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22 Copyright/Restrictions

DEFINITION

An identification of the individual or group that holds the rights to use, exhibit, or reproduce a work, along with an indication of any existing restrictions on its reproduction, exhibition, or use.

SUBCATEGORIES

GENERAL DISCUSSION

This category refers to the copyright of the work. Copyright is a broad concept that includes both “moral rights assigned to the author and his successors to prevent the distortion of his work and to assure that he is identified as the author of the work,”1 and “‘a bundle of rights,’ including the right to copy, the right to distribute, the right to display or perform, and the right to create derivative works.”2 These rights may be held by a work’s creator, its owner, a repository, or by a third party to whom the creator or owner assigned the rights.

Note: This category refers to copyright of the work itself, not to the copyright for photographs or other images of the work, which is a separate issue regarding the rights of the owner or creator of the photograph.

Copyright and other restrictions for a work can be complex, and can relate to all aspects of the work’s display and reproduction. Copyright arises automatically once an original effort has been started and some aspect of it has been fixed in a tangible medium (including media on a computer); a work is copyrighted whether or not it is actually registered with the Copyright Office or displayed with a copyright statement. Copyright is affected by various issues, including Fair Use, which has to do with the partial or limited reproduction of another’s work that is permitted under the fair use doctrine; this doctrine may allow use that advances public interests such as education or scholarship. Another important issue is that expressions, not ideas, are protected by copyright; however, the idea may be protected by trade secret or patent laws. Although copyright laws vary from country to country, generally the duration of copyright for the work itself is 70-75 years after the death of the artist. Note that copyright term extensions may be in place. Copyright is a personal property right, which, in the United States, is subject to the various state laws and regulations that govern the ownership, inheritance, or transfer of personal property, in addition to terms that govern contracts.

The copyright of a work of art or architecture may be held by a third party, who is neither the creator nor the owner of the work itself. This is particularly true with contemporary works of art, where the copyright may have been sold to an agency. There are also artists’ collectives, such as CAR (Canadian Artists’ Representation/Front des artistes canadiens), that administer copyright and broker permissions to reproduce works of art. When a work is created as part of the artist’s employment, the employer probably owns the copyright.

Note that repositories and other owners of works who are not the creators may have rights governing the reproduction or other uses of the work under various laws, including copyright, trademark, contract, or privacy and publicity law.

Researchers are interested in copyright and restrictions information because they often need to know if a work is in the public domain or who must be solicited for permission before a work may be reproduced.

RELATED CATEGORIES and ACCESS

Record the copyright of a photograph or other image of the work in the categories. When the rights holder is the owner of the work, or the person or institution that has or had physical custody of it, their names should also be recorded in the and categories. Copyright and restrictions are associated with people and organizations, but often access to information about the dates of copyrights and restrictions is also important to the researcher.

22.1 Copyright Statement

DEFINITION

A formal statement of the copyright of a work, and/or any restrictions placed on it, including licensing information.

EXAMPLES

  • Copyright © 1981 The Ansel Adams Publishing Rights Trust
  • Copyright © 1957 Richard Avedon Inc. All rights reserved.
  • © 1981 Arizona Board of Regents, Center for Creative Photography
  • © 1995 The Metropolitan Museum of Art. All rights reserved
  • Restricted Loans List

DISCUSSION and GUIDELINES

Optional: Record the copyright statement or restrictions information for the work in an accessible, concise, and easily understandable form. Include information about licensing, if pertinent.

Form and syntax

Transcribe the statement verbatim as expressed by the copyright holder, using syntax, capitalization, and punctuation as indicated in the original statement.

Alternatively, if you are composing a new statement, the following syntax is recommended: The word “copyright” (optional) followed by the copyright symbol (a “c” in a circle, ©), the first year when the work was covered by copyright, and the name of the copyright holder (e.g., © 2003 Marcus M. Moroniani. All rights reserved). If the year of first copyright is not known, it may be omitted from the statement (e.g., Copyright © Chuck Close).

TERMINOLOGY/FORMAT

Free-text: This is not a controlled field; however, consistent format and syntax is recommended within each repository. If you are transcribing statements from other institutions, copyright statements should be transcribed verbatim. Index the personal and corporate names and dates in the categories discussed below.

22.2 Copyright Holder Name

DEFINITION

The name of the individual or group that holds the copyright to the work.

EXAMPLES

  • Life Magazine
  • Warhol Foundation
  • Sternfeld, Joel
  • Close, Chuck
  • Museum of Modern Art
  • Soprintendenza per i Beni Artistici e Storici di Modena e Reggio Emilia

DISCUSSION and GUIDELINES

Optional: Record the name of the individual or corporate body that holds the copyright or is in control of other restrictions for the work.

Form and syntax

Ideally, this should be a link to the , where a full record containing the person’s or corporate body’s variant names and biographical information will be stored and available for retrieval. See the for guidelines in constructing personal and corporate names.

TERMINOLOGY/FORMAT

Authority: Control this subcategory with the , which can be populated from the controlled vocabularies named below. An authority with hierarchical structure, cross referencing, and synonymous names is recommended.

Published sources of vocabulary and biographical information include the following: LC Name Authorities, Union List of Artist Names (ULAN), Canadiana Authorities, and Yale British Artists. For names not found in these sources, consult the or the AACR for general guidelines regarding the formatting of names.

22.3 Copyright Place

DEFINITION

The place where the individual or group that holds the copyright or placed the restrictions on a work resides or is active.

EXAMPLES

  • New York (New York, USA)
  • London (England, United Kingdom)
  • Toronto (Ontario, Canada)
  • Tokyo (Kanto region, Japan)
  • Berlin (Germany)
  • 511 Warburton Avenue (Yonkers, New York, New York, USA)

DISCUSSION and GUIDELINES

Optional: Record the name of the place that is the residence or location of the copyright holder or other person or corporate body in control of restrictions. The location may be unknown or uncertain; it may be known at various levels of specificity.

Form and syntax

For guidelines regarding the syntax and format of place names, see the category and the .

Note that an individual person may have more than one residence, and corporate bodies may have multiple places of business. In such cases, record either the holder’s principal residence or a corporate body’s head office, or index all possible locations where the work may have been located while under the care of this rights holder.

While it is not always possible to establish specifically where a work was held, location should be recorded as precisely as possible. Places could be identified as specifically as the name of a particular building or street address.

TERMINOLOGY/FORMAT

Authority: Control this subcategory with the , which can be populated with terminology from the controlled vocabularies named below. An authority with hierarchical structure, cross referencing, and synonymous names is recommended.

Populate the with names from the following published sources, and others as necessary: TGN, NGA (NIMA) and USGS, Canadiana Authorities, LC Name Authorities and LCSH.

22.4 Copyright Date

DEFINITION

The date or range of dates when the copyright to a work is held by a particular individual or group.

EXAMPLES

  • 1950
  • 1918-1968
  • 1993
  • until 1 January 2030
  • unknown

DISCUSSION and GUIDELINES

Optional: Record a year, a span of years, or a phrase that describes the specific or approximate dates associated with the copyright of the work. Include nuance and expressions of uncertainty, as necessary.

Form and syntax

Follow rules for display dates in .

Dates should be recorded as specifically as possible. In some cases, only approximate dates may be known. If a work was once in copyright but is now in the public domain, record a range of dates for the period that it was protected by copyright. If the period of time is unknown, indicate this through expressions of uncertainty (e.g., probably) or by using the term unknown; however, index and with an estimated span of dates in any case.

TERMINOLOGY/FORMAT

Free-text: This is not a controlled field. Maintain consistent capitalization, punctuation, and syntax where possible. Index the dates in the controlled and subcategories.

22.4.1 Earliest Date

DEFINITION

The earliest possible date when the copyright was held by a particular individual or group, as recorded in the Copyright Date(22.4) subcategory.

EXAMPLES

  • 1918
  • 1984
  • 1971-01-01

DISCUSSION and GUIDELINES

Optional: Record the earliest year when the copyright or other restriction was in effect, as indicated in the subcategory.

Form and syntax

Always record years in the proleptic Gregorian calendar in the indexing dates fields. When recording the day and month, use the following syntax: YYYY-MM-DD (year, month, day, separated by dashes), if possible. The standards suggest alternate possibilities; you may use an alternative syntax if you are consistent and it is compliant with the standards. It is optional to record ; however, if you record a value here, you must also record . For additional rules, see .

TERMINOLOGY/FORMAT

Controlled format: Date information must be formatted consistently to allow retrieval. Local rules should be in place. Suggested formats are available in the ISO Standard and W3 XML Schema Part 2.

  • ISO 8601:2004 Representation of dates and times. International Organization for Standardization. Data Elements and Interchange Formats. Information Interchange. Representation of Dates and Times. Geneva, Switzerland: International Organization for Standardization, 2004.

    XML Schema Part 2: Datatypes, 2001.

22.4.2 Latest Date

DEFINITION

The latest possible date when the copyright was held by a particular individual or group, as recorded in the Copyright Date(22.4) subcategory.

EXAMPLES

  • 1968
  • 2084
  • 2030-01-01

DISCUSSION and GUIDELINES

Optional: Record the latest year when the copyright or other restriction was in effect, as indicated in the subcategory.

Form and syntax

Always record years in the proleptic Gregorian calendar in the indexing dates fields. When recording the day and month, use the following syntax: YYYY-MM-DD (year, month, day, separated by dashes), if possible. (The standards suggest alternate possibilities: you may use an alternative syntax if you are consistent and it is compliant with the standards.) It is optional to record ; however, if you record a value here, you must also record . For additional rules, see .

TERMINOLOGY/FORMAT

Controlled format: Date information must be formatted consistently to allow retrieval. Local rules should be in place. Suggested formats are available in the ISO Standard and W3 XML Schema Part 2.

  • ISO 8601:2004 Representation of dates and times. International Organization for Standardization. Data Elements and Interchange Formats. Information Interchange. Representation of Dates and Times. Geneva, Switzerland: International Organization for Standardization, 2004.

    XML Schema Part 2: Datatypes, 2001.

22.5 Remarks

DEFINITION

Additional notes or comments pertinent to information in this category.

DISCUSSION and GUIDELINES

Optional: Record a note containing additional information related to this category. Use consistent syntax and format. For rules regarding writing notes, see .

FORMAT/TERMINOLOGY

Free-text: This is not a controlled field. Use consistent syntax and format.

22.6 Citations

DEFINITION

A reference to a bibliographic source, unpublished document, or individual opinion that provides the basis for the information recorded in this category.

DISCUSSION and GUIDELINES

Optional: Record the source used for information in this category. For a full set of rules for citations, see .

TERMINOLOGY/FORMAT

Authority: Ideally, this information is controlled by citations in the citations authority; see .

22.6.1 Page

22.6.1. Page

DEFINITION

Page number, volume, date accessed for Web sites, and any other information indicating where in the source the information was.

DISCUSSION and GUIDELINES

Optional: For a full set of rules for pages, see .

FORMAT/TERMINOLOGY

Free-text: This is not a controlled field. Use consistent syntax and format.

Examples

Copyright statement: Copyright ©1998 Kate Rothko Prizel and Christopher Rothko

Including indexing fields: 3

  • Copyright statement: Copyright ©1975 Jerome Bushyhead. All rights reserved.
    Holder Name: Bushyhead, Jerome Place: El Reno (Oklahoma, USA)
    Date: from 1970 Earliest: 1970 Latest: 2070
    Holder Name: Bushyhead, Mari Place: El Reno (Oklahoma, USA)
    Date: business manager, heir from 2000 Earliest: 2000 Latest: 2070

Revised 19 February 2024
by Emily Benoff

Notes

  1. Peter Olaf Looms, “Intellectual Property and Multimedia,” Hypermedia & Interactivity in Museums: Proceedings of an International Conference. Archives and Museum Informatics Technical Report No.14 [Fall 1991], 236. For more information about copyright of visual works in the United States, see the following:

    ↩︎

  2. Nathan Benn, “Exploring Mechanisms to Overcome Economic Disincentives to Rights Holders,” Hypermedia & Interactivity in Museums: Proceedings of an International Conference. Archives and Museum Informatics Technical Report No. 14 [Fall 1991], 246. ↩︎

  3. Information from “Jerome Bushyhead, Coyote Walks By,” Ancient Nations: Native American Artists, http://www.artnatam.com/ (accessed 15 October 2005). ↩︎