I encountered a situation recently which I am not sure is usual or unusual
practice. A volunteer at an institution assembled material including a
list of objects and photographs of those objects and compiled them into a
comprehensive reference. He then copyrighted the reference in his own
name. Some photographs are public domain, some from private sources and
some in the institution's collection. The volunteer maintains a web site
in the institution's name but lists himself as the contact for copyright
permission.
Is this common practice? Are there legal and ethical conflicts?
Wayne Hart, Executive Director
Museum of Valor