available for use in say a classroom situation, does that preclude any rights for publication? As a public institution, do we have an obligation to make the material available free and clear? Does it make a different if the handwritten letters are used in whole, or just quoted? Included with other background material or stand alone?

I would appreciate any comments or suggestions from people at organizations with experience in this type of thing.

Ella Aderman

Site Supervisor

Pennypacker Mills
========================================================= 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).

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).