Why GetArchive Promotes Public Domain?

There are few reasons. Here are just two of them:

language First, a Humanitarian: We want to make riches of public domain media from various sources to become readily available anywhere, anytime, on any device. For Free. Worldwide.

All objects in the GetArchive public domain media repository can be accessed through open public API, picryl.com, iOS and Android applications, easily embeddable Web Widgets. Our servers live on Amazon cloud, they are scalable and blazing fast. GetArchive API (application program interface) runs 24/7. Currently, we provide access to about Five Million public domain images and other types of media files and growing.

people Second: Practical: We want public to get involved. In order to achieve this, GetArchive already built in many cool features to all our products and working on even more cool ones such as Timelines, Multimedia Presentations, Videos. However, all those features are useless without access to a great content. To unleash people’s creativity, we’ve created the largest searchable database of already digitized public domain media, and we provide our software and cloud-based services to the institutions and individuals qualified to place even more content to the public domain for free.

Our interest aligns perfectly with the interests of organizations looking for ways to get public involved in their activities. GetArchive provides tools for creating, sharing and accessing media online and on mobile. We develop applications that are empowering nonprofit and for-profit organizations in their ongoing efforts to connect within targeted demographics, scale up their fundraising activities.

In 2015 GetArchive team committed itself to a creation of PICRYL: the largest curated repository and search engine for public domain media. PICRYL serves as a demonstrator of GetArchive API capabilities so our customers can see what features are within their reach right now and what will available to be implemented on their resources in the nearest future.

The Public Domain, Digitization, and Copyright

gavel General disclaimer: Materials published on this website are intended for reference use only.They are not legal advice, and may not represent the official opinion of the Get Archive LLC.

First, the legal issues surrounding collections are sometimes confusing. Technology has vastly outpaced both the law and digital librarianship. A library with a scanner and dedicated staff should create digital images for online distribution to provide patrons with a pretext for comments and discussions online. Many librarians, however, refrain, because they are unsure what they can legally do. This isn’t really their fault. Copyright law may charitably be described as unclear. Here we address only two copyright-related questions that are relevant to what we do:

1. Whether or not a library that produced a digital copy of an object can claim copyright on this copy?

2. Whether or not a library that produced a digital copy of an object can claim that the object is free of copyright restrictions?

First question is in fact closely related to a question: “Is there a difference between claiming the copyright for an image of US Declaration of Independence by a US newspaper and claiming copyright for photographs of public domain works (e.g. the scans of postcards from 1900s) by a library?” The question on whether or not archives can claim copyright on a digital copy of public domain work is a legitimate one. The answer to this question can be found at Bridgeman v. Corel judgment that argued that faithful copies of public domain works did not warrant their own copyright protection. More, it should be said that libraries and archives should respect the public’s interest in public domain material to avoid much of the criticism that many museums have received.

Read more on this topic here, here and here.

Our answer for the Second question is: We think that faithful digital reproductions of works in the public domain are also in the public domain, adhering to the U.S. District Court ruling of Bridgeman Art Library v. Corel Corp. that “exact photographic copies of public domain images could not be protected by copyright in the United States because the copies lack originality”. Our view on this is identical to a view of folks from Creative Commons .

Can I still claim copyright on a digital copy of a work that is in public domain?

copyright Public domain” works are not protected by copyright. Anyone can use a public domain work without obtaining permission, but no one can ever own it. An important caveat regarding public domain material is that collections, new editions, and derivative works of public domain material may all be protected by copyright. One can try to refer to single image “an enhanced work” as an “extension” of “derivative work” caveat, or, with whole collections, an author could collect public domain works, display them on a website, and claim the collection as a whole as protected by copyright, even though individual works within it are not. If for some reason you choose to try it, read this first.

How to evaluate if the original work is in public domain?

account_balance If you want to evaluate if the object is in public domain we recommend following articles: Copyright Term and the Public Domain in the United States by Cornell University, Boston University on Public Domain, and the “Legal Issues in Mass Digitization…” document by Office of the register of copyrights of U.S.