At Wellcome Collection, I developed copyright management processes and policies to support the organisation’s open access goals. I updated them over time as the programme grew, the organisation changed and UK copyright law evolved, including the introduction of new copyright exceptions in 2014.
I managed a wide range of copyright scenarios, balancing legal risk with the benefits of open access for audiences, including:
- Intensive rights clearance of higher-risk collections, including processes to identify, trace and contact all known rights holders;
- Opt-out or light-touch notifications for low-risk collections;
- Handling of orphan works, including a test case using the UK Orphan Works Licensing scheme;
- Analysing metadata such as publication dates and author death dates to identify out-of-copyright works;
- Identifying government works that may be digitised under open licences such as the UK Open Government Licence;
- Mixed-rights works, such as archives and records where assigned rights or licenses from donors and creators sit alongside third party rights;
- Audiovisual rights assessment, including the varied and complex provisions in different versions of the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act (CDPA);
I created practical guidance and documentation in GitBook to help staff:
- Understand the basics of UK copyright law, including what copyright covers, how long protection lasts for different categories of material, and what copying or sharing may be permitted by exceptions;
- Apply a risk assessment framework to collections prior to digitisation;
- Undertake rights clearance, with templates for communications and copyright agreements;
- Log and track copyright clearance outcomes in a database;
- Assign licences or rights statements during the digitisation workflow, so users can see what reuse is permitted;
- Manage changes and updates to licences and rights statements over time;
- Provide advice and guidance to enquirers about the rights status and licensing of digital assets;
- Assist internal stakeholders with understanding and applying licences and rights statements;
- Store and log copyright agreements in the organisation’s contracts database.
This work created repeatable processes for assessing rights, clearing higher-risk material, applying licences and rights statements, and giving staff clear guidance. It helped Wellcome Collection manage copyright more consistently while supporting wider access to digitised collections. Working closely with Wellcome Collection’s legal team ensured I could be confident in my approach, working within the organisation’s appetite for risk.
I have shared my work with the GLAM copyright community and some of my processes and templates have been adopted and adapted by organisations including the British Film Institute. I also contribute to the sector through the UK Libraries and Archives Copyright Alliance (LACA), where I have been the Co-Chair since 2020.
If you need help managing copyright in digital collections, or developing practical rights clearance processes, I’d be happy to talk. Contact me to start a conversation.
Image credit: Christy Henshaw, CC0.
