Copyright
In the United States, copyright is a legal mechanism that protects the intellectual property of an individual's creative work.
Copyright Law
Copyright law is the legal framework established in the United States Constitution that helps protect people's rights and defines the protections they are allowed. In the United States, copyright is automatic once a creative work is produced. The creator(s) do not need to register their work.
What are the rights of creators?
Because US copyright is automatic, if you record a song, draw a picture, write a play, or... record an oral history, all of those things are under copyright, and you (and any co-creators) are entitled to six exclusive rights about them:
Who is the copyright holder of an oral history?
As with all creative works in the United States, copyright is automatic to the creation of oral histories. Unlike a drawing completed by a single creator, though, oral histories have more than one copyright holder because more than one person creates the oral history. Therefore, both the interviewer and the interviewee are the copyright holders of oral histories.
Can the copyright holder change?
The copyright holders of an oral history would only change if the oral history project included forms that transfer the copyright, and the affected copyright holder(s) sign the copyright transfer statement. However, this transfer is not required to be able to share the oral histories online. To share oral histories online, the informed consent forms (covered in the next section) explain how the project intends to share the oral histories, and the interviewee signs off on this plan.
Does sharing online mean I give away my rights as copyright holder?
No. Copyright law allows you to share oral histories online while maintaining legal protections over their use. In other words, oral histories you share online are still copyright protected.
What uses are protected?
By default, copyright law dictates that the copyright creators maintain their exclusive rights. For a list of those exclusive rights, see the previous tab, "What is Copyright?" As a copyright owner, you have the option of retaining your copyrights completely, selling your copyrights (the way an author might sell a book manuscript to a publisher), licensing your copyrights to another entity (like LOHI), or releasing your creative work into the Public Domain.
More on Licensing
Licensing is a great option for oral histories that will be shared online because it spells out the acceptable uses, which reduces the number of inquiries you will need to field. The next tab will discuss Creative Commons licensing, which allows copyright holders to easily apply licensing statements to their oral history projects so that people who view the oral histories online understand what uses are and are not allowed.
Creative Commons is a tool that provides you with a way to share your work with easy-to-use, standardized copyright licenses. If you want to retain your rights and want to indicate what uses are allowed, a Creative Commons license is a great way to go. There are many options for licensing your work. To explore the Creative Commons website and view the full list of licenses, see the Related Materials column on this page, and select Creative Commons under Helpful Links.
To license your work to LOHI so that it can be shared on our platform, we recommend the CC BY-NC-ND license, which is the most protective Creative Commons license. It includes the following elements:
BY: credit must be given to the creator.
NC: Only noncommercial uses of the work are permitted.
ND: No derivatives or adaptations of the work are permitted.
Fair use is a legal exemption to the exclusive rights of copyright holders. It means that there are some legally allowed uses of creative works, like oral histories, that do not require the user to ask permission or be licensed permission.
How is fair use determined?
Fair use is assessed and is determined on a case-by-case basis. A potential user of a creative work needs to consider all four of the following factors:
Because intention is a part of the consideration, only the user can make the initial assessment of whether their use is fair. Cornell University Library has excellent resources on copyright, including a fair use checklist. Review the checklist to gain a better understanding of how users will be able to determine if their intended use of an oral history falls under fair use or not. To read more on copyright, check out the Helpful Links: Cornell University Copyright Guide. You will also find a link to Cornell University Library's Fair Use Checklist.
There is a lot of nuance when it comes to determining fair use. What is important to know is that there are limits to the copyright protections that copyright law provides. And in creating oral histories you are creating archival materials that teachers, students, and scholars will be interested in and want to use to teach, conduct research, and write about. And fair use allows for some of that use to take place without asking permission. Outside of fair use, though, copyright law and licensing help you keep creative control over your oral history project. It is important, then, to read up on the resources provided in Related Materials so you can be well informed and make the best choices for your oral history project.
Informed consent is about formally obtaining the permission of each interviewee to conduct an oral history interview and to share their story with others. Without informed consent, there can be no oral history interview.
Prior to the interview, the interviewee signs a consent form; the following elements are contained/explained:
For examples of informed consent agreements, see the Related Materials column on this page.
While oral histories are exempt from IRB review, it is still a good idea for university researchers to check with their institutional IRB office, as certain elements of their project e.g. its contribution to generalizable knowledge, may be subject to IRB review.
Alongside interviewees completing and signing an informed consent form, it is also common practice for interviewees to complete a biographical form prior to the interview. These forms have several important uses/benefits:
For an example of a biographical form, see the Related Materials column on this page. We have provided a LOHI Biographical Form as a PDF as well as a Word document version so you may customize it for your own project.
Cloud storage is a way to save data securely online so that it can be accessed anytime from any location by those with permission. Think of it as a digital hard drive. Some of the most popular cloud storage systems are Google Drive, Dropbox, and Microsoft One Drive.
The following files should be stored in your cloud system; be sure to create folders with a simple naming convention to easily find and access your files (e.g. Original Interviews, Signed Consent Forms):
For large scale projects that have multiple team members, it is recommended that you have an email address and a phone number. Purchasing a Google workspace, for example, provides an email address (Gmail) and you can separately purchase a Google Voice phone number.
Before committing, be sure to research the cost and capabilities of various cloud storage systems to determine which is the best fit for your project. Keep in mind that while some of these options have free versions, there will be limitations on storage availability and platform capabilities. For most projects you will likely need a paid version, typically billed monthly or annually. This will offer your project advantages such as increased room for storage.
Links to three of the most popular cloud systems:
