[SIGCIS-Members] Copyright advice sought

[Kimon Keramidas]

This is a great take on this and the CAA framework is a good one that was the end result of five years of study by IP lawyers so is bona fide. 

Just a point of clarification, fair use is not a right like copyright is as it is not explicitly stated as such in law. Rather it is an exception to copyright that has been provided by judicial precedent and has been roughly outlined in copyright law but is purposefully not clearly bound. This difference is just important to know as you move forward with concerns such as this and are dealing with legal situations and specific terminology. 

It’s kind of like driving. No one has the right to drive. The government provides the opportunity to get a driver’s license and it can be taken away. Fair use tenets can be violated as such if they are determined to be overstepped by a judge and one can then be in violation of copyright. Copyright however is automatically given to the creator upon recording of an expression in a material form and is a right that cannot be taken away.

Cheers
Kimon

Kimon Keramidas, Ph.D.
Clinical Associate Professor
The Center for Experimental Humanities

New York University
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> On Jul 13, 2018, at 9:34 AM, Matthew Allen <matthewallen at g.harvard.edu> wrote:
> 
> Hi Bernard,
> 
> Publishing these images in an academic context would certainly fall under fair use (it may or may not be copyrighted, but you may (and in this case certainly do) still have the right of fair use). Which means: there's almost no chance you'd get into legal trouble (and if it went to court, you'd win), but you still may need to convince your editor. In which case, you may be able to point them to advice like this: http://www.collegeart.org/pdf/fair-use/best-practices-fair-use-visual-arts.pdf . I've had some luck convincing editors in the art history realm that most of the culture of "permissions" is complete waste of time. (The right of fair use means you don't have to ask for permission!)
> 
> Best,
> Matthew
> 
>> On Thu, Jul 12, 2018 at 3:59 PM Ceruzzi, Paul <CeruzziP at si.edu> wrote:
>> It may be worth noting that the RAND Corporation was/is a so-called “FFRDC” – federally-funded research and development center. After World War II a number of them were set up, mainly (as I understand it) to allow its employees to receive higher salaries than allowed by the civil service system. But they were paid with government funds (i.e. taxes). The same holds true for the university lab with an air force contract. The line between an FFRDC and a traditional government research lab (e.g. the National Bureau of Standards/NIST) can be very fuzzy. As one colleague of mine remarked, “How do you know if the person works for an FFRDC or a government lab? Visit their house, and if they have Picasso paintings on the wall, they work for an FFRDC.”
>> 
>>  
>> 
>> So to answer your question, go ahead & use the images. As for the advertisements, you do need to show that you made a good-faith effort. I have done this, and in some cases it turned out to be fun, believe it or not, to track down the evolution of technical trade journals like Electronics or Datamation.
>> 
>>  
>> 
>> Paul Ceruzzi
>> 
>> ceruzzip at si.edu
>> 
>> 202-633-2414
>> 
>>  
>> 
>> From: Members <members-bounces at lists.sigcis.org> On Behalf Of Bernard Geoghegan
>> Sent: Thursday, July 12, 2018 2:21 PM
>> To: members at SIGCIS.org
>> Subject: [SIGCIS-Members] Copyright advice sought
>> 
>>  
>> 
>> Dear Members,
>> 
>>  
>> 
>> I’m looking for some copyright tips. I’d be grateful for feedback. I’m trying to figure out if I need copyright holder permission to reproduce in an academic publication images from the following items that appeared in print between 1923 and 1963, i.e. a period when things normally require explicit copyright renewal to stay out of the public domain. I can’t figure out if some of these materials count as government documents. Unless noted, none of these materials come from an archive or otherwise privileged source.
>> 
>>  
>> 
>> 1.    Figures from IBM manuals for SAGE from 1958. There’s no evidence the manual was copyrighted, nor that the copyright was renewed, but there is a statement in the manuals that reads “This  document contains information of a proprietary nature. Any use or reproduction of this document for other than government purposes is subject to the prior consent of International Business Machines Corporation.”
>> 
>> 2.    A figure from a 1950s RAND memo prepared for the US Air Force—no evidence that it was copyrighted, nor that the copyright was renewed. There is a statement on the cover that permission must be sought from RAND to quote or reproduce its contents.
>> 
>> 3.    Figures from a 1947 report produced by a university-based laboratory for the US Air Force, no evidence that it was copyrighted, nor that copyright was renewed. I don’t think it was publicly circulated. I got my copy from a US government archive.
>> 
>> 4.    Pre-1964 magazine advertisements, I have no information about their copyright status.
>> 
>>  
>> 
>> Thanks for your advice, colleagues.
>> 
>>  
>> 
>> Best,
>> 
>> Bernard
>> 
>>  
>> 
>>  
>> 
>>  
>> 
>> -- 
>> 
>> Bernard Dionysius Geoghegan
>> 
>> Senior Lecturer in the History and Theory of Digital Media
>> 
>> www.bernardg.com
>> 
>>  
>> 
>> Department of Digital Humanities
>> 
>> King's College London 
>> 
>> The Strand Building
>> 
>> Room S3.08
>> 
>> WC2R 2LS
>> 
>>  
>> 
>> Office: +44 (0)20 7848 4750
>> 
>> Cell:  +44 (0)75 7713 9098
>> 
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