From RARIN Wiki

Contents 1 WELCOME TO RARIN 1.1 About RARIN 1.2 RIGHTS & REPRODUCTIONS RESOURCE GUIDE 1.2.1 INTRODUCTION 1.2.2 I: Introduction to Copyright 1.2.3 II: Tricky Issues, Public Domain and Fair Use 1.2.4 III: Assessing your Collection 1.2.5 IV: Creating a Policy for Your Museum 1.2.6 V: Day-to-Day Responsibilities 1.2.7 VI: Integrate Copyright into the Existing Collections Management Policy 1.2.8 VII: The Real World, Advice and Aphorisms 1.2.9 Glossary 1.2.10 Appendix 1.3 Explore the Web - interesting alternative resources 1.4 Creative Commons License

WELCOME TO RARIN

About RARIN

The Rights and Reproduction Information Network (RARIN) is a taskforce of the Registrars Committee[1] - a Standing Professional Committee of the American Association of Museums[2].

The RARIN Wiki is co-sponsored by the Registrars Committee[3] and the Indianapolis Museum of Art[4].

Purpose of RARIN: At the 1997 AAM Annual Meeting - about 2 dozen members of the Registrars Committee gathered informally to exchange information on current issues revolving around rights and reproduction of museum materials. Among the stated issues facing the group were:

• the need for a source for current copyright information;
• the need for the creation of appropriate language to ensure that copyright can be transferred when photographs and other works of art, etc. are donated;
• the need for vehicles for maintaining control of museum images on the Internet;
• the need to be able to determine what rights the museum has or does not have;
• the need for a source for discovering what rights are in the public domain and those that are not;
• the need for a source for licensing information; and
• the need to share licensing information among museum rights & repro services departments.

It was determined that the original site [5] would attempt to help in these areas and to be a resource for researching copyright, intellectual property rights, and especially rights and reproduction services at museums.

Purpose of RARIN wiki: In 2004 it was decided that a handbook -- a primer for novices -- was needed to help the people performing the functions of rights and reproduction management in museums - people who had never been trained in the critical processes for handling rights.

In 2006 an outline was developed and volunteer writers stepped forward. Realizing that a rights managment handbook would be out of date the moment it was put in print, a core team of RARIN taskforce members decided that a wiki would be a viable vehicle to keep current the everchanging information in the rights and repro world. We hope it will be useful.

---

RIGHTS & REPRODUCTIONS RESOURCE GUIDE

WORKING TITLE: Understanding Publication Rights - Yours and Theirs: A How-to Manual for the Museum Professional on Understanding Copyright and Creating Your Own Rights and Reproduction Policy

CLICK ON EACH MAIN OUTLINE ENTRY TO LINK TO RELATED INFORMATION PAGE.

INTRODUCTION

1. What is "Intellectual Property"?
2. Discussion of interrelated nature of publication and copyright
3. How our responsibilities fit with the missions of our individual institutions and with the museum industry as a whole
4. Overview of present and possible future issues

I: Introduction to Copyright

1. How is copyright secured? What types of materials are protected?
2. Key dates in the history of copyright development
   1. 1909 Copyright Act
   2. 1978 and the Copyright Act of 1976
   3. 1989 and optional copyright notice
   4. 1990 VARA
   5. 1992 automatic term extension
   6. 1994 international issues, Berne Convention, URAA
   7. 1998 Term Extension Act, Digital Millennium Copyright Act

II: Tricky Issues, Public Domain and Fair Use

1. What are they? What does is all mean exactly?
2. How do you determine if a work is in the public domain?
3. Orphan works, what do you do if you can’t find a copyright holder?

III: Assessing your Collection

1. Assess your collection to determine where copyright stands, i.e. what works are considered to be in the public domain, for which works does your museum hold clear copyright?
   1. how to get started?
   2. contact a copyright lawyer for advice
   3. look into copyright organizations like VAGA, ARS, the Library of Congress, etc.
   4. how to apply for copyright

IV: Creating a Policy for Your Museum

1. Why do we need a rights and reproduction policy?
2. What points should our policy cover?
   1. non-profit vs. for profit publication use-think about the following:exclusive use and worldwide rights, multiple languages, inside vs. cover or jacket use, size and scale (print run) of publication
   2. in-house product development
   3. filming/sketching/photography in the museum
   4. website
   5. disclaimers
3. The nuts and bolts
   1. determine a fee schedule (for existing and new photography)
   2. in what format will images be available to third parties?
   3. create a policy on returning images and penalties for late returns
4. Sample R&R policies and Permission Contracts

V: Day-to-Day Responsibilities

1. The physical materials: their maintenance, physical organization and related data
   1. Description of materials (4x 5 transparencies, 8 x 10 transparencies, slides, b/w negative, digital files)
   2. How to organize all the materials (by accession number, by artist name, by date? Separate photography of collection objects from installations/events images, etc.
   3. Housing vis a vis conservation (acid free sleeves, acid free labels, care of dupes, etc.)
   4. maintaining data on the source images (metadata for databases, etc. date of image, original source of scan, photographer credit, etc.)
   5. Creating policy on and maintaining the longevity and viability of data through periodic copying, data checking, and migration to new media and technology when necessary

VI: Integrate Copyright into the Existing Collections Management Policy

1. Create language in your museum’s gift, purchase, and loan agreements that deals with copyright issues and/or copyright transfer if applicable
2. Artist rights vs. museum rights, how are rights acquired?
3. Sample forms of above

VII: The Real World, Advice and Aphorisms

1. Requests from the outside world- will they yell at me if I say no?
2. Be flexible
3. Real-life examples of best and worst case scenarios involving copyright issues.
4. General advice, what to do, what not to do
5. What to do if the museum’s rights are infringed
6. Listing of resources to learn more about copyright issues

Glossary

Appendix

---

Explore the Web - interesting alternative resources

Creative Commons License

This wiki is licensed under a [6]"Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License.