Copyright is a complex subject and varies from country to country.
Copyright for Archivists and Records Managers, Fourth Edition by Tim Padfield (Mar 23, 2010)
Copyright includes several rights including the right to control copying, and the right to control publication.
Copyright is a form of property right.
Property rights in original documents also include the right to restrict access, the right to control copying, and the right to control publication. These rights pertain to the property and not to any copyright that may subsist in the contents contained within the original document.
Property rights of original documents and Copyright in works are entirely separate rights.
Copyright applies to an original work only. A derived work must comply with the copyright of the original work.
The following references are useful in the determination of the right to copy or publish documents obtained from the PRONI.
Can I get copies of Church Records
For works created before 1 August 1989 , and published before 1 August 1989
For works created before 1911 the Literary Copyright Act 1842 applies if the copyright expired before 1911.
Using the rule of Life + 70 years, if an author died before 1943 then copyright will definitely have extinguished in any literary work they created.
Any author who was born before 1863 could reasonably be presumed to be dead by 1943 and therefore any copyright pertaining to an author born before 1863 can be reasonably presumed to have been extinguished.
Any publication before 1883 can be presumed to be out of copyright no matter what the measure, on the presumption that the author was at least 20 years old and did not live past 80 years of age; which is a reasonable presumption in the absence of evidence otherwise.
Any Crown copyright work published before 1962 will have no copyright subsisting in it.
Any Crown copyright work under the jurisdiction of the UK (e.g. PRONI) are covered by a Crown Copyright waiver.
No typographical arrangement copyright exists prior to 1st October 1964 for newspapers and books.
The following applies to the literary works and not to any typographical or other copyrights.
| Publication | Determination | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| FamilySearch.org | Restricted | Terms of use of FamilySearch.org prevent you from publishing any material obtained from the website without first obtaining permission from them. |
| AskAboutIreland.ie | Restricted | No content of the website can be extracted or re-utilised for any competing or commercial purpose without written consent. There is no copyright subsisting in the Griffiths Valuation records themselves. |
| census.nationalarchives.ie | Restricted | There is no copyright notices or information on the website. It can be assumed that the images are protected by copyright. The use of the information in the images does not appear to be protected. There is no copyright subsisting in the census records themselves. |
| titheapplotmentbooks.nationalarchives.ie | Restricted | There is no copyright notices or information on the website. It can be assumed that the images are protected by copyright. The use of the information in the images does not appear to be protected. The website states that the archives are “placed online free to access”. There is no copyright subsisting in the tithe records themselves. |
| archive.org | Unrestricted | Books available on archive.org are in general out of copyright. Each book's copyright status is stated on the site and should be checked before publishing anything. |
Even though there may be no copyright subsisting in a work the original document itself will still have property rights that subsist for the owner of the original document; for example a church register or a manuscript. “The owner of the physical object has rights in that object that have nothing to do with copyright: he or she may allow or refuse access to it, may refuse to allow it to be reproduced, may charge a fee for its reproduction, and may destroy it, for instance.” 1)
For example, a church may, even though there is no copyright subsisting in a church register, refuse to allow the register to be reproduced in any form; e.g. photographed or copies of the register displayed on a website. However their right does not extend to the content which has no copyright subsisting in it 2).
A database also has rights for the creator. Many works that were previously classified as Compilations are now classified as Databases for the application of Copyright law.
The terms of use with which you access information may also restrict your rights with respect to copying and publishing information that you access. For example in order to gain access to a document or database you may need to accept certain terms and conditions and these terms and conditions may restrict your ability to copy or publish the information that you gain access to. These restrictions are governed by contract law and not by Copyright law.
The following are based on my current understanding and interpretation of Copyright and Property rights in general and their application to the use in genealogical research only. You should seek your own legal council if you are in any doubt as to their correctness. If you believe that any of these interpretations are incorrect then I would welcome your comments to admin@atavus.org.
In the following interpretations publish is to be construed as meaning the providing of something to another by any means. This includes providing a copy of all or part of something, placing a copy of all or part of something onto a website, publishing an actual book or article in any form, or anything else that resembles a similar practice. It is my understanding of copyright law that you cannot convey a copy of all or part of something in which copyright subsists to anyone else without first receiving explicit permission to do so from the copyright holder.
To avoid any doubt, where you are legitimately allowed to copy works under fair use or fair dealings when it is for your own private study or research you must not convey those copies or any part of them to anyone else in any form. The instant that you convey those copies to another person via any means whatsoever, or make those copies available to another person via any means, you lose any protection of fair use or fair dealing.
1. Public domain information that is accessed via a website which retains copyright on the website content, the database, and the indexes. You cannot publish any information contained on web pages of such websites including search results, however you can copy under fair use or fair dealing when it is for your own private study or research. You cannot publish any images, including photographs, displayed on web pages of such websites, however you can copy the images under fair use or fair dealing when it is for your own private study or research. You can copy and publish the information contained in images of documents that contain only public domain works without infringing upon any copyright. For example: If there is a website that contains a database of headstone photographs and includes a searchable index then you are permitted to copy and publish the inscriptions shown on the headstones in the photographs, where the inscriptions do not have a copyright subsisting in them, however you are not permitted to copy and publish the searchable index or search results or the photographs themselves.
2. Public domain information that is accessed from a microfilm copy of the original work. Microfilm itself is not a copyright work. You cannot publish copies of the microfilm or any part of the copies of the microfilm (e.g. photocopies) without permission if your possession of the microfilm or copy stipulated that you waived the right to do so, as is the case with many microfilm sales and copies provided from microfilm. However you can copy and publish the public domain information that is displayed within the microfilm or copy of the microfilm without infringing upon any copyright. For example: You can go to the PRONI and access the 1901 census records, which are in the public domain, on microfilm and copy and publish the information that you transcribe from those microfilm. However you cannot publish photocopies or photographs of the microfilm itself, or parts of photocopies or photographs (e.g. using photoshop to extract a part of the copy from the microfilm and then to publish that fragment is an infringement of copyright).
3. Books that are in the public domain, or copies of books that are in the public domain. You can copy and publish anything from books or copies of books that meet this criteria. However you cannot publish the copy of the book itself as this may be protected by a copyright held by the person that created the copy. For example: You can copy and publish information from Google books that are in the public domain, but you cannot publish the copies that Google made and that you used as a source for accessing the public domain works.
4. Any copyright material where explicit written consent has been obtained from all copyright holders granting permission to publish extracts from the copyright material.
1. Articles, Journals, Periodicals, Books, Compilations, Databases, Works of art (including photographs and drawings), where the copyright subsists in the work. You cannot publish anything from these sources without the explicit written permission from the copyright holder. You can copy but only if permitted by fair use or fair dealing and only for your own private study or research.
2. Databases and Compilations containing entirely public domain works, where copyright subsists in the database or compilation. You cannot publish anything that is considered to be significant from a database or compilation as this is considered an infringement of the copyright in the database or compilation work. For example you could copy and publish a couple of entries from a database of old telephone records however you could not copy and publish an amount that was considered to be significant. You most certainly could not copy and publish every entry just because each entry itself is not covered by copyright. Unfortunately there is no clear definition of significant and it can be as little as a few entries or can be much larger. Therefore it is best to avoid this method of sourcing information for publication.
3. Transcriptions of gravestone inscriptions where it is not clear how much of the transcription is identical to the original inscription and how much is new work. Gravestone inscriptions that are published in journals or other locations may be more than mere verbatim copies of the inscriptions on the headstones. If this is the case they might be subject to copyright in which case it will not be possible to copy and publish them without first receiving explicit written consent from the copyright holder.
The opinions contained on this page are not legal opinions and are interpretations that are derived from a variety of sources on the internet and various books.
Specific attribution is given to “Copyright for Archivists and Records Managers, Fourth Edition by Tim Padfield (Mar 23, 2010)” which has been an invaluable guide in distilling the essence of many of the Copyright related issues discussed on this page.