Hi Elizabeth, I teach an online course for museum professionals "Copyright and Intellectual Property 101 for Museums". I developed the course recently and had the first class back at the end of Sept. and have another class scheduled for Nov. 9th. (www.copyrightclass2.eventbrite.com). I have experience in copyright issues as a published author and editor, a videographer, my long career as a professional conservator, and in 4 years as the executive director of a large international non-profit organizations for songwriters and composers where we did numerous educational programs on copyrights, licensing, and intellectual property. To answer your question. Property is not copyright. While copyright is automatic when a recording, book, music, film, poem, sculpture, or other work is rendered into tangible form, owning the work as physical property does not give you the copyright. Copyright can only be transferred from the creator(s) be an express legal document, If you do not have a legal copyright provision in your deed of gift expressly transferring all rights in the copyright, then the creator of the tapes / recordings still owns it. If your museum owns paintings, sculptures, videos, photographs, or documents you do not own the copyright unless it has legally transferred to you either by contract or if it is a commissioned work, by a work for hire contract. Currently copyright lasts for the life of the author plus 70 years in the majority of cases - so when the creator(s) die, you are dealing with heirs or foundations who were assigned the rights. Also, copyright is a separate legal issue from releases from people who are recorded or whose image appears in a photo or film. Those clearances for likeness of voice or image do not change the copyright of the work, they just may give the copyright holder legal issues. Some organizations think that if they are nonprofit then copyright clearances are not an issue. They are. Nonprofits are required to comply under the law. There is the doctrine of Fair Use, which has guidelines but is largely based on case law. In Fair Use you can use short sections, or cite, copyrighted works if the use is for news, commentary, criticism, parody, with some exceptions for education uses such as in classrooms, training, and limited use in blogs. Courts usually limit Fair Use to an appropriate and limited use in context for the commentary, news, or criticism, so usually whole works are not likely to win in a court case. So in your circumstance you do not need copyright permission from the participants who were recorded (including the interviewer), you need either a transfer of copyright or a license to use the material by the creator of the recordings. For documentary recordings like oral history or songs recorded for documentary purposes it is pretty straight forward, For songs or music produced there a layers of rights - from the lyrics and composition (which are often full of co-creators), to the sound recording (usually owned by music labels), to the mechanical rights (albums, CD's, and Jukeboxes), to digital rights. So you're issues are pretty simple and straight-forward. Cheers! Dave David Harvey Senior Conservator & Museum Consultant Los Angeles CA USA www.cityofangelsconservation.weebly.com On Tue, Oct 27, 2015 at 2:46 PM, Elizabeth Thrond < [log in to unmask]> wrote: > Good afternoon, everyone, > > What are the copyright implications for oral history interviews when you > have a deed of gift signed by the interviewer, giving your institution the > recording and/or transcript, but no release form signed by the interviewees > at the time of interview? > > My question is in relation to interviews spanning from the 1970s to 2013, > with the specific intent of digitizing a portion for our digital > collections. What can/can't we do? > > ~Liz Thrond > Collections Assistant > Center for Western Studies > Augustana University > 2001 S. Summit Ave. > Sioux Falls, SD 57197 > www.augie.edu/cws > > ------------------------------ > > To unsubscribe from the MUSEUM-L list, click the following link: > http://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).