(IP) Problems in the permanent retention of electronic records, part 2
Let’s look at answering some of those questions, with some research and help from Georgia Harper.
There is no “archival right” of copyright for someone to contract away.
“Publication” can have a contractual definition, but putting something on the Internet does not necessarily mean that something is published.
If you can meet the requirements for Section 108, you can use the exemption. Although our institutional repository is not an “established” archive, it does and can meet those requirements, even for electronic records. One of those requirements is that objects which are converted from analog to digital can only be accessible locally- that is, within the “four walls” of the institution. Hmm. In this case, I would guess the institution would be the School of Information, so maybe limited to the Sanchez building? We can probably use firewall rules or IP rules to block content, but that seems to be an all-or-nothing approach- we’ll need to see how we can use DSpace for those requirements. (The law doesn’t really address “born digital” objects.)
Like I mentioned in class, we could use permission from one author to put something online in cases of joint authorship- but then there is an ethical question on top of the legal question.
The archive itself may have copyrightable information in selection, arrangement, etc., so the students in the class should also sign a SIP agreement. ^_^