Scan Tech Studio (STS)

This section briefly addresses some of the legal considerations for digitizing objects. For a more in-depth look at copyright in libraries and research in general, visit our Copyright Crash Course Library Guide.

Before digitizing your materials, you will want to consider the end-use case and the legality of creating a digital copy. As of 1 January 2024, books published in the US before 1929 and sound recordings published before 1924 are considered to be public domain. If your material still retains copyright status, or its copyright status is unknown, you may still be able to create a digital reproduction of the material under the Fair Use Doctrine. In short, this doctrine allows the use and reproduction of some copyrighted material under specific circumstances on a case-by-case basis, such as for academic research and educational purposes. Cornell University Library has a good checklist that can help determine fair use status when using copyrighted materials.

When seeking to digitize materials owned by a library, archive, or other institution, there may be other restrictions that apply. If in doubt, refer back to the owning institution’s policies and contact their staff for specific questions.

For further general information about fair use and copyright in libraries and archives, see the American Library Association’s resource guide and this easy to follow chart on what is considered public domain in the United States from Cornell University Library.

WATCH is a joint program between the Harry Ransom Center and The University of Reading Library in England. Here you can search an author’s name to find the copyright holders of their works.

For professional legal advice, contact an intellectual property attorney.

The role of copyright in the flow of research is undergoing dramatic and exciting change. The options for scholarly communication have never been broader or more effective. You'll find discussion of copyright woven all through important aspects of research and teaching, such as:

• the training of AI and use of AI output
• the use of others' works in the classroom, in fieldwork, and the laboratory
• building on the works of others to create new works
• open source software development
• use and reuse of datasets
• Creative Commons licensing
• open access to research results and its acceleration of the pace of scientific discovery
• the digitization of books in the public domain and digital access to works still in print as well as orphan works
• the resulting opportunities to discover knowledge that's been hard to access in the past