Copyright and the right to reproduce documents or images

Thus far on this blog I have downloaded and used a number of images from the National Archives of Australia and NASA. These images are subject to the copyright laws of the country of origin or various international agreements or Australian legislation. Constant Reader, being a librarian I know more than the average citizen about Australian copyright (but less than any lawyer), however, I forgot to address the copyright question for material I post on my own blog - a common problem.

Copyright law is designed to protect the rights of the creator/producer of the content from unauthorised reproduction, use or reuse. In some cases the rights conferred by copyright law can be waived, transferred, sold or given away; however, users of material can not, or should not assume that they have an automatic right to use said material. Copyright law in Australia and in other jurisdictions imposes penalties for unauthorised use of material. In using images found on the Internet or elsewhere, and other third party content one should not blithely assume a) that no one will notice your use or re-use or care or do anything about it; b) that you have automatic permission as long as you quote the source of the image, et cetera; and, c) that copyright does not apply at all.

In Australia the relevant Commonwealth act is the Copyright Act 1968, including various amendments and regulations, which allow individuals certain limited rights (e.g. "fair dealing") without having to contact the copyright holder in every case. These exemptions are narrow in that they apply to particular situations; they do not grant people broad exemptions from copyright.

The Act is administered by the Commonwealth Attorney-Generals Department; the text can be found at ComLaw (http://www.comlaw.gov.au/). Good, plain English information on copyright in the Australian jurisdiction can be found at the Australian Copyright Council website (http://www.copyright.org.au/). For Australian librarians there is also the Australian Libraries' Copyright Committee (http://www.digital.org.au/alcc/).

In general terms you must do the following if you are going beyond the provisions of the Act before you use third party content:

1. Identify the copyright holder, person or organisation;
2. Contact that person or organisation to ask permission to use the content. The holder may grant use (as did the NAA to me), deny use (subject to the provisions of the Act) or allow use subject to conditions (again subject to the Act);
3. If you have any doubts about what you are doing or posting seek reputable advice (this blog-post is information, not reputable advice!) - e.g. the Australian Copyright Council and/or legal advice.
   

The copyright holder is not obliged to grant you permission beyond what is conferred by the Act.

So for me, on my blog, what is the situation? First I looked at the NAA website to see if they say anything about copyright and archival material. They do. NASA, for the space images? Ditto. From NAA Fact sheet 8 - Copyright:

"Ownership of copyright in records held by the National Archives

The Commonwealth government owns copyright in most of the records held by the National Archives as they are official records produced by Commonwealth government agencies. The Commonwealth is not the copyright owner for records in the Archives collection that were not made by the government, for example letters written by private individuals to the government, or documents provided by other governments. Although such records are the property of the Commonwealth, the Commonwealth cannot give permission to reproduce them, as it is not the copyright owner." (http://www.naa.gov.au/about-us/publications/fact-sheets/fs08.aspx)

NASA on its website in a document titled, Using NASA Imagery and Linking to NASA Web Sites, 10.13.05 (i.e. 13 October, 2005) says, in part, the following:

"Still Images, Audio Recordings, Video, and Related Computer Files

NASA still images; audio files; video; and computer files used in the rendition of 3-dimensional models, such as texture maps and polygon data in any format, generally are not copyrighted. You may use NASA imagery, video, audio, and data files used for the rendition of 3-dimensional models for educational or informational purposes, including photo collections, textbooks, public exhibits, computer graphical simulations, and Internet Web pages. This general permission extends to personal Web pages." http://www.nasa.gov/audience/formedia/features/MP_Photo_Guidelines.html)

Result: email the NAA Copyright people; okay by NASA as per their October 2005 guideline. Apply the copyright symbol and attribute the images.

And finally, the emailed response from the NAA, dated 23 December:

"Dear Peter,

Thank-you for your email. The normal procedure for Copyright approval would be to submit a request to copyright@naa.gov.au with the Series Number and Item details and a brief description of the intended use prior to use, but there is no problem asking for approval now.

For the material that you have used in your blog on the Internet, I give you Copyright approval for its use.

We normally request that the records are cited ...

There is no charge for use of material held in the National Archives of Australia.

Yours sincerely
Gregory F Cope
Copyright Officer
National Archives of Australia
Brisbane Office"