IPR and licensing toolkit
From Digipedia
| How useful is this article to you? 1 (not useful) - 5 (very useful) |
| Current average rating: 0 |
| Please login or create an account to rate this article |
Contents |
OVERVIEW
This article is taken from the IPR Toolkit Overview.
Who is this toolkit for?
This Toolkit, designed to raise levels of IPR and licensing literacy across the public sector, has been produced by Naomi Korn and Professor Charles Oppenheim on behalf of the Strategic Content Alliance. It has been written for a range of people working across the UK public sector who are involved in:
- The daily management and/or clearance of rights
- The management of staff and/or projects who are involved in managing and/or clearing rights
- Establishing or responsible for setting corporate policies
- Establishing or responsible for setting policies regarding the provision of public-sector funding
- The negotiation and/or receipt of public-sector funding
- The procurement of contracted services and/or skills
It is primarily aimed at non-experts who are likely to have some kind of involvement with IPR and licensing issues as part of a broad range of other activities in which they are involved. It is therefore likely to be most useful for people in small organisations/services, or those conducting small projects in larger organisations.
Please note: this guidance has been prepared for information purposes only and is not, nor is intended to be, legal advice. This information is not intended to constitute, and receipt of it does not constitute, a contract for legal advice or the establishment of a solicitor–client relationship.
Why IPR and licensing issues are important in public-sector bodies
Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) and licensing issues will be central to the creation, sharing and delivery of e-content, amongst sponsors of the Strategic Content Alliance and other public-sector organisations. However, the complexity of rights and permissions associated with the broad range of e-content held by public-sector bodies, plus the necessity for succinct processes, documentation and staff awareness to manage such issues, means that access and use of e-content may not always be optimised. In typical circumstances where public-sector bodies are likely to generate their own IPR, as well as be responsible for providing access to IPR owned by third-party rights holders, it is important that these issues are addressed in order to maximise opportunities and also remove potential barriers in the sharing of e-content within and across the public sector.
The SCA IPR Consultancy, led by Naomi Korn and Professor Charles Oppenheim, has been dedicated to identifying the optimal legal, technical and organisational structures that can lower barriers and allow its sponsors to take advantage of opportunities for effectively using internet technologies to provide access to e-content.
This work has included the creation of an interoperable IPR framework of best practice, outlined in this guide, which takes into account the eclectic nature of content that is generated and held by the sponsors of the SCA.
The types of e-content that are typically encountered, owned and generated by public sector bodies include a combination of both born-digital and digital surrogate material, including:
- Research data and derived data
- Photographs and images
- Audio visual material such as broadcasts, footage, sound recordings and film
- Journals, books, newspapers, policy documents, and other print material
- Ephemera (postcards, posters, flyers etc)
- Archival and unpublished material such as manuscripts, letters and diaries
- User-generated content
- Databases
- Multimedia
Much of this content, particularly in digital form, will combine various different varieties of content-types.
Crucially, the length of copyright protection, the heterogeneity of this content and the likelihood of mash-ups and creations of media-rich works, will result in multiple layers of rights, owned by a diverse range of rights holders. For example, a piece of music found on iTunes may include the words, which will be protected as a text based work, the music, and the recording of the piece. All will potentially be protected by copyright and may require permission for reuse from more than one rights holder.
Rights holders can include any of the following and a combination thereof located across international jurisdictions:
- Public-sector bodies themselves
- Creators
- The Crown
- Licensing agencies and other nominated agents and administrators
- Business and other sectors
- Non-staff and other third-party rights holders
However, out of all these, a growing and unresolved issue for public-sector bodies remains the vast quantity of culturally, historically and academically valuable works, usually of low commercial value, for which the rights holders are unknown or cannot be traced, (so called ’orphan works'). A recent survey of 503 respondents across the public sector, carried by the SCA and the Collections Trust, has revealed the figure to be around 5–10% of all works, which at a minimum extrapolation, would amount to 25 million works across the cultural heritage sector alone. Evidence pulled from the SCA IPR Case Studies also reveals that in most digitisation projects, the costs of identifying and negotiating with rights owners exceed the costs of acquiring the actual licences.
Dealing with copyright-protected works and, specifically, those that might be classed as ’orphan works‘ reinforces the importance of basic IPR and licensing literacy across the public sector. In particular, the effective management of rights needs to be supported by standard forms, documentation systems and high levels of staff awareness about copyright and risk management. This is important in order for public-sector bodies to make informed decisions to take full advantage of their content, providing public access and reducing risks. Certainly, rights management should be seen as an ongoing process within a broader IP ecosystem of events, workflows and standards, rather than an occasional, one-off event.
What is in this toolkit?
The SCA IPR Toolkit comprises a composite set of resources for use and adaptation to suit specific needs of content creators and content users across the public sector who are responsible for rights management and rights clearances. The tools provided here comprise basic building blocks to enable you to adapt and conduct your own rights management and clearance procedures. What this toolkit will not provide you with is a ready-made IPR and licensing toolkit that is specifically designed for your own requirements.
This toolkit is built upon current good practice and a starting point for further reading, which is provided in Appendix A (Bibliography). Over the course of time and in response to user requirements it is intended that these essential resources will be supplemented by further tools.
Using the toolkit
The resources contained within this toolkit have been specifically created as well as derived and adapted from a number of sources, as indicated. They can be divided into the following types of basic tools, which provide:
- The legal and legislative context of rights issues across the public sector
- Basic resources for seeking rights permissions, management of rights and assessment of risks
- An outline of proposed policy considerations, which facilitate sharing of content across the public sector
This toolkit is likely to be of benefit across the following organisations:
- Cultural Heritage
- Education
- Research
- Health
- Public Broadcasting
The tools and resources, created as templates and information resources, can be used and repurposed to suit issues such as these, whilst taking into account the following factors associated with the public-sector bodies:
- There is a vast range of organisations, staffing (and non-staffing) structures and needs
- Organisations vary in their funding sources and governance structures
- Many use a range of business models and sustainability activities to support their core activities
The tools are supplemented by a number of case studies, which map the flow of content, rights and value across the public sector according to a number of rights clearance models, as well as referencing how the SCA IPR Toolkit might play a role.
This guide contains some basic scenarios uses case and a navigation map, which can provide access points to the various tools and resources.
Whilst the scenarios link back to the numbered resources, the navigation map works on the principle, established by the JISC-funded Web2Rights project, that cultural perceptions about the relevance of IPR and licensing issues associated with e-content often present greater obstacles than the issues themselves. In particular, where to find authoritative and appropriate resources and, once found, what tools should be used, when and how, can present some of the biggest obstacles to engaging fully with IPR and licensing issues.
Collectively, the scenarios and navigation map provide the types of scenarios that might arise within public-sector organisations, as well as diagrammatic workflows outlining critical points of tensions within a dynamic IP ecosystem. They also help by providing the right questions to be asked and reference to the appropriate resources to ensure that rights and permissions are dealt with.
IPR and licensing scenarios
Links to IPR Toolkit Resources as PDFs
Background papers
Reports
Practical tools
3.4 Top Tips for Issuing Licences
3.5 Top Tips for Requesting Licences
3.8 Template Email Permissions Form
3.9 IPR Template Permission Letter
3.10 Rights Management Template
3.12 Model Contractual Clauses for Requesting Permission from Staff
3.13 Example Consortium Agreement
3.14 Model Contractual Clauses for Requesting Permission from Students/Volunteers
3.15 Model contractual clauses for requesting permission from freelancers/subcontractors
3.16 Template Terms and Conditions of Service
Template policy statements
2.1 Draft Institutional IPR Policy Statements
2.2 IPR and Licensing Blue Print for Funding Bodies and Recipients of Funding
Related Digipedia links
IPR and licensing toolkit
IPR policy statement for the public sector
Orphan works and risk management
Web 2.0 and legal issues factsheet
Further information
General resources
Intellectual Property Office: Overview of the legislative framework and policy issues/developments regarding Intellectual Property Rights
Office for Public Sector Information: Information about Crown Copyright material, click use licence for reusing Crown Copyright material and access to the consolidated copyright legislation.
British Library Business and IP Centre: Provision of resources, support and advice relating to the creation and exploitation of IP within a business context
Licensing schemes and open content licensing initiatives
Copyright Licensing Agency (CLA)
Design and Artists Copyright Society (DACS)
Resources for health professionals
Resources for schools, colleges and universities
JISC Digital Media Online Image Finding Tutorial: Interactive tool providing information about how to find images online which can be used with the least amount of restrictions
Web2Rights Project: JISC funded project providing interactive copyright and other legal issues tools, resources and charts for use by JISC funded projects
JISC Casper: Interactive tools and associated resources for dealing with copyright issues in schools and projects who are reusing content
JISC IPR and Web2.0 Animation: IPR and Web2.0 animation commissioned by JISC and built around the Web2Rights project deliverables
Becta: Information about IPR for schools
JISC IPR Consultancy: Briefing documents about IPR and monthly IPR Newsletter
JISC Open Content Licences Overview Paper: Overview paper providing guidance about the use of open content licences for JISC funded projects
JISC Model Licence Interactive: Interactive tool which provides an overview of the benefits of the JISC Model Licence
TrustDR Project: JISC funded project providing supporting documentation relating to the establishment of a digital rights management system for repositories
JISC Legal: Support for HEIs and FEIs on legal issues
OSS Watch: Support for HEIs and FEIs on open source licences
Resources for the cultural heritage sector
Collections Link: Comprehensive resources relating to IP and licensing for cultural heritage bodies
Harvested links
- Copyright Essentials
- A Collections Trust factsheet providing an introduction to copyright law for the non-specialist collections manager. [?]
- Training Course: Copyright Essentials
- This training course provided by Museums Galleries Scotland offers an introduction to the principles of copyright within the context of caring for collections. It offers basic and practical training, [?]
- New guide to copyright for cultural heritage organisations
- The Collections Trust is delighted to announce the publication of a new guide to copyright for cultural heritage organisations. [?]
- Collections Management Network website
- Collections Management Network (CMNetwork) is a consortium of consultants, advisers and trainers with expertise in collections management. We work together to provide practical, authoritative, cost ef [?] <span id="fck_dom_range_temp_1287584946184_396" />
[[Role::newcomer]] [[Role::strategy manager]] [[Role::policy maker]] [[Role::project manager]] [[Role::content manager]] [[Role::acquisitions manager]] [[Goal::managing]] [[Goal::copyright]] [[Goal::IPR]] [[Goal::legal]] [[Level::basic]] [[Level::medium]] [[Level::deep]]
