Risk Area: Legal

Copyright and privacy considerations

Based on findings from the literature review and online survey conducted by the Working Group, GLAM institutions reported facing significant legal challenges, particularly in determining copyright ownership and ensuring compliance with copyright laws. Concerns were frequently raised about the potential misuse of open access materials and the risk of infringements due to incorrect licensing. Additionally, many institutions noted the complexities of managing copyrighted materials they do not own, emphasizing the need for cautious handling to avoid legal complications.

“We aren't always the copyright holders on all works and/or their reproductions. In other cases, we manage the digital reproductions but are not the owner of the underlying works.”

Non-profit organisation, Belgium

Below, you will find the key legal risks identified, actionable strategies to mitigate these risks, tools to support the implementation of the recommended actions, and good practices to get inspired.

Key Risks

• Compliance with copyright laws, particularly regarding works with ambiguous ownership or uncertain copyright status.

• 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.

Mitigation Strategies

• 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 standard copyright licenses or reuse status labels carefully, ensuring accurate attribution and clear usage guidelines to minimize the risk of misuse.

• Provide copyright training for staff: Ensure that team members involved in digitizing and licensing are well-versed 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.

• 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 anonymized 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.

Tools & Resources

• Rights statement generators: Tools like those from Creative Commons or the Rights Statements Consortium can help generate clear and machine-readable CC licenses or Rights Statements based on each item’s copyright and reuse status.

  • Creative Commons License Chooser

  • Europeana’s Guide - How to select an accurate rights statement

  • Rights Statements - 3 categories, 12 different Rights Statements

  • GLAM-E Lab Handbook: Selecting an Alternative Label or Licence

• Legal and privacy compliance templates: Use standardized 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

  • Naomi Korn Associates's Creative Commons Licences: A Guide to Data Protection & Copyright (including checklists and templates)

  • GLAM-E Lab's Copyright Clearance Handbook for Public Domain Publications of Digital Collections

  • GLAM-E Lab (2024) Copyright Clearance Log.

  • Simplified flowchart for licensing in the context of Brazil

• Copyright training for GLAM professionals:

  • Creative Commons Certificate Programme - Open Culture/GLAM section (Certificate resources)

  • How to identify and clear copyright in collection items - This page by Europeana shares training to help GLAM professionals to determine if, and which rights exist in their GLAM institution collection items. It is the first of three blocks of training, followed by Training on the available rights statements used by Europeana and Training on how to select an accurate rights statement.

Good Practices

• Stay updated with good practices: Follow organizations and initiatives like Creative Commons, Europeana, OpenGLAM, and GLAM Wiki 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 - Use guidelines, information-only draft on CC Wiki
• Build a community of practice: Join forums and networks with other GLAM institutions to share experiences, insights, and risk management strategies.

  • Become a member of the Creative Commons Open Culture 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.

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.