Copyright Guidelines for Digital Collections

The digital collections of the Roux Library & McKay Archives include items from the Florida Citrus Archives, Special Collections, the University Archives, and from our general holdings. The Archive has made these collections available to support research, teaching, and scholarship.

The copyright status of the items in these collections generally fall under three categories (see below). Whenever possible, the Archives attempts to identify the copyright status of the item in the descriptive information at either an item or collection level. However, there may be cases where there is no rights information recorded for an item or a collection. In all cases, the user has the final obligation to determine and satisfy copyright or other use restrictions when using items found in the Roux Library & McKay Archives digital collections.

Public Domain

If an item is in the public domain, you may use this work as you wish without requesting permission for its use. The Roux Library & McKay Archives asks that you provide attribution to the Archives as possible.

Under Copyright

If a work is under copyright, it is the user’s obligation to determine whether their projected use of an item falls under fair use or other provisions of copyright law or whether the user needs to seek further permission for a specific use. We encourage users to become familiar with what might be possible under the fair use provisions of copyright law.
Fair Use Evaluator

In some cases, an item may be under copyright, but the copyright holder has explicitly granted permissions for broad use either through a Creative Commons License or through a statement on the work itself.

Additionally, an item may be protected under copyright, but after due diligence it may be determined that the copyright holder is unidentifiable or not to be found. In such instances you take on all legal responsibility for using the item. We will update the rights status if more information about the copyright holder becomes available.

Copyright Status Unknown or Undetermined

For some items it is not possible to determine the copyright status because we do not have clear provenance or information about publication/creation dates. In other cases, we may suspect that the item is in the public domain, but cannot make a full determination. It is the user’s obligation to determine how to proceed in regards to use of an item (i.e. to proceed as if the item is under copyright or not).

If you are a copyright owner or hold more information about items in the digital collection that might clarify rights issues, please contact the Archivist at archives@flsouthern.edu. Upon request, we will remove items from public view if there is a rights issue to be resolved.

If you are interested in a reproduction or a high resolution image of an item in the collection, you may make a request to archives@flsouthern.edu. The availability of reproductions is subject to the item’s size, condition, and copyright restrictions. Please see the policies on use and reproduction.