“Ownership” and Rights Issues: Copyright and Beyond

Understanding copyright, fair use, and licensing in regard to the use of visual materials is essential to successfully managing digital projects. This session will provide an overview of copyright issues specific to the cultural heritage and visual resource fields, including fair use, other exceptions, and specific digital and web issues. It will also explore tools and vocabulary for communicating about rights issues within professional contexts and in interactions with the public, by looking at rights and reproductions guidelines, established standards, and emerging best practices. Issues of equity and diversity will be integrated throughout, but will be especially foregrounded in discussions of recent case law and controversies in the visual arts.

 Learning Outcomes

  • Understand copyright, fair use, and licensing in regard to cultural organizations’ use of images

  • Learn the basics of fair use in educational and cultural heritage contexts

  • Develop a vocabulary of intellectual property terminology for professional and public communications

  • Review and discuss current real-life case studies and dilemmas in the visual arts and related cultural organizations

Headshot of Nancy Sims

Your Instructor

Nancy Sims

Copyright & Scholarly Communications Director, University of Minnesota

Nancy Sims is the University of Minnesota Library’s subject specialist on copyright issues. Nancy is both librarian and lawyer, with long experience working in academic libraries, and is fascinated by the pervasiveness of copyright issues in modern life. Nancy's role at UMN is to help individuals and groups understand how copyright affects their work, across all the breadth of creative outputs at a large University. Nancy advocates for policies and practices that support sustainable scholarship, democratic information access, and wide public cultural participation.