[can-talk] another film collection based question

Hi Bronwyn

WoW.two huge items in the one day!!!...Insurance and now copyright!!!

 

I am sure there are more expert legal eagles out there than me, but I share
some of your difficulties and the way we were advised is as follows.

 

Ownership of an item, doesn't mean ownership of copyright, just the physical
thing that you have.(very important, this relates to photos as well!)

I think there is a statute of limitations for copyright of different things,
and the Copyright Council should be able to advise you on that, but we were
advised to make every attempt to find the owner of the item and if possible
have them sign the goods AND the copyright over to the museum, which we have
been able to do in a small number of cases. This is dependent on your record
keeping, and if like me, your collection "grew" without the addition of a
lot of paperwork, that is a very onerous task.

 

Secondly, we were advised that if you have made this earnest attempt, and
failed, provided that you publicly state your attempts to find the copyright
owner, then to go ahead and show the material but with a covering statement
something like "if you feel you are the copyright owner of this item and it
is being shown, exhibited/reproduced without your permission, please
contact... and it will be immediately stopped.."   Someone here just said it
is easier to beg forgiveness than to ask for permission and if you have
tried and failed, the likelihood of the owner stepping up is slim. That's a
bit cavalier of them but they have a point.

 

The videos from the television should be easier to find the 'owner' from the
channel markers in the show, and sometimes you may be able to get an ok
from the channels for viewing of older items especially through an
educational institution like a museum.

 

But on the other side of the coin, I get my nose right out of joint if
someone uses one of our images a./ without permission or b./ without
acknowledgement, but what really gets on my wick are those that use them for
commercial purposes, making money from us without a or b above. We are
pretty easy to find, and very specific so on their part it's blatant, if you
have tried and failed (earnestly) then that's another story.

 

That was our advice (and my 2 bob's worth), hopefully someone with more
copyright law experience will pop up in this forum with something more
in-depth

 

thanks

John

 

John Watson  (GDBMT, GDIT, CNA)

Manager-Gwalia Historic Site

Leonora Gwalia Historical Museum Ltd

PO Box 111    or   Tower St

Leonora 6438       Gwalia WA

 

Ph/Fax: (08) 9037 7122

Mob: 04199 58199

email: gwalia at emerge.net.au

 

www.gwalia.org.au

 

 

 

From: can-talk-bounces at collectionsaustralia.net
[mailto:can-talk-bounces at collectionsaustralia.net] On Behalf Of Bronwyn
Alcorn
Sent: 18 January 2008 14:18
To: can-talk at collectionsaustralia.net
Subject: [can-talk] another film collection based question

 

Hi all,

 

I thought while the list had a lot of activity on it I might throw in a
slightly curly question and see if the combined brains of this list can
help.  

 

I have, for the past year, been sticking my head in the sand over the vast
collection of audio visual material held by the Australian Tennis Museum,
however can't keep doing this and the more I look into the project of
storing and digitising these the bigger the problems seem to get.  So to
start with I have a few questions about putting the collection on DVD and
I'm really hoping there is someone on this list who knows a bit about
copyright. 

 

The background to the collection is this - it was developed by volunteers
over 25 years before being taken over by Tennis NSW 2 years ago and a single
paid staff member was installed.  The volunteers who developed the
collection had a small amount of training and knowledge in collecting, but
mostly good intentions and an excellent knowledge of tennis.  Thus much of
the collection is in dissarry with very poor records.  The AV collection
suffers from this the most.  The AV collection has over 400 items ranging
from 8mm film to commercial VHS and almost everything in between.  I would
like to be able to show some of this collection in the museum as it relates
to exhibitions, but am a)unable to show much of it due to the formatting and
b) unsure of what I can show due to copyright issues. 

 

So my main questions to all those on the list are these

 

1)  The information on the copyright council site says that it is allowable
to make a single copy of a Commercial video that you own onto DVD for
private and domestic use.  There is also a legislation about using copied
material for educational purposes.  Does the general museum audience
attending for an exhibition fall under educational purposes, and can I
therefore copy these commercial videos onto DVD so they can be shown in the
museum? 

 

2)  The collection holds some significant items and matches of great
interest on reel film, mostly from the 40s - 70s.  The records do not show
how we came by these (other than those marked as deaccessioned from a
library) or give any information about who recorded these etc.  I do not
have the equipment to view these, and am a bit hesitant about trying to view
them given their age and my complete lack of knowledge about reel film.  Can
I make copies of these to show in the museum or do I need to do a whole lot
of research into the ownership and status of them for copyright purposes? 

 

3)  There are a vast number of videos copied off the TV, that volunteers
have brought into the museum, some of these are of important tennis matches
and are ones that the coaches here are the academy would like to be able to
show their students to discuss different techniques and developments in
tennis.  I know that these legally shouldn't exist - is there anyway I can
let the coaches use them, or better yet, be able to show them in the museum?


 

Thanks for your help,

 

Bronwyn Alcorn

Manager

Australian Tennis Museum

ph 02 9024 7607

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.collectionsaustralia.net/pipermail/can-talk/attachments/20080118/6aba9cba/attachment.html