Archives, Copyrights and Access (United States and EU/Germany)

• Archives usually don’t own the copyrights to most materials in their collections. This is especially true in Germany, where it is not possible to transfer copyrights to third party during lifetime. Copyright holders, including heirs, can issue licenses that guide access to manuscript materials, of course. Most archives,including archives in the US and in Germany, hold mixed materials with varying rights, especially manuscript collections but also government archives.

  
  

• Regular copyright terms apply to archival manuscript materials as well:

  
  

• Life plus 70 years (for example Thomas Mann’s works will enter the public domain on January 1, 2026). This is also true in Germany, where his works will be gemeinfrei.

  
  

• Corporate works, like movies, sound recordings: 95 years after publication. ALL corporate works published before January 1, 1930, are in the public domain.

  
  

• Joint productions, like Karl Valentin/Lisl Karlstadt will go by the lifetime of the partner who lived longer, in this case: Lisl Karlstadt, who died in 1960.

  
  

• This also applies to oral history interviews, which are considered joint productions. So, the regular copyright length applies to oral history interviews (life plus 70 years for interviewer and interviewee). Frequently in the US, they will transfer rights to the repository, but will retain non-exclusive licenses during lifetime.

  
  

• Works Made for Hire" and Anonymous/Pseudonymous works in the United States: For works created after January 1, 1978, the copyright duration for these types of works is the lesser of 95 years from the year of first publication or 120 years from the year of its creation.

  
  

• In Germany: "Bei anonymen und pseudonymen Werken erlischt das Urheberrecht siebzig Jahre nach der Veröffentlichung. Es erlischt jedoch bereits siebzig Jahre nach der Schaffung des Werkes, wenn das Werk innerhalb dieser Frist nicht veröffentlicht worden ist."

  
  

• Property rights v. copyrights: We must distinguish property rights to materials (for example ownership of several boxes of correspondence) and the intellectual rights (copyrights) to these materials. Donors will own the physical property (the letters) but usually don’t own the intellectual rights to the letters they received – these are owned by the authors.

  
  

• Licenses: When you donate a manuscript collection that includes correspondence, manuscripts, you transfer the property over to the archives. Some archives request that donors transfer the intellectual rights to their collections over to them, so it’s easier to administer collections – common, for example, for oral histories. However, this is only possible for those materials where the donors own the rights. Donors and copyright holders usually retain a non-exclusive license to the materials.

  
  

• Post-custodial arrangements: There are also post-custodial agreements where owners retain custody and  control of their materials whereas the archival repository takes on the role of a facilitator that arranges access to the physical or digital materials in a collection.

  
  

• Researcher responsibility: Because archives usually don’t own the copyrights to the materials, researchers have the responsibility to research the copyright status of items they are planning to publish. You can always use materials, including copyrighted materials, under fair/use, of course. See, for example, the guidelines from Princeton University: https://library.princeton.edu/about/policies/special-collections-copyright-credit-and-citation-guidelines

  
  

• Orphan materials: Archives and libraries have developed solid procedures to manage orphaned materials. Usually, they will try to locate the copyright holders, then will do a risk assessment if they can’t find them, and will publish the materials with a notice that the copyright holders cannot be determined. Archives and libraries err on the side of access. See, for example, this interesting letter from Langston Hughes to Arthur Schomburg, Dec. 7, 1933, regarding the donation of books he acquired during an extended trip to the Soviet Union 1932-33, https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/02ea6030-3c47-013b-a0f0-0242ac110003

  
  

• Copyrights and Reproductions of Works in the Public Domain:

• If a work is still protected by copyrights, the copyright owners have the right to: “Reproduce the work in copies or phonorecords. Prepare derivative works based upon the work. Distribute copies or phonorecords of the work to the public by sale or other transfer of ownership or by rental, lease, or lending.”

  
  

• How do you deal with reproductions of works in the public domain?

  
  

• Several lawsuits – case in 2015 by Reiss-Engelhorn Museen against Wikimedia Commons, https://www.kulturbewahren.de/digitalisieren/fb/a/news/wer-hat-recht-am-bild-vom-bild-1/?tx_news_pi1%5Bcontroller%5D=News&tx_news_pi1%5Baction%5D=detail&cHash=a8482e4d7e66c050cb3102d436496120

  
  

• However, since the enactment of the „europäischen „Urheberrechtsrichtlinie“ (DSM-RL) in 2021, this is no longer valid! „Seit Inkrafttreten von § 68 UrhG erhalten Vervielfältigungen „visueller Werke“ keine verwandten Schutzrechte nach den Teilen 2 und 3 des UrhG mehr. Die Bereichsausnahme des § 68 UrhG gilt sowohl für neue Reproduktionen die nach dem Inkrafttreten der Regelung gefertigt worden sind als auch für Bestandsfälle bereits zuvor gefertigter Reproduktionen (amtl. Begr. BT-Drs. 19/27426, 105). Diese Rückwirkung wird unter dem Aspekt von Art. 14 GG kritisiert (vgl. BeckOK UrhR/Freudenberg, 33. Ed. 15.1.2022, UrhG § 68 Rn. 15),” https://www.tcilaw.de/vervielfaeltigungen-von-gemeinfreien-kunstwerken/

  
  

• Repositories often don’t know how to manage the distribution their own  reproductions/high quality scans of works that are in the public domain – sometimes they add copyright symbols to reproductions, or use CC licenses, for example The Herzog August Bibliothek that has added a © symbol to a reproduction of a 16th century broadsheet (plus CC license): Beliefs about Witchcraft: “Hear a dreadful tale” (c. 1600), Broadsheet, c. 1600. Herzog August Bibliothek Wolfenbüttel 31.8 Aug. 2°, fol. 398, http://diglib.hab.de/drucke/31-8-aug-2f-398r/start.htm?image=00001

  
  

• Adding a copyright symbol or even a CC symbol to a scan of a broadsheet that's in the public domain is is not a correct application of copyright law and confusing for users! Better to just state the facts – work in public domain, but please only distribute reproduction under the same conditions as a CC BY SA license.