Linkage Project:
Copyright and Cultural Institutions: Digitising Collections in Public Museums, Galleries and Libraries
2003-2005

This is a joint CMCL and IPRIA research project, instigated and supported by Museums Australia, the peak national association representing the museum and gallery sector. It is primarily funded by the Australian Research Council, along with six of Australia's leading cultural institutions: Art Gallery of New South Wales;Australian Centre for the Moving Image; Australian War Memorial; Museum Victoria; National Museum of Australia; State Library of Victoria.

Chief Investigators: Andrew Kenyon, Andrew Christie
Research Fellow: Emily Hudson

Digitisation Guidelines
Many activities performed by museums, galleries and libraries raise copyright issues - particularly those involving digital technologies. This is because cultural institutions generally do not own copyright in the items they possess, and yet many activities they wish to perform (such as digitisations and publishing material online) are exclusive rights of the copyright owner. This means that they are at rish of infringing copyright - unless a copyright exception applies, or they have a licence from the copyright owner. The aim of the guidelines is to help facilitate understanding of copyright law by staff and volunteers of cultural institutions. There are two versions of the guidelines:

Copyright and Cultural Institutions: Short Guidelines for Digitisation by Emily Hudson and Andrew T Kenyon (scroll down the linked page to see the options to download). This publication aims to assist readers understand the general structure of copyright law and identify the circumstances in which digitisation may infringe copyright.

Copyright and Cultural Institutions: Guidelines for Digitisation by Emily Hudson and Andrew T Kenyon (scroll down the linked page to see the options to download). This publication supplements the short version, and discusses law and rights management in greater detail, including an overview of the structure of copyright law, in-depth analysis about the content of particular rules, and illustration of the operation of those rules using case studies and hypotheticals.

Bound copies of the long form guidelines are available for purchase from the CMCL using this order form. Digital copies can be downloaded freely using the links above.

Other Project Publications
Emily Hudson and Andrew T Kenyon, Communication in the digital environment: An empirical study into copyright law and digitisation practices in public museums, galleries and libraries, IPRIA Working Paper No 15/05, July 2005.

Emily Hudson and Andrew T Kenyon, Libraries and the digital agenda (2004) 7(4) Internet Law Bulletin 54.

Andrew T Kenyon and Emily Hudson, Copyright, Digitisation and Cultural Institutions, (2004) 31(1) Australian Journal of Communication 89.

Presentations from Copyright, Digitisation and Cultural Institutions Conference 2005
On Friday 26 August 2005, the Copyright, Digitisation and Cultural Institutions Conference was held at the State Library of Victoria. The conference was launched by the Honourable Mary Delahunty MP, Victorian Minister for the Arts and Anne-Marie Schwirtlich, State Librarian and CEO of the State Library of Victoria. A copy of the complete program is available here. Select presentations are also available:

Robyn Ayres, Perspectives from Creators

Emily Hudson, Copyright conflict? Some thoughts on Preservation Copying and Dealings with Orphan Works

Andrew Remely, Digital technologies: Changing the process of exhibition development and access?

Kim Weatherall, The Free Trade Agreement and Cultural Institutions

Other outputs
Kim Weatherall and Emily Hudson, Response to the Issues Paper: Fair Use and Other Copyright Exceptions in the Digital Age, July 2005.