Intellectual Property Rights

"Intellectual property refers to creations of the mind: inventions, literary and artistic works, and symbols, names, images, and designs used in commerce" (World Intellectual Property Organization).

Intellectual Property is a complex topic. We can not discuss every aspect of IP here, but we explain what it is that a depositor is agreeing to when they deposit materials at AILLA.

The main sources for the information presented here are Georgia Harper's Copyright Crash Course, which is maintained by the University of Texas Libraries and the Copyright Law of the United States (U.S.C. Title 17).


What is a copyright?


What is an original work?


There is considerable debate about whether or not the traditional knowledge, oral histories, stories and myths of a People can be copyrighted, or whether such works should be treated as facts, ideas, or general knowledge, which can not be copyrighted. AILLA takes the position that a specific recording is an original work, even if it is a traditional story recounted in a highly formalized manner, because the voice of the individual performer is unique, and therefore the particular recording is a unique expression of that story. Assertion of a copyright in a particular recording would not mean that no one else could recount the same story in their own voice; it would mean only that no one could use the copyrighted recording without legal authorization, either a right under the Copyright Act (for example, fair use), or permission from the copyright owner.

What does it mean to be fixed in a tangible medium?

If you are writing something on a computer, it is fixed as soon as you hit the Save button. Similarly, audio or video recording a person speaking fixes that particular speech act at that particular moment permanently on that digital (or analog) storage medium. U.S. copyright law applies automatically to protect the work as soon as it is fixed (saved, written, recorded, drawn): you do not have to register the work or mark it in any special way. Other countries may require that you mark the work with a copyright symbol © or register it with a Copyright Office of some kind.

Note that according to U.S. copyright law, the expression has to be fixed. No one can own copyrights to speech or an idea that is not recorded or written down, like a live, unrecorded, performance of a narrative. You can only own copyrights to the fixed, recorded or written expression. However, this is not the case everywhere, and some countries do not require fixation.

How do we define authorship?

"An author is someone who contributes copyrightable expression to the work" (CCC). We use the term creator instead of author when talking about AILLA's resources, but the rule is the same. The creator of an AILLA resource might be any of the following, depending on the nature of the resource and the laws of the country where it was created: speaker, signer, narrator, interviewer, orator, singer, author, translator, annotator, artist, illustrator, photographer, videographer, musician.


What are the rights governed by copyrights?


  • make copies;
  • distribute copies;
  • publish;
  • publicly display;
  • publicly perform;
  • make derivative works.



What are moral rights?


Moral rights are the creator's right to attribution for and integrity of their work (U.S.C Title 17, Sec 106A).

This means that the work must always be credited to its creators (unless they wish to remain anonymous), and that no one is allowed to alter the work in a way that would cause embarrassment or damage the reputation of the creators. You can't transfer your moral rights: they simply belong to you. Moral rights are only part of U.S. copyright law with respect to original works of art and limited editions of 200 or fewer prints, but they are much more broadly defined in the copyright laws of some other countries.

How can resources in the archive be used?


  • only the relevant portion of the work is used (you don't copy the whole work or large parts of it);

A work might not be protected by copyright if there are no living creators or descendants, or if it is not original work, or if it is very old. A work that is not under copyright protection is in the public domain and may be used by anyone for any purpose.

All users of AILLA resources must agree to the Conditions for Use of Archive Resources, which specifically state that they may not use archive resources for commercial purposes.

Can a previously published work be archived?

Publishers typically require assignment of the copyrights in a work they publish for a specific period of time. When that time limit expires, the copyrights return to the creator or their heirs. If you retained your copyrights or the rights belong to you, you are free to do whatever you want with the work.


Should I archive something that I may want to publish later?

The short answer is "No." If you have written an article, textbook, book, or song, or have created a painting or photograph or drawing or film that you are planning to publish or market in a traditional, commercial venue, then you should not deposit that work with AILLA. Most publishers will not want to publish a work that potential buyers can get for free on the web. (But you can ask -- You always have the right to negotiate a publishing contract.)

However, you can and should deposit the primary materials that a your work is based on. For example, you could write a book or journal article about recorded performances of verbal art and you could deposit the primary data (the recordings, transcriptions, and translations) that the work is based on. Or if you write a textbook that includes stories with translations, you can still archive the original recordings and transcriptions. We encourage you to do this, because there are few traditional ways to publish this sort of material, but AILLA's users would be interested in hearing and reading the primary resources. AILLA's metadata has a place for identifying any works that are related to deposited resources so that information will be readily available to archive users who might then be inspired to go out and buy your book.