Copyright Permissions

BACKGROUND: Carnegie Mellon University Libraries and the School of Computer Science are collaborating in the Universal Library project to digitize the cultural and intellectual history of humankind. Negotiating permission to digitize copyrighted materials is key to the success of the project. The directors of the Universal Library are working with publishers to find ways to digitize and provide access to copyrighted materials that benefit publishers as well as end-users of the Library.

With these successes in mind, the University Libraries began a project to determine the feasibility of digitization as one possible solution to the urgent need for more space to store physical volumes. The Libraries attempted to negotiate permission to digitize and provide free-to-read Internet access to a statistically-significant random sample of books in our collection. The project was expected to reveal what issues make publishers hesitant to provide electronic access to full-text materials, whether different types of publishers have different issues or different levels of acceptance, the time it takes to negotiate permissions and the complexity of the negotiations for different kinds of materials (e.g., exhibitions, catalogs, monographs, etc.).

In the Copyright Permissions Project (1999-2001), the Libraries requested permission from each copyright holder in the sample to digitize their volumes, OCR and index the full text, and provide access over the World Wide Web. Ideally the books would be offered free to read by anyone on the Internet and requests for purchases will be forwarded to the publisher. If required by the copyright holder, access would be restricted to Carnegie Mellon users. In all cases, the appropriate copyright statements would accompany the digitized book. The results of the completed project provide a basis for continued work to obtain copyright permissions in support of digitization efforts.

More-

• Exploring the Feasibility of Seeking Copyright Permissions - Final Report (2002)
  Information analyst Carole A. George describes and reports the outcomes of a three-year study. The study establishes a process and procedures to obtain copyright in support of ongoing and future digitization efforts.

• George, Carole A. "Exploring the Feasibility of Seeking Copyright Permissions," talk presented at the American Library Association Conference, San Francisco, CA, June 2001.

Maintained by: Angel Morris

Last updated: December 4, 2003