Who owns the copyright to ... in the Archives?

Some general notes on how to respond to this question:

• • With the exception of works made for hire that belong to Pacific University, we do NOT own the copyright to most items in the Archives.

  • In general, copyright belongs to the original author, photographer, artist, etc. who created the work.

  • To determine whether a particular work is now in the public domain due to its age, refer patrons to the Cornell Copyright Chart. To sum up: Anything that has not been published is generally considered to be under copyright until the death of the creator + 70 years, or 120 years from creation in some cases (see chart). This includes most photographs and archival materials. Published materials from before 1923 are generally in the public domain, with some exceptions (see chart).

  • We never "guarantee" or "warrant" copyright status of anything that does not belong to Pacific University, nor do we sign anything stating that we "release," "assign," etc. copyright or licensing to which Pacific does not own copyright.

  • We can however state that Pacific has no objection to its use, with the understanding that responsibility for determining of copyright status and the decision of whether permission is required to use rests with the person who is planning to use it.

  • Questions regarding copyright can also be referred to the University Librarian and/or University Counsel