Copyright - archives
Digitised archives are made freely available online under – CC-BY-NC license (Free to use for non-commercial purposes, with credit as stipulated).
Details of copyright and usage can be found under the 'Terms of use' heading on the collection level description page or on the individual item page.
For any commercial use, a reader should seek permission from the copyright holder (both digitised and original/paper material/archives), unless Wellcome is the copyright holder
Archives contain large amounts of third-party material, such as letters. Copyright holders are people who wrote the letters unless they have assigned the copyright to a third party or to us via the donation agreement.
For most of the archives in our collection we do not hold a copyright; in some cases, copyright is assigned to Wellcome and this information can be found either in the donors’ files, or the CALM accession records, e.g.
Where Wellcome has been assigned the copyright to a collection, we make the material available under a CC-BY licence. Please note that this does not apply to material in the collection created by third parties.
See also list of further resources in Copyright - images page
Copyright holder details
If we know the copyright holder details, we cannot automatically pass them on to public without their permission; we usually ask the readers to send us their request via email or post which we then forward to copyright holders; in some cases, we have the copyright details in the copyright field in Calm
e.g.
Dear [name]
Thank you for contacting Wellcome Collection.
The copyright status will depend on the specific images/content. In all cases the copyright would have to be cleared with the copyright holder, with the final decision on using an image being yours.
For content that Wellcome holds the copyright for, you would be able to use the image with no cost – can you send us the images that you want to use?
However, archives often contain third party copyright and if this was the case for the material that you wanted to use, you have to clear copyright with the relevant owners.
The Information Commissioners Office (ICO) published some useful guides on use of copyrighted material including exceptions to copyright, that can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/changes-to-copyright-law
Yours sincerely,
[Name and job title]
[Current standard Wellcome signature]
Dear [name]
Thank you for contacting Wellcome Collection.
We do have the details of the copyright holder, but for data protection reasons we are not be able to give you their details.
If you would like, we can pass on a message from you so they can contact you directly if they wish to.
Please reply to [email protected]
Yours sincerely,
[Name and job title]
[Current standard Wellcome signature]
While we do have custodial ownership of the collection items themselves, we are not necessarily the copyright owners of all the items within our collection. With regards to MS.6201, copyright on this letter would have expired 70 years after the death of the author, therefore there are no copyright restrictions at all with this particular item. If the Henry Ashby in this letter is the paediatrician that passed away in 1908, then copyright expired in 1978 and you are free to do with it as you wish.
It gets a bit complicated with the scrapbooks though, I’m afraid. Copyright law would suggest that copyright expires 70 years after the death of the author of the articles you may be using from the scrapbooks, but it is hard to say whether the copyright is held with the article author or the newspaper. If the newspaper no longer exists, then it depends on whether or not it was then bought by another paper etc.
I would say the risk is quite low with the items you’ve listed in your initial e-mail, especially as they’re from the very early 1900s. I would suggest possibly asking the British Newspaper archive if they can help with answering this question as I’m assuming they have far more knowledge with newspaper than we would at Wellcome: https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/
Otherwise, the only thing I can say is that it could be argued to be fair use, especially for educational purposes. But unfortunately Wellcome Collection cannot assign you copyright permission for open access distribution as we do not hold the rights to do so. The onus would be on your and the publisher.
Dear [name],
Thank you for contacting Wellcome Collection.
The copyright held by [creator of archive] has been assigned to Wellcome Collection. We make works we hold copyright for available under a CC-BY licence so you are free to use this material under the terms of the licence, as long as you provide appropriate credit.
Please note that this only applies to works in this collection created by [creator name] and for any works created by third parties you are responsible for clearing copyright.
Yous sincerely,
[Name and job title]
[Current standard Wellcome signature]
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