For public bodies, understanding the implications and roles of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) and licensing is essential to their role as a provider, aggregator and/or publisher of digital content to ensure that they can deliver publicly funded content from creation to curation. This means that at an operational level, it is essential that the management of copyright and other IPRs, as well as consideration of permissions required, the resources required to seek such permissions, management of works where rights holders are unknown or cannot be traced and how end users will be able to engage with the content, form part of the digitisation life cycle and key project management planning and decisions.
The IPR toolkit and associated material provides resources that staff working with digital content can use to help them deal with the IPR and licensing issues which might arise. This essential toolkit, which is being continually updated, has been developed for customisation and adaptation to suit specific needs and requirements.
The intellectual property rights toolkit for public sector bodies has been developed for the Strategic Content Alliance by the Alliance’s IPR consultants, Professor Charles Oppenheim and Naomi Korn.
New!
Discover the new IPR e-learning module, designed to help update people dealing with intellectual property rights in universities, colleges, museums, libraries and other public bodies
Managing Orphan Works is a new section of the Strategic Content Alliance blog dedicated to the publications and tools the Alliance had produced to explain and offer practical advice on a sometimes very complex issue.
Case studies mapping the flows of content, value and rights across the public sector
This report is an analysis of seven case studies of publicly funded e-content initiatives, which demonstrate the flow of content, value and rights across the respective seven representatives of the Strategic Content Alliance sponsors.
IPR navigation map (v9.0)
This visualization tool sets out the key steps and decisions involved in dealing with the Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) and licensing issues associated with content generation and/or use.
IPR toolkit
This essential toolkit, provides resources that staff working with digital content can use to help them deal with IPR and licensing issues which might arise.
IPR toolkit: Introduction and overview
An introduction to the toolkit, including why IPR and licensing issues are important
Understanding the issues. Outline of relevance of IPR and licensing to the public sector as well as the broader IPR licensing issues
IPR toolkit: Section 1: Background papers
1.1 Creative Commons Licences – Briefing Paper
1.2 Web 2.0 and IP Factsheet
1.3 Web 2.0 and Legal Issues Factsheet
IPR toolkit: Section 2: Practical tools
2.1 Getting Permissions
2.2 IPR Risk Assessments
2.3 Terminology Toolkit
2.4 Top Tips for Issuing Licences
2.5 Top Tips for Requesting Licences
2.6 IPR Model Consent Form
2.7 Model Licence
2.8 Template Email Permission Form
2.9 Template Permission Letter
2.10 Rights Management
2.11 FAQs
2.12 Model Contractual Clauses for Requesting Permission from Staff
2.13 Example Consortium Agreement
2.14 Model Contractual Clauses for Requesting Permission from Students/Volunteers
2.15 Model Contractual Clauses for Requesting Permission from Freelancers/Subcontractors
2.16 Model Terms and Conditions of Service
IPR toolkit: Section 3: Template policy statements
3.1 Draft Institutional IPR Policy Statement
3.2 IPR and Licensing Blueprint for Funding Bodies and Recipients of Funding
IPR toolkit: Section 4. IPR and licensing in practice
Case studies from across the public sector, mapping the flow of content, rights and value
Annex A. Bibliography for further reading
A bibliography of the information sources used for this toolkit, and suggested further reading
IPR toolkit briefing papers
Embedding Creative Commons Licences briefing paper March 2011 v1-04
Introduction to the IPR and Licensing Toolkit for Archivists, Librarians, Curators and Digital Project Leaders
Introduction to the IPR and Licensing Toolkit for Human Resources Staff
Introduction to the IPR and Licensing Toolkit for Senior Managers
Other papers
IPR and orphan works: In From The Cold report (June 2009)
‘In From The Cold’, a report by the Strategic Content Alliance and the Collections Trust, shows that millions of so-called ‘orphan works’ – photographs, recordings, texts and other ephemera from the last 100 years – risk becoming invisible because rights holders are not known or easy to trace. The report was commissioned to find the scale and impact of ‘orphan works’ on public service delivery. Over 500 organisations took part in the online survey to establish the impact of orphan works across the museums, archives, libraries and universities.
IPR presentations (2009 workshops)