Getting The Grateful Dead Archive Online:Copyright Issues and Tools

for a Modern ArchiveCenter for Intellectual Property Biennial Symposium

Baltimore, MD, June 7, 2012

Katie Fortney and Sarah Lindsey,University of California Santa Cruz

Who are we?

• Katie Fortney – recovering lawyer

• Instruction Collection Development Librarian/Scholarly Communication Officer/Grateful Dead Archive IP Advisor (Copyright Ninja)

• Sarah Lindsey – Rights Management Coordinator, Grateful Dead IMLS Grant Project

• Had never heard the Dead jam until 6 months into the project.

The Physical Archive:•Photos•Posters•Fan Envelopes•Audio and Video•T-shirts•Concert Tickets•Stage Props•Backstage Passes•News Clippings•Fanzines•And more!

GDAO: The Grateful DeadArchive Online

• Launching 6/29/12• Over 40,000 digital

objects• Virtual Exhibits• Geotagging• Timelines• User submissions

The Tools for the Job

• LEGAL TOOLS• COPYRIGHT ANALYSIS TOOLS• USER TOOLS FOR SUBMISSIONS

AND PERMISSION

What’s Going Online?Content types, by number of items

Fan Envelopes

Tickets

T-Shirts

Fan Art

Passes

Album Covers

Programs

Fanzines

Audio files

Photos

Posters

Not That Billy Graham

• Concert promoters!– Bill Graham– Chet Helms

The fraught background of the GDA art communityAccusations, lawsuits, profits and lack thereof

Our Licensehttp://bit.ly/gdaocip2012

Deed of Gifthttp://bit.ly/gdaocip2012

Fair Use “Checklists”• “The Checklist as Roadmap: As you use the checklist

and apply it to your situations, you are likely to check more than one box in each column and even check boxes across columns. Some checked boxes will favor fair use and others may oppose fair use. A key issue is whether you are acting reasonably in checking any given box, with the ultimate question being whether the cumulative weight of the factors favors or turns you away from fair use. This is not an exercise in simply checking and counting boxes. Instead, you need to consider the relative persuasive strength of the circumstances and if the overall conditions lean most convincingly for or against fair use. Because you are most familiar with your project, you are probably best positioned to evaluate the facts and make the decision.”

Fair Use “Checklists”Focus on the exceptions. Don’t get caught up in the repetitive details.http://bit.ly/gdaocip2012

Copyright Analysis Tools – Photo Collection

• Testing our tools on the photograph series:

• Most straight-forward overall copyright status

• (Hopefully) Most receptive rights holder community.

Finding Photographers

Where Contact Information Was Found

Not Found

Internet

Known from GD Records

Known to Publisher

Archivist's Contacts

American Society of Media Photographers

Professional Photographers of America

Poster Collection

• More complicated, sensitive, and more difficult to definitively identify copyright holder/status

• Required item by item evaluation.

Burned by Copyright

Finding Poster Artists

Where Contact Information Was Found

Not Found

Internet

Archivist's Contacts

Vaults and Sundry

Bill Graham164 posters

Family Dog16 posters

Grateful Dead Productions___ posters

Searching Results

Rate of Return Over All

Not FoundNo ResponseSigned LicenseRefused

Tracking tools

• Spreadsheets used to track search efforts for contact information for each collection

• FileMaker Pro database created with fields for address, correspondence tracking, and fields for preferred Omeka contact information

Copyright Status of Items

Thomas E. Watson Papers

In-copyright

Public Domain

Watson Family

Undetermined Status

Works-for-hire

Illegible

Grateful Dead Posters

In-copyrightPublic DomainPermission: Grateful DeadPermission: LicensedUndetermined

Dickson, M. (2010). Due Diligence, Futile Effort: Copyright and the Digitization of the Thomas E. Watson Papers. American Archivist, 73(2), 626-636.

Tools for Users

http://omeka.org/

User submissions

Curation

Photo: Women on Assembly Line Stamping Hams,Wisconsin Historical Images

Sending traffic to licensors

Photo: Signs by Jimmy Hilario

Advice

• Talk to other offices or departments• Carefully evaluate your need for a Sarah• Do things in the right order…

when you can

Links

• GDAO: http://www.gdao.org (launching 6/29)• Forms: http://bit.ly/gdaocip2012