Non-profit organisation, Belgium
{% tabs %} {% tab title="Key Risks" %} * Compliance with copyright laws, particularly regarding works with ambiguous ownership or uncertain copyright status, such as orphan works and out-of-commerce works. * Compliance with cultural heritage laws that extend control over cultural heritage materials through copyright-like restrictions beyond the scope or term of copyright law. * Compliance with contractual restrictions or licence terms that override or conflict with statutory exceptions and limitations to copyright, or with protections of the public domain. * Protection of sensitive personal information found within collection records, such as donor details and subject data. * Adherence to third-party terms of service for platforms or tools used to host or share collections. {% endtab %} {% tab title="Mitigation Strategies" %} {% hint style="info" %} **Related mitigation strategies** For organisational policies, workflows, and governance structures that support consistent copyright compliance, privacy protection, and takedown procedures, see the [Policy Risk Area](/risk-management/risk-management-toolkit-for-open-glam/risk-area-policy.md). For risks arising from political interference, jurisdictional changes, sanctions, censorship demands, or conflict-driven disruptions that may affect legal compliance, or enforcement capacity, see the [Geopolitical Risk Area](/risk-management/risk-management-toolkit-for-open-glam/risk-area-geopolitical.md). {% endhint %} * **Conduct a copyright and rights audit:** Review the collection to determine copyright status, ownership, and rights holders for each item. This ensures that items shared online are legally compliant. * **Implement clear licensing:** Apply standardised copyright licenses, public domain tools, and rights statements carefully, ensuring accurate attribution and clear usage guidelines to minimise the risk of misuse. * **Provide copyright training for staff:** Ensure that team members involved in digitising and licensing/labelling are well-trained in copyright and licensing principles to avoid potential infringements. * **Develop infringement response protocols:** Establish protocols to handle copyright claims or misuse reports promptly and transparently – e.g., by developing open access and takedown policies. * **Safeguard privacy:** Identify and protect personal and sensitive data within the collection records, ensuring that any personal information (such as names or contact information of donors or subjects) is either anonymised or redacted before public sharing. * **Review third-party terms of service:** Regularly review and ensure compliance with the terms of service of any third-party platforms or digital tools used for hosting, sharing, or distributing collections. {% endtab %} {% tab title="Tools & Resources" %} * **Licensing/rights statements:** Copyright licenses and public domain tools like those from [Creative Commons](https://creativecommons.org/) or the [Rights Statements Consortium](https://rightsstatements.org/en/about.html) can help generate clear and machine-readable [CC licenses](https://creativecommons.org/share-your-work/cclicenses/) or [Rights Statements](https://rightsstatements.org/page/1.0/?language=en) based on each item’s copyright and reuse status. * Creative Commons Guide - [Recommended Licenses and Tools for Cultural Heritage Content](https://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/OC-Recommended-Licenses.pdf) * [Creative Commons License Chooser](https://chooser-beta.creativecommons.org/) * Europeana’s Guide - [How to select an accurate rights statement](https://pro.europeana.eu/page/selecting-a-rights-statement) * [Rights Statements](https://rightsstatements.org/page/1.0/?language=en) - 3 categories, 12 different Rights Statements * GLAM-E Lab’s Handbook: [Selecting an Alternative Label or Licence](https://www.glamelab.org/products/selecting-an-alternative-license-or-label/) * **Legal and privacy compliance templates:** Use standardised checklists and templates for copyright clearance, permissions, licensing agreements, and privacy notices to ensure consistency across the collections. * Naomi Korn Associates’s [Copyright Rights Clearance Checklists](https://naomikorn.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Copyright-Rights-Clearance-Checklists-APril-2022.pdf) * Naomi Korn Associates's [Creative Commons Licences: A Guide to Data Protection & Copyright](https://www.culturehive.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Digital-Guide-Creative-Commons-licences-A-guide-to-data-protection-and-copyright.pdf) (including checklists and templates) * GLAM-E Lab's [Copyright Clearance Handbook for Public Domain Publications of Digital Collections](https://www.glamelab.org/products/copyright-clearance-handbook-for-public-domain-publications/) * GLAM-E Lab (2024) [Copyright Clearance Log](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ce9ypE6gZDWoCSpWKe42ibb0fl-V1V3WtfQqFIpCwCU/edit?gid=884319758#gid=884319758) * [Simplified flowchart for licensing in the context of Brazil](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Fluxograma_licenciamentos_Brasil.png) * [Takedown Policy template](https://oa2ch.gitbook.io/risk-management/templates/takedown-policy) of the Risk Management Toolkit for Open GLAM. * **Copyright training for GLAM professionals:** * [Creative Commons Certificate Programme](https://creativecommons.org/about/cc-certificate-program/) - Open Culture/GLAM section ([Certificate resources](https://creativecommons.org/about/cc-certificate-program/certificate-resources/)). Creative Commons also provides [customised training and consulting](https://creativecommons.org/about/training-and-consulting/) offerings. * [How to identify and clear copyright in collection items](https://pro.europeana.eu/page/identifying-copyright-in-collection-items) - This page by Europeana shares training to help GLAM professionals determine if, and which rights exist in their institution’s collection items. It is the first of three blocks of training, followed by [Training on the available rights statements](https://pro.europeana.eu/page/available-rights-statements) used by Europeana and [Training on how to select an accurate rights statement](https://pro.europeana.eu/page/selecting-a-rights-statement). * Self-paced courses on the [Europeana Academy](https://pro.europeana.eu/page/europeana-academy) training platform: * [Copyright when sharing data with Europeana](https://europeana.moocit.fr/courses/course-v1:Europeana_Foundation+ELF01+2023_Q2/about) - This course shares training to help you determine if, and which, rights exist in your collection items. This is an essential first step before one can assign an accurate rights statement. It is the first of three blocks of training, and is followed by the course on the available rights statements used by Europeana and the course on how to select an accurate rights statement. * [Understanding the standardised rights information used by Europeana](https://europeana.moocit.fr/courses/course-v1:europeana+ELF02+2023_Q2/about) - Rights statements express the copyright status of a digital object and provide information about how someone can re-use the object. This course outlines and offers training on the rights statements you can apply to the data you share with Europeana. * [How to select an accurate rights statement](https://europeana.moocit.fr/courses/course-v1:europeana+ELF03+2023_Q2/about) - This self-paced course offers information on how to identify the most accurate and adequate rights statement for the data you share with Europeana. * Courses on the WikiLearn platform: * [Introduktion till upphovsrätt](https://learn.wiki/courses/course-v1:Wikimedia-Sverige+WMSE012+2024/about) (Swedish) - The course (developed by Wikimedia Sverige) provides a brief introduction to copyright, Creative Commons licenses, and what you need to consider when contributing to Wikimedia’s projects. * [Propriété intellectuelle et Créative Commons](https://learn.wiki/courses/course-v1:Anthere+000+2024/about) (French) - This course, which is designed for Wikimedians and their partners (for example, staff of cultural institutions), provides an introduction to key concepts of copyright and how to use Creative Commons licenses. * [Wikimedia Core Curriculum module 5: Copyright and free licenses](https://learn.wiki/courses/course-v1:Wikimedia-Foundation+WMF_AGP005+2025/about) (English) - This course describes traditional copyright, discusses its shortcomings, and introduces alternative licenses (in particular the Creative Commons licenses). * **Other resources:** * [Law Flow – Simplified Legal Complexity](https://lawflow.org/) is a website that offers a clear and accessible way to navigate legal complexity through flowcharts. It covers a wide range of legal topics, with a particular focus on intellectual property law in the European Union. * [CopyrightUser.EU](https://copyrightuser.eu/) is an independent online platform intended to make EU copyright law accessible to everyone. * [CopyrightUser.org](http://copyrightuser.org/) is an online resource aimed at making UK copyright law accessible to creators, media professionals, entrepreneurs, students, and members of the public. * The [copyrightexceptions.eu](http://copyrightexceptions.eu/) is a collaborative effort to map user rights in the European Union’s copyright framework. {% endtab %} {% tab title="Good Practices" %} * **Stay updated with good practices:** Follow organisations and initiatives like [Creative Commons](https://creativecommons.org/), [Europeana](https://pro.europeana.eu/), [OpenGLAM](https://openglam.org/), and [GLAM Wiki](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:GLAM) to stay updated with open access guidelines. * **Create user guidelines for open content:** Provide clear guidelines on how users may interact with open access collections, respecting legal and ethical boundaries. * [Public Domain Guidelines](https://wiki.creativecommons.org/wiki/Public_Domain_Guidelines) - Use guidelines, information-only draft on CC Wiki * [Nudging Users to Reference Institutions with Public Domain Materials: A Creative Commons Guide](https://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Nudging-Users-to-Reference-Institutions-when-Using-Public-Domain-Materials%E2%80%94Creative-Commons-Guidelines-1.pdf) (English) – Available in other languages [here](https://creativecommons.org/about/arts-culture/open-culture-resources/). * **Build a community of practice:** Join forums and networks with other GLAM institutions to share experiences, insights, and risk management strategies. * Become a [member](https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdMXU5Sb6ATDZx-alTvf9DCfs3jzDlX-AKCY7sowjb3vqW0HA/viewform) of the [Creative Commons Open Culture Platform](https://network.creativecommons.org/cc-openculture-platform/), where you can be added to the mailing list, and can join regular meetings and work together on collaborative projects to further Open Culture. * Join the [Europeana Copyright community](https://pro.europeana.eu/page/europeana-copyright#office-hours) (i.e. group of professionals interested in copyright and digital cultural heritage), so as to stay informed about copyright trends, legal and policy changes, rights information and approaches to clearing rights. * Join the [Cultural Heritage Open Scholarship Network](https://openscholarship.gitbook.io/chosn) (CHOSN) to share knowledge on how to establish good practices in open scholarship. {% endtab %} {% endtabs %} {% hint style="danger" %} **How this risk area connects to other risk areas** Legal clarity underpins all other risk mitigation efforts. Unclear copyright status, restrictive contracts, or weak privacy safeguards can amplify financial risks (unexpected liabilities), ethical risks (harm to communities), technical risks (forced takedowns or platform dependency), and geopolitical risks (external leverage through legal pressure). Strong rights audits, transparent licensing, and privacy protocols reduce institutional exposure across all risk areas and increase resilience in times of crisis. {% endhint %} ## Use cases > Cultural heritage professionals don’t make certain digital collections open access because of copyright ambiguity. If materials are made available without proper copyright checks, there’s a risk of copyright infringement or misuse by the public, which can impact legal compliance and damage the reputation of the institution. > Decision makers don’t make certain digital collections open access, because inaccurate licensing or uncertainties in copyright ownership could lead to privacy breaches or unauthorised sharing or misuse. This would impact the institution’s ability to safeguard sensitive cultural materials and comply with contractual obligations, especially in cases involving Indigenous communities. --- # Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question. Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter: ``` GET https://oa2ch.gitbook.io/risk-management/risk-management-toolkit-for-open-glam/risk-area-legal.md?ask=