My registrarial 6th sense tells me this is a rights and reproductions
issue, NOT a copyright issue. This man made copies of the copy you provided
to him. He violated your R&R agreement. He agreed not to copy his copy--you
set this parameter so you could control the quality of reproductions from
your collection. Stick to your guns. Do not feel guilty about the forgotten
letter. That has nothing to do with the smokescreen he's creating.

Although...you might own copyright to your copy...but that's truly a side
issue.

Good information about R&R can be found through the RARIN, the Rights and
Reproductions Information Network at
http://www.panix.com/~squigle/rarin/01rcsite.html

Your instinct about a lawyer is a good one. Be certain this person is
versed in R&R issues.

Best,
Diane Gutenkauf
(Former registrar)

On Thu, 25 Mar 2004 09:14:16 -0800, Katie Wadell <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:

>I have a pretty sordid story to tell, and I wonder if anyone could give me
>some advice .....
>
>I work with an all- volunteer group that runs a small museum and archive.
>Recently, we received a letter saying that we (and our president) were
being
>sued by one of our patrons.   A while back, this patron signed a one-time
>use agreement to print some of our photos in a book he was publishing. We
>generously waived the use fee.  Later, we found out that he had given
copies
>of two of our images to a local hardware store, in order to promote the
>book.  The president asked that the images be taken down from the  store,
or
>that the store owner (or the original patron) sign another use agreement
and
>pay the appropriate fee.
>
>Then, we got a letter from the patron's lawyer, threatening to sue us with
>libel. He said that, even through he had signed the one-time use agreement,
>that the image was out of copyright and that we had no right to restrict
its
>use.   Moreover, we were hurting his good name in the community.  Finally,
>the lawyer's letter said that we were hurting the cause of local history,
by
>restricting people's access to our collection.  (In reality, anyone who
>wants to see the pictures can come into our archive and look at them -
>either during open hours or after making an appointment.  For 50 cents,
they
>can even get a nice copy to take home.)
>
> I'm 99% sure that we are in the right, but there is one problem.... I was
>supposed to write to the original patron after the president talked to the
>hardware store owner, but I got busy with other things and let the letter
>fall to the bottom of the stack of things to do- before I could get to it,
>we got the letter from the lawyer. Obviously, I'm feeling pretty guilty
now.
>
>What do we do now? We are getting a lawyer ourselves, but I'd like to give
>the lawyer some info about what museums usually do in this kind of case.
>
>THANKS!
>
>Katie Wadell
>

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