Stobo, Victoria (2019) Archives, digitisation and copyright: do archivists in the UK avoid risk through strict compliance with copyright law when they digitise their collections? PhD thesis. https://theses.gla.ac.uk/73030/ Copyright and moral rights for this work are retained by the author A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge This work cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the author The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the author When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given Enlighten: Theses https://theses.gla.ac.uk/ [email protected] Archives, Digitisation and Copyright: Do archivists in the UK avoid risk through strict compliance with copyright law when they digitise their collections? Submitted to School of Law, College of Social Sciences, University of Glasgow for consideration for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Law Supervised by: Professor Martin Kretschmer and Dr. Ian G. Anderson January 2018 “I declare that, except where explicit reference is made to the contribution of others, that this dissertation is the result of my own work and has not been submitted for any other degree at the University of Glasgow or any other institution.” Name: Victoria Stobo Signature: _____________________________ 1 For my Gran, Agnes Stobo, who sat with me everyday after school and made sure I did my homework. 2 Abstract The duration and complexity of copyright in relation to unpublished materials is contributing to a 20th century ‘black hole’ in the online historical record. Archives collect, preserve, and provide access to records of governments, businesses, communities and individuals: the raw evidence of transactions, activities and events that informs our understanding of the past. The transformative nature of online access to the archival record supports human rights, democracy, openness, transparency, accountability, culture, learning, research and innovation. Despite reform, the legal framework in the UK fails to provide a safe harbor for archives that could make comprehensive online access to the country’s rich and diverse archival holdings possible. This thesis presents the results of a survey of the UK archive sector that explores how copyright affects digitisation of collections, and analyses five digitisation projects at a variety of archive institutions, in order to better understand the decision-making processes and risk management strategies that make archive collections containing third party rights materials available online, despite the tendency towards risk aversion within the archive sector. The thesis found that a small proportion of UK archives have made third-party rights holder material available online, supporting the view that the sector, in general, is risk averse in relation to third-party copyrights. However, evidence gathered suggests that approaches taken by less risk-averse institutions can be adapted to suit the needs of a wide-range of cultural heritage institutions, and best-practice guidance could have a significant impact on online access to 20th century collections. The study contributes baseline data on the sectoral approach to copyright, rights clearance and risk management, and how these approaches affect digitisation, in order to provide a starting point for further research and best-practice guidance for the UK archive sector. 3 Table of Contents ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................................... 3 LIST OF TABLES ........................................................................................................................... 6 LIST OF FIGURES .......................................................................................................................... 8 PREFACE ..................................................................................................................................... 9 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................................. 13 ABBREVIATIONS ....................................................................................................................... 15 INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................ 16 1. LITERATURE REVIEW ............................................................................................................. 21 1.1 THE LEGAL FRAMEWORK AND LEGISLATIVE REFORM .......................................................... 21 1.2 LEGAL SCHOLARSHIP AND POLICY-MAKING ......................................................................... 44 1.3 ARCHIVE SCHOLARSHIP ....................................................................................................... 49 1.4 RISK MANAGEMENT LITERATURE ........................................................................................ 70 1.5 CONCLUSION ....................................................................................................................... 79 2. METHODOLOGY .................................................................................................................... 81 2.1 USE OF MIXED METHODS .................................................................................................... 81 2.2 SURVEY METHOD ................................................................................................................ 90 2.3 CASE STUDY METHOD ......................................................................................................... 94 3. RESULTS OF A QUESTIONNAIRE SURVEY OF THE UK ARCHIVE SECTOR ................................... 97 3.1 DEMOGRAPHICS ................................................................................................................. 97 3.2 KNOWLEDGE OF THE LAW ................................................................................................. 101 3.3 PROJECT-LED DIGITISATION ............................................................................................... 103 3.4 ON-DEMAND DIGITISATION .............................................................................................. 116 3.5 ADMINISTRATIVE DIGITISATION ........................................................................................ 119 3.6 COMPLAINTS ..................................................................................................................... 121 3.7 SURVEY DATA DISCUSSION ............................................................................................... 124 4. CASE STUDIES FROM THE UK ARCHIVE SECTOR ................................................................... 130 4.1 CHURCHILL ARCHIVES CENTRE ........................................................................................... 130 4.2 GLASGOW SCHOOL OF ART ............................................................................................... 139 4.3 NEWCASTLE UNIVERSITY ................................................................................................... 153 4.4 BRITISH FILM INSTITUTE .................................................................................................... 164 4.5 BRITISH LIBRARY ............................................................................................................... 183 4.6 CASE STUDY DISCUSSION .................................................................................................. 192 5. CONCLUSION ...................................................................................................................... 203 BIBLIOGRAPHY ........................................................................................................................ 212 APPENDICES ........................................................................................................................... 228 APPENDIX A: CASE STUDY INTERVIEW SCRIPT ......................................................................... 229 APPENDIX B: INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPTS .................................................................................. 232 4 APPENDIX C: SURVEY INSTRUMENT ........................................................................................ 361 APPENDIX D: SURVEY DATA .................................................................................................... 383 5 List of Tables Table 1.1: Surveys of archivists on copyright Table 1.2: Summary of previous empirical studies on costs of rights clearance Table 1.3: John Cohen AIDS collection rights clearance results Table 1.4: Thomas E Watson Papers rights clearance results Table 1.5: Codebreakers rights clearance results Table 1.6: WL library collection rights clearance results Table 1.7: Temperament Families and Types in the Australian, American and Canadian Archive Professions Table 1.8: An example of a completed balanced scorecard for risk assessment Table 1.9: WL Codebreakers Risk Criteria Table 2.1: Pickford’s types of archive service Table 3.1: Type of archive service Table 3.2: Geographic Distribution of Archive Services Table 3.3: Collection Size Table 3.4: No. of FTE salaried and volunteer staff Table 3.5: Annual budgets Table 3.6: Sources of copyright information