As Charles suggests, the balance of opinion among UK commentators is
that digitised works will probably enjoy some copyright protection
(unless, of course, they're infringing copies). However, the more
automated the digitisation process is the harder this argument is to
sustain. I don't have references to hand, but understand that UK case
law has established that photocopying does not introduce a new
copyright. I'm sure most of us would agree that this is quite
reasonable. However, on this basis it is difficult to argue for
separate rights in digital page images that have been produced via a
sheet feeder or by the application of standardised scanning settings.
Grant
--On 05 November 2007 19:49 +0000 Charles Oppenheim
<[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> It depends on Austrian copyright law. In UK law, the digitiser
> probably DOES own the copyright in the digitised images as it used
> some effort and skill to make the images. I know that German law
> (and I therefore suspect Austrian law) requires much more in the
> way of creative input for the digitiser to own copyright, so your
> assessment that there are no rights in the digitised images in
> Austria is probably correct.
>
> As you rightly say, you nonetheless IN THEORY have control of the
> images, and are therefore entitled to say who can, or cannot access
> the images and you are entitled to impose conditions on their use,
> such as no commercial exploitation. Creative Commons licences may
> be of use here. Your problem arises in policing the activities of
> your users, and if you find someone IS selling the images on, your
> only recourse, alas, is to cut them off from future access.
>
> Charles
>
>
>
>
> On Mon, 5 Nov 2007 18:33:38 +0100
> Günter Mühlberger <[log in to unmask]>
> wrote:
>> As a library we are digitising thousands of books,
>> thesis, etc. mainly from the public domain but also from
>> the early 20th century with an uncertain status
>> (out-of-print, orphan works). Surly we do not have any
>> "copyright" on the digital images we receive from the
>> digitisation process. But on the other hand we "own"
>> these images. Open access and Creative Commons are
>> licensing models for "rights owners" - but as I said, we
>> are definitly not the right owners, we just own the
>> images.
>>
>> Obviously our interest is that the produced images (and
>> PDFs, eBooks, etc.) can be used by individual persons for
>> free, but we want to avoid that commercial benefit is
>> generated by third parties from our images.
>>
>> Any thoughts on this? Are there any standard models out
>> there which cover this issue?
>>
>> Best regards,
>>
>> Guenter Muehlberger
>> --
>> Günter Mühlberger, Ph.D.
>> Department for Digitisation and Digital Preservation
>> University Innsbruck Library
>> 6020 Innsbruck - Innrain 52 - Austria
>> Phone: ++43-(0)512-507-8454
>> Fax: ++43-(0)512-507-9842
>> Email: <[log in to unmask]>
>> URL: http://www2.uibk.ac.at/ub/dea/
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Grant Young
TASI Technical Research Officer (half time)*
Digitisation Project Manager (half time)**
*TASI - Technical Advisory Service for Images
Free Helpdesk for UK Further and Higher Education: <[log in to unmask]>
Online advice documents: <http://www.tasi.ac.uk/>
Hands-on training: <http://www.tasi.ac.uk/training/>
A JISC Advisory Service
**19th Century Pamphlets Online Digitisation Project
<http://www.curl.ac.uk/projects/NineteenOnline.htm>
<http://www.ilrt.bris.ac.uk/aboutus/staff?search=cmgay>
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