Copyright in the Real World

Archival institutions have enthusiastically begun to digitize their holdings to make them more widely available via the Internet; however, in doing so, they face a number of challenging copyright issues. As yet, we know little about the operation of copyright in the digital environment, and archives and other cultural heritage institutions are seeking to develop best practices that will make their holdings more widely available while protecting the legitimate interests of rights holders. Jean Dryden will discuss the findings of her doctoral dissertation, which found that Canadian repositories' copyright practices in making their holding available online are more restrictive than copyright law envisages, both in terms of what they select for Internet access, and their attempts to control further uses of their online holdings.