4: Copyright

4.0. Scope and definitions

4.0.1. Copyright can be defined as the legal right to control the use of the intellectual property in a work and in the authorised forms in which the work exists. The copyright owner has the right to control, or at least to receive appropriate payment for, the reproduction of his works. copyright endures for a limited time which varies between territories. This is not the case with traditional ownership (see 4.0.5) which may not necessarily be limited by a statutory period. copyright may also include moral rights, for instance of authors, composers and performers, to be named and to prevent their works being distributed with another name or to have their work changed in any unauthorised manner. Moral rights presently apply in the legislation of some countries.

4.0.2. Sound and audiovisual recordings usually involve a multiplicity of rights. In the case of published recordings they may include:

  1. performances of published pieces of music which involve specific mechanical rights (mechanical rights are "generally understood as being the author's right to reproduce literary, dramatic or musical works in the form of recordings (phonograms or audiovisual fixations), produced mechanically in the widest sense of the word including electro-acoustic and electronic procedures. The mechanical rights in musical works with or without accompanying words are usually administered by authors' societies or other appropriate organizations. Some copyright laws provide for compulsory licenses to be granted to producers of phonograms of musical works and any words pertaining thereof." WIPO Glossary, p. 157);
  2. the exclusive moral rights of authors in the words and of composers in the titles that have been recorded;
  3. the performances themselves, which involve performer rights;
  4. a recording right which is owned by the record company which released the recordings.Beyond these rights in the recorded item s there are other rights attached to the artwork, accompanying documentation (e.g. sleeve notes) and design which are associated with the packaging of the recording.

4.0.3. broadcast recordings may involve similar rights to published recordings but with the addition of the broadcasting company as a rights owner in the programme as broadcast.

4.0.4. Unpublished recordings, including private recordings made for private purposes which might be donated to an audiovisual archive or library, will normally be covered by official recording or deposit agreements made between the recordist and the person or persons being recorded or between the collecting institution and the donor. Such agreements will typically include statements relating to access, ranging from unrestricted access to prohibition on any form of access whatsoever. Reference to such agreements must therefore be made, not in this area, but in the Notes area (see 7.B.29).

4.0.5. Traditional material (traditional ownership)A related issue which is not always subject to legislation concerns materials from traditional societies. This involves an ethical dimension to the rights (i.e. which may be broader than the legal definition of 'moral rights' mentioned in 4.0.1). This is particularly the case with recordings of certain traditional societies. Ownership of the content of such sound or audiovisual recordings may remain the intellectual property of the person(s) who have been recorded or who have authorised the performance. In such cases archives must strive to document this information sensitively, accurately and responsibly.

4.0.6. Copyright therefore obtains at many levels for sound recordings and in different ways depending on the type of recording. For published videos, for instance, it is the copyright date rather than the date of the p notice which applies. Furthermore, each statement may represent different provisions depending on the territory in which the rights are administered. It will therefore be impossible, with present means available, to express these different layers with any clarity in the approach to descriptive cataloguing adopted by these cataloguing rules unless it is decided to adopt a multilevel or analytic approach (see Chapter 9). If not, it is recommended that archives and cataloguing agencies limit the information stated in Area 4 to one specific copyright layer: for published and broadcast recordings this will be the owner of the recording (as associated with the stated p notice) or broadcast rights; for unpublished recordings this will consist of the name of the recordist together with a statement of any access restrictions imposed by the person or persons recorded. In addition, since enforcement of copyright applies to a period of time after the rights holder's death, it is strongly recommended that dates of birth and death are included when indexing with the names of contributors such as interviewees, performers, authors and composers.

4.0.7. Alternatively, copyright and p notice information relating to a published recording or group of recordings may be adequately documented instead as part of Area 3 (see 3.F.1.5-3.F.1.7).

4.A. Preliminary rule

4.A.1. Punctuation
Based on FIAF 4.1.1
Precede this area by a full stop, space, dash, space or start a new paragraph (. - )

The punctuation should follow the order and format of copyright documentation for countries which have registration systems.

For countries that do not have registration systems, precede the date by a space, semi-colon, space ( ; )

4.A.2. Sources of information
See also: 0.A.1.3, 9.0.B.2,

4.A.2.1. For published sound recordings, take the information from the container packaging and/or the label. For recorded music, copyright ownership statements are normally to be found on the packaging preceded by a p within a circle and a date expressed as a year (normally only the symbol and the date appear on the label). Note that copyright statements preceded by a small c in a circle, ©, which appear on the packaging refer almost invariably to aspects of the packaging itself or to accompanying documentation such as sleeve notes. Do not include such statements here for sound recordings.

4.A.2.2. If there is no p notice or similar sign visible on the published item leave this area blank.

4.A.2.3. For broadcast recordings, take the information from any relevant source.

4.A.2.4. For published videorecordings (where the copyright date rather than the p notice normally applies), take the information from the title frames or from the packaging.

4.A.2.5. For unpublished recordings, take the information from any relevant source, though typically this will be held in documentation accompanying the recording or the collection to which it belongs, for example a deposit agreement form.

4.B. Copyright statement

4.B.1. The first element of the copyright statement is the word copyright followed by a colon and a space.

4.B.2. Give the name of the copyright owner as it appears in the sources of information. Enclose any information about supposed or unspecified rights holders in square brackets. Where available include the date of copyright or p notice. Do not include any indication of country unless it is relevant to copyright registration (see 4.C). Copyright: Black Saint

Copyright: HAT HUT Records Ltd

Copyright: [various British and American radio stations - see individual item s]

Copyright: BBC

Copyright: Richard Margoschis

Copyright: Willow Music ; p 1987

4.B.3. If it is evident that the item is not protected by copyright (e.g. the period for which copyright endured on the item has expired), give:  Copyright: [public domain]

4.B.4. If copyright in the item is unknown, either give no statement at all or give:
 Copyright: [unknown]

4.C. Registration notices

Based on FIAF 4.3. If the cataloguing agency operates in or on behalf of a country which has a national registration or legal deposit system, enter the copyright registration information (including the name of the country) in the same order and format as it appears in national bibliographies or registration listings. If further clarification is required (e.g. of inaccuracies), give such additional information in a note (see 7.B.13).

Copyright: US : CBS Records Inc.; DCRE 1988; DPUB 27Jul88; DREG 26Sept88; SR-96-555

Copyright: US : Jenson Publications Inc.; DCRE 1981; DPUB 2Jan81; DREG 23Feb81; PA-102-784

4.D. Traditional material ownership statement

Use the term copyright to indicate consistently in the catalogue the significance of the statement to follow. Qualify it with a suitable explanatory term for the material such as traditional ownership. Give any extended contextual information in a note (see 7.B.13).

Copyright (traditional ownership): Traditional Owners of the Waake Land Holding Estate

Copyright: Central Land Council

Note: The people who are the traditional owners of these songs hold the right to authorise their performance, and/or access to and/or copying of the recordings. Songs were sung by Traditional Owners of the Waake Land Holding Estate for the Aboriginal Land Commissioner as evidence of land ownership of the Waake Land Holding Estate for the Kaytej/Warlpiri/Warlmanpa Land Claim, heard before the Aboriginal Land Commissioner in 1981.

Recordings were made of this performance by Grace Koch on behalf of the Central Land Council

(In this example the traditional ownership of the content of the recording is by the Traditional Owners of the Waake Land Holding Estate. Additionally there is copyright in the physical recording. Here Grace Koch, employed by the Central Land Council to participate in the land claim case, recorded the performance as part of the evidence during the proceedings. Therefore the Central Land Council owns the recording rights)