Storing special formats in libraries has changed drastically in the digital age: audio recordings are no exception given the multitude of possible formats: LP’s. cassettes, CDs, and now mp3s and the devices which play them. Duplication for preservation of audio sources has become significantly easier with the advent of these digital technologies, but copyright law has held back the efforts of some archives.
Two kinds of copyrights exist for music – copyrights to the music itself (i.e. sheet music) and copyrights for each recording of the music (i.e. multiple copyrights for different performances/recordings of the same sheet music). Generally, anything recorded before 1923 is considered in the public domain, and almost everything after 1923 is copyrighted for a time span of 95 years.
In order to preserve the content of aging recordings, making digital copies from the original medium is often preferable, but restricted by limitations on the number of copies (if any) that are allowed to be made. Another point of complication in the copyright laws involves the 1976 decision that all recordings pre-1972 would remain under each individual state’s laws, and all after would be under federal copyright law (Brooks).
Other formats are also susceptible to restriction due to copyright. Duke University’s digital library blog explains their decision not to digitize their zine collection in their blog, stating difficulty attaining author permission and tracking down permissions to use potentially copyrighted pieces that make up parts of the zines are the main deterrents to digitization (Wooten).Copyright law not only affects zines and audio recordings, but these examples give some examples of how these copyright issues affect digital libraries.
References:
Wooten, K. (2009, October 17, 2010). Why We're Not Digitizing Zines. Blog posted to http://library.duke.edu/blogs/digital-collections/2009/09/21/why-were-not-digitizing-zines/#more-1231
Brooks, T. (2009). Copyright and historical sound recordings: recent efforts to change U.S. law. Notes, 65(3), 464(411).
Other interesting links:
http://www.arsc-audio.org/copyright-recommendations.html - the Association for Recorded Sound Collection's "Recommendations for Changes to the U.S. Copyright Law"
Brooks, T. (2009). Copyright and historical sound recordings: recent efforts to change U.S. law. Notes, 65(3), 464(411).
Other interesting links:
http://www.arsc-audio.org/copyright-recommendations.html - the Association for Recorded Sound Collection's "Recommendations for Changes to the U.S. Copyright Law"
http://www.artofthestates.org - a collection of audio recordings that are openly available
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