RE: Photo Collection Use

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Kraushaar, Andy W - WHS (Andy.Kraushaar@wisconsinhistory.org)
Tue, 10 Aug 2010 15:09:04 -0500



From: "Kraushaar, Andy W - WHS" <Andy.Kraushaar@wisconsinhistory.org>
Date: Tue, 10 Aug 2010 15:09:04 -0500
Subject: RE: Photo Collection Use
Message-ID: <488E289A5C909049B0E55F6B651B5B3501E8DA380C16@MEWMAD0PC01G02.accounts.wistate.us>

I absolutely concur with Jim on his perspective. We put images up on Flickr
 as well (http://www.flickr.com/photos/whsimages/), and try to use care not
 to infringe on the rights of photographers and/or copyright holders. That said, there are many images in every archives for which rights are unclear for a variety of reasons. We absolutely administer "risk management" and at tempt to only put online images for which we have clear rights or are out o f copyright. Occasionally we have been asked to take an image down, and we have done so immediately. We also attempt to make it clear that we do not o wn the copyright to most of our holdings and require that the end user rese arch any rights issues prior to use.

Andy Kraushaar Visual Materials Curator Library-Archives Division Wisconsin Historical Society 816 State Street Madison, WI 53706 Andy.Kraushaar@Wisconsinhistory.org<mailto:<mailto:Andy.Kraushaar@Wisconsinhistory. org>
(608) 264-6481

Wisconsin Historical Images http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/whi WHS Images on Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/whsimages

Collecting, Preserving and Sharing Stories Since 1846

________________________________ From: localhistory-request@listserve.uwec.edu [mailto:localhistory-request@ listserve.uwec.edu] On Behalf Of Jim Hahn Sent: Tuesday, August 10, 2010 2:33 PM To: localhistory@listserve.uwec.edu Subject: RE: Photo Collection Use

Bill -

I'd be wary of loaned pics being put up with "owned" pics. Without a signed
 release, they could always come back and say, "I loaned them for YOUR use,
 not your use in selling to others for profit. I want the money you made fr om my images!"

Also, even if they gave you a postcard or other image - these things may st ill be copyrighted or other people's property. You could have what legal ex perts call "exposure" for liability if someone comes back later and shows t hat the person who gave you the object did not have the right to give it to
 you. You lose your benefit because it rests on an underlying illegal act -
 what legal experts call the "fruit of the poison tree." You cannot claim t hat you just didn't know - ignorance of the law is no excuse, as they say.

If, however, you have a signed release that includes the signatory's affirm ation that they attest that the image is their property and they alone have
 the rights to it and they are transferring or sharing their rights to/with
 you, then you would have some (but still not absolute) coverage. Applying a standard of "did the organization, given its resources, apply a reasonabl e level of caution/care" would seem to lean to a determination in your favo r given your use of the signed release.

We have dealt with these issues with photos for national news media such as
 the Associated Press. They won't use a photo often which might have questi onable ownership issues in play. However, if I send them a picture and say I personally snapped it for the purpose of giving it to them, then they are
 amenable.

I am not an attorney, but I would recommend only posting/selling pictures y ou own (you took them, they will gifted to you from an estate, etc.) OR one s for which you have a signed release for either giving you ownership or sh aring ownership with you.

While this may limit your available offerings in the short-term, it respons ibly protects your organization through what we call "due diligence." As w ith anything, what you are doing is Risk Management, because you can never achieve absolute Risk Avoidance. :)

Good luck, Flikr sounds like a good option. :)

________________________________ Jim Hahn, CFRE Director of Development & Marketing WAUKESHA COUNTY MUSEUM 101 W. Main St., Waukesha, WI 53186
(262) 521-2859 ext. 228, jhahn@wchsm.org<mailto:jhahn@wchsm.org>
(412) 716-1880 cell-note area code

 [cid:[cid:image001.jpg@01CB389D.8CD8A3E0]

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________________________________ From: localhistory-request@listserve.uwec.edu [mailto:localhistory-request@ listserve.uwec.edu] On Behalf Of Bill Schuette Sent: Tuesday, August 10, 2010 1:06 PM To: localhistory@listserve.uwec.edu Subject: Photo Collection Use

We are putting our photo collection images on Flickr (a photo sharing Web s ite). We have set the parameters so that they can't be downloaded. We feel that if people can see a photo they are more likely to order a copy
, than if they just read a description. That as background, we have thousands of images in our collection that we h ave scanned from people who have loaned us their old pictures, postcards, e tc. We did not have them sign a release of rights paper at the time. My question is, can we place these collections on our Flickr site so that p eople can order copies? By allowing us to make copies of their images, did they, in effect, give us
 the rights to those photos, to use them as we saw fit? Bill Sauk County Historical Society

image001.jpg



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