diff --git a/beginning/rights.md b/beginning/rights.md index d26c271..837159f 100644 --- a/beginning/rights.md +++ b/beginning/rights.md @@ -1,6 +1,6 @@ ## Who owns the rights to the material I use? -As you work with archival materials, it is important for you to remember that the owner of the materials may have legal rights to restrict your use or publication of them. Finding copyrighted materials in an archive doesn’t mean you can’t read those materials and cite them in your work. Copyright law allows archives and libraries to provide copies for use in private study, scholarship or research. However, you may need to get permission of the copyright owner before publishing your digital photos of that material. Putting material on a publicly accessible website constitutes publication. +As you work with archival materials, it is important for you to remember that the owner of the materials may have legal rights to restrict your use or publication of them. Finding copyrighted materials in an archive doesn’t mean you can’t read those materials and cite them in your work. Copyright law allows archives and libraries to provide copies for use in private study, scholarship or research. However, you may need to get permission of the copyright owner before publishing your digital photos of that material. Please note that this guide relates to copyright from a United States Copyright perspective, and may not apply in all countries. Many countries have similar rules - if possible check with a copyright specialist who may be able to advise you on these matters. Putting material on a publicly accessible website constitutes publication. Many archives have rights statements that you have to read, acknowledge, and sign before you see any materials. Rights statements can commonly be found in finding aids and in online catalogs. You should ensure that you include and record rights information as part of the metadata for items in Tropy. The default templates in Tropy include rights as a mandatory field, so that an alert appears until you complete that material. We recommend that you include a URL to the relevant information in your rights metadata, if one is available \(see, for instance, [this page](https://www.masshist.org/library/permissions/citations) from the Massachusetts Historical Society\).