Dear colleagues,

If you are in the Netherlands around October 31, you may wish to attend this interesting seminar with a copyright specialist, who is going to talk about the copyright issues emerging from the digitization of historical collections in European libraries. 

If you know of those who may be interested to attend, let them know.

Sincerely, 

Evina Steinova
Huygens ING

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Copyright or Copyfraud?

Is it possible to claim copyright over digitized versions of documents recording public domain content?

 

Speaker: Dr. Sunimal Mendis, Center for International Intellectual Property Studies (CEIPI), University of Strasbourg, France. 


31 October 2019, 15.15-17.00

 

Huygens ING
Spinhuis, Room 2.18

Oudezijds Achterburgwal 185, Amsterdam


At present, a wealth of historical documents recording public domain content is stored in the ‘dark-archives’ of memory institutions to which members of the public are granted limited access. The advent of digitization has the potential to make the content recorded upon these documents easily and speedily accessible to users across the globe in the form of digital images. Thus, digitization has been hailed as a ‘digital renaissance’ in which the ‘forgotten-knowledge’ recorded upon these documents can be unfettered from their tangible carriers and widely circulated to be freely used in the enrichment of social, cultural and scientific discourse. Digitization has particular significance for scholars who are now able access and re-use these images in scientific research.  However, in many instances such re-use is restricted through copyright claims made by the memory institutions and private sector entities who invest in the digitization process. But can a digital image of a public domain work produced through a mass-digitization process qualify for copyright protection?

 

This presentation analyzes the legitimacy of copyright claims that are made in respect of digital images of documents recording public domain content and explores the space available to researchers and scholars to re-use these images for non-commercial purposes. It also attempts to identify means by which the researcher community may contribute to policy-making in this area with the objective of achieving greater freedom in using digital images of public domain documents for research purposes.

For further information and to register, contact Evina Steinova (evina.steinova@huygens.knaw.nl)