On Fri, 4 Dec 1998 10:07:23 GMT Dorothy Sheridan
<[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Could I please ask for advice about the following
> hypothetical scenario?
> >From 1964 to 1968, my mother (who is now dead) wrote
> some letters to a close personal friend of hers (Mrs
> A). These letters contained many confidences, and could
> be embarrassing for people who are still alive (eg me)
> if they were read by other people.
> Mrs A is now famous and has donated all her
> personal papers, including my mothers letters, to an
> archive. As my mother's heir, I hold the copyright but
> since I do not own the letters, do I have any rights
> about their being made accessible in a public archive?
>From our the legal consultancy which ESRC comissioned on
confidentiality and copyright relating to archival material, it
appears that if the information was given in confidence then there
exists a legal Duty of Confidentiality (recognised by the legal
profession in England). This means that the information should not be
passed on without consent from the donor (i.e. DS mother). In other
words Mrs A cannot share it unless DS mother gave explicit permission
for her (or her heirs) to do so. Any breach of use of the information
can consitute a legal case.
Dorothy, I imagine that your mother's 'control' over this
information might pass to you, but am not positive. I imagine you may
eb able to exercise some control over what documents concering your
mother's life goes into the archive if you really wanted to. However
I will be in touch with ESRC regarding the Allen and Overy report and
will ask them to clarify this.
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Louise Corti
Manager, Qualidata
Department of Sociology
University of Essex
Wivenhoe Park, Colchester
Essex CO4 3SQ
Tel: (+44) 01206 873058 Fax: (+44) 01206 873410
email [log in to unmask] http://www.essex.ac.uk/qualidata
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