Alison
I cannot comment on all your questions, but the second raises a concern that
may be illusory and I offer a thought on the third.
You mention in your first question the 'copyright form' which presumably
means the declaration form required by the Copyright (Librarians and
Archivists) (Copying of Copyright Material) Regulations 1989. If you are
using that you must be supplying copies of material in copyright that is not
owned by your authority. In your second question you mention the 'number of
copies requested'. If that means the number of different items for which
copies are requested there is no problem, but if it means the number of
copies of a single item there certainly is, since the Regulations explicitly
allow the supply of only a single copy of any one unpublished work to one
person. If you supply more than one, you are committing a primary
infringement of copyright.
The Regulations were drafted at a time when the supply of a copy meant a
single hard copy or perhaps a slide. The supply of a copy on floppy disk in
addition to a hard copy is in itself the supply of more than one copy (as
above), but it could also be interpreted as providing the means to print off
further copies subsequently. I suggest that you should be very careful
before supplying a digital copy under the Regulations, and if you do you
should make sure that the purchaser has fully understood the commitments
s/he has entered into by signing the declaration form. You could also
consider taking legal advice on the interpretation of the Regulations in the
digital environment (and if you do, I should be very glad to see the advice
if possible).
I might as well also mention in passing that the Regulations currently DO
NOT allow the acceptance of a digital signature. The declaration form must
be physically signed by the person for whom the copies are made. I (together
with the Library community) am pestering the Patent Office to prepare
amending regulations to allow digital signatures, but they are hesitant for
fear of rights owner opposition.
Tim
-----------------
Tim Padfield
Copyright Officer
Curator of Photographs
Secretary of the Lord Chancellor's Advisory Council on Public Records
Public Record Office, Kew, Richmond, Surrey TW9 4DU
Tel: 020-8876 3444 ext 2351
Fax: 020-8392 5295
e-mail: [log in to unmask]
> ----------
> From: [log in to unmask][SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
> Reply To: [log in to unmask]
> Sent: 19 December 2000 22:18
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Scanned images
>
> From: Alison Drew
> Subject: Scanned images
> We have recently purchased an A4 flatbed scanner for use in the
> Searchroom. At
> the moment the resolution is set at 150dpi and the quality of the images
> print
> ed out is excellent. At the moment we are charging 2.00 for a b&w and
> 2.50 f
> or a colour but a number of issues have arisen in the last week;
>
> 1) Should we be offering images of this quality - customers have to sign
> a copy
> right form but is this a good enough safeguard?
>
> 2) Requests for copies have rocketed in the last two weeks. At present
> there i
> s no handling charge. Do any record offices have a sliding scale of
> charges dep
> ending on the number of copies requested?
>
> A customer last week asked if we could save an image to his floppy disk.
> We sa
> id no but I know some offices allow this - what safeguards are in place?
>
> Finally, do any offices charge people for taking a photograph or digital
> image
> even if the image will not be used in a publication?
> I have looked at previous messages on the list for inspiration but could
> not fi
> nd exactly what I was looking for. My apologies however if this has been
> raise
> d in the past.
>
> Happy Christmas,
>
> Alison Drew
> Portsmouth
>
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