Intellectual Property Strategy

Some works of the CHIs’ collections may be protected by intellectual property rights, which, considering that CHIs are often not the rightholders of the rights granted to a work, may pose restrictions to the uses of these works that CHIs need to conduct to fulfill their public interest mission. For instance, copyright questions arise on the preservation of the collections, the promotion of culture and knowledge and the sharing and re-use of the cultural content, and they become more and more prominent with the development of new technologies and the new cultural consumption modes.

As CHIs plan their digital strategy, policy direction and objectives, they then need to ensure that copyright management in every step of the way takes the end goal into account. The earlier in the process and the more consistently the CHI considers the topic of copyright, the better.

• Take into account that the intellectual property rights underlying the works of your collections will determine the future uses of the works you may provide to the end-users and therefore may have an impact on your overall digital strategy.
• Think in advance what you want to do with the works in your collections once digitized and which rights you may need before engaging in mass-digitization projects. This will save resources to your organization and will maximize the impact of your digitized works.

1. Some works in CHI collections might be protected by intellectual property rights. More often than not, CHIs are not the original rightsholders.
2. As such, copyright might create barriers for the fulfilment of their public interest mission of providing access to culture to the public.
3. As CHIs develop their digital strategy, they need to take copyright management into account to best achieve their end goals.
4. Copyright must be taken into account from early on. A successful digital strategy allows CHIs to navigate the copyright framework seamlessly.
5. Having a copyright strategy will allow CHIs to do more with their collections, maximise their resources and avoid unnecessary expenses.