thanks to all that have answered up till now
I think this is quite an important point and we could do well to at least
discuss it
I suppose some fields could be classed under the Anymous - William
thanks for pointing out that some fields cannot really be copyrighted as
they cannot really be owned as such by anyone (other than in terms of
IP) - thus third party copyright is not a problem in terms of certain fields. -
It has given me a way around this sticky issue
good examples are:
Site Name
Grid ref
Site Type
Period
Administration areas
Status
event records
I think from speaking to others and having a long think about this last night
the problem fields in terms of third party copyright are
Description
and digital resources like photos etc
source records??
As William noted the Canmore had a specific problem when they went on
line. Thank you Martin for the contact on that matter it was very useful.
It is worth elaborating somewhat (but i'll try to keep it brief)
when Canmore went on the web they fell foul of the site description field
basiclly they had copied into the field paragraphs from someone's book
(how many of us do this?). Anyway the author who was a lawyer ..
decided that he did not like this and sued them. The case was never
tested as it was in the middle of devolution so lawyer time was scarse.
In the end RCHMS settled out of court. (note that is my interpreation of
event from a recent discussion)
There is perhaps a lesson for us all there ...
I have been thinking that the terms and content of the description field
need to be seriously considered to ensure we do not plagiarise. How
many people have scanned whole documents without a second thought
for copyright? or if we are lending ourselves or our companies open to
being sued.
I am happy that it is relatively easy to identify copyright of photos, maps,
books etc (this is especially relevant with digital archives - how many
are considering delivering digital photos or plans over the internet - i
know i am) in most cases or to be satisfied that it is anymous.
The description field is the one that does worry me ... it is the repository
of all manner of information (it is probably the most interesting of the
fields). It is permissable to quote but if we download sections of a book,
report etc into the SMR as a whole are we ripping off the book etc.
i.e someone writes a book on barrows in one of the counties with
descriptions of a whole group of them etc ... County SMR staff see this
and decide it is worth including this in the SMR... a source record is made
and someone types in verbatim the description for each of the
monuments. Now no one monument has the full contents of the book
however it could be argued that the SMR record contents more than a
chapter (I think i'm right that it is permissable to photocopy or reproduce a
chapter from a book) of the book... the SMR goes on line to the public and
it could be argued that no needs to buy the book any more as you've just
published it online.
Jason A. Siddall
NTSMR Officer
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