Rights Management Scenario

Web-Based Content (DRAFT)

Introduction

Library wishes to collect content from web sites on a particular topic. The topic may be such that the interest is in a particular time span and collection may be periodic. This is current material and is intended both for research and classroom use and as part of a digital preservation repository.

Users and Uses

Forthcoming.

Characteristics

• All content is publicly accessible, and not excluded from robots (i.e. in accord with robots.txt file).
• Content may have explicit ownership (i.e. author), but is often the product of an institution or corporation.
• Content may or may not have a copyright notice, or the notice may only be on the home page for the site.
• Most content is recent in nature, and covered under copyright law.
• Physical ownership is not necessarily the same as content ownership.
• Sites may have multiple IP contributors; some content pseudonymous or anonymous.
• Technology is not "IP aware".

Possible Problems

• Owners may not be named on the web site. Even where they are, contact information may lead to a technical contact rather a rights contact.
• Owners may no longer be taking responsibility for the content (orphan work).
• Depending on the topic in question and the type of sites, there may be privacy issues.
• Any “page” may have mixed ownership; some page content is not visible: scripts, style sheets, etc. (may have separate ownership).
• Site owner may not know ownership status of items on site

Legal Issues

•  Fair use, in terms of copying large parts of web sites, has not been established

Data Requirements Issues

• Because web materials change rapidly, the date and even exact time that a page is copied may be needed to establish copyright and identity.
• Many meterials will have little identifying information outside of the context of the site as a whole, so that information will need to be carried throught to individual items.
• Ownership has to be assigned at item level

Records Management Issues

Forthcoming.