Depositor Permission Agreements - The EVIA Digital Archive Project

Depositor Permission Agreements

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Before any material can be made available online through the EVIA Digital Archive Project, the individuals depositing the recordings and creating the annotations must sign two permissions contracts that establish they have the permission or the authority to make the information available online for research and educational purposes. The EVIA Project puts the bulk of the responsibility for obtaining these permissions on the depositor, who in most cases is the individual who made the recordings. Copies of the agreements appear here, together with some explanations, so that users considering participation in the EVIA Project might know the kinds of permissions they need to acquire during fieldwork in order to make video recordings available in this way.

The Non-Exclusive Copyright Agreement grants the EVIA Project the right to use the depositor's material in the EVIA Project and allows depositors to continue to use the recordings for whatever other purpose they wish. The Depositor Agreement confirms that the depositor has permission of the subjects of their recordings to make their content available over the internet. The EVIA Project understands that many of its depositors or potential depositors made their recordings before the advent of the internet, or, that the recordings may have been made without originally intending to make them available online. The EVIA Project also recognizes that protocols for permissions and human subjects agreements have changed significantly in the last 30 years. However, the language in the Deposit Agreement provides guidelines for obtaining new permissions or, in cases where that is not possible, making judgments based on the depositor's earlier permissions and on a depositor's relationship with the individuals and communities with whom they worked. In some cases depositors have taken the opportunity to return to their research site and obtain permissions to make the recordings available in this way. Others are confident that the agreements they obtained at the time of the recordings would encompass making them available in this way.

Non-Exclusive Copyright License for Contributors

  1. I grant the EVIA Digital Archive Project a non-exclusive, worldwide license to reproduce, adapt, transmit, publicly display, distribute, publish, and/ or perform on the Internet (or similar global computer network) the videotapes, photographs, and textual materials, identified below, digitally or in any other medium now known or to be discovered, as long as they remain solely for nonprofit, educational purposes.

  2. I grant the EVIA Digital Archive this non-exclusive license for the duration of the copyright on my contributed material, whether videotapes, photographs, sound recordings, or text content.

  3. I agree that the exposure of my materials on EVIA Digital Archive is fair and adequate compensation under this agreement, and that I will not receive royalties now or in the future.

  4. To the best of my knowledge, I attest that I will restrict or block access to any materials considered libelous, defamatory, or that violates another's ethical, sacred, or religious rights.

  5. I attest that I have full power to enter into this agreement because :
    • I am the owner of the copyright of the videos and, to the best of my knowledge, these videos do not infringe anyone's rights of publicity or of privacy.
    • I am the primary videographer (the main person who held the camera(s) and filmed the videos) of my videotapes or I have permission from the primary videographer to use these videotapes for my research, and to deposit them, indefinitely, into the EVIA Digital Archive.

  6. List each 5-digit EVIADA tape and file number deposited as part of this agreement.

  7. Describe any other materials (photographs, sound recordings, fieldnotes, published articles, etc.) being deposited as part of this agreement:

  8. All annotations entered into the EVIA Digital Archive shall be included as part of this agreement.

[This license must be signed and dated by the depositor.]

Depositor Agreement

In exchange for the opportunity to participate in the EVIA Digital Archive, I, (insert name) represent and warrant in reference to the recordings listed below that:

  1. I obtained the permission of all performers and other subjects appearing therein, or their authorized agents, to make the recordings at the time they were made and to use them for educational and research purposes, and this permission could encompass distribution via the EVIA Digital Archive Project and its associated website(s). I obtained permission after explaining to the subjects and/or their agents the purposes for which the recordings were being made and how they would be used and complying with any applicable human subjects-based research regulations;

  2. In obtaining the permissions above, I have made good faith, reasonable efforts to identify the creators of the material recorded and/or the owners of any copyrights or other intellectual property rights in the material recorded;

  3. I made the recordings myself—or if not, the recordings were made as a "work for hire"—and that I am the owner of all rights in the recordings themselves;

  4. I am the owner of all rights including copyright in any annotation text or other accompanying material I am submitting with the recordings, or I have all necessary permissions to submit such material for inclusion in and public distribution via the EVIA Digital Archive Project and its associated website(s);

  5. I am depositing edited recordings, I hold the copyright in the edited work, and I either hold the copyright in all the material contained therein or have appropriate permissions for providing online access through the EVIA Digital Archive Project or an access and delivery system like it.

I also represent and warrant that in cases where content within the unedited original recordings do not meet the above criteria, I have blocked them from public access through the video annotation process.

I hereby grant to The Trustees of Indiana University ("IU") a nonexclusive, worldwide, royalty-free, perpetual and irrevocable license to copy and to publicly display, perform, and distribute, via the internet as it may further develop technologically over time or any successor medium permitting public electronic dissemination of material, the recordings listed below and any corresponding text or other material I have created, through the EVIA Digital Archive Project. This license includes permission to adapt the recordings as needed solely for technical compatibility purposes.

I represent and warrant that I have the right to enter into this Agreement and that the rights I have granted in this Agreement will not conflict with or violate any commitment or understanding I have with any other person or entity.

I agree to indemnify and hold harmless IU and its trustees, officers, employees, and agents from and against all claims, losses, expenses, and liabilities of any kind including reasonable attorney's fees, arising out of the inaccuracy or breach of any provision of this Agreement. I expressly release IU and its trustees, officers, employees, and agents from any and all claims arising out of the use of the recordings listed below within the EVIA Digital Archive Project.

I understand and agree that as used above, "EVIA Digital Archive Project" means the EVIA Digital Archive Project and any program operated by IU in future under whatever name for substantially the same purposes.

This Agreement represents the entire understanding between IU and me and may not be amended unless mutually agreed to by both parties in writing.

All permissions and releases granted by me herein shall be effective in perpetuity and extend and apply to IU and its assigns, contractors, sublicensed distributors, successors, and agents.

I obtained the permissions described above as follows, and have attached to this Agreement documentation or other evidence of those permissions (please list and attach).

Recordings addressed in this agreement by EVIA Digital Archive Project accession number (please list and attach).

[This agreement must be signed by the depositor and by a representative from Indiana University.]

Explanation of Legal Language and Terms of the Depositor Agreement

  1. In point one, the term "agents" refers to any authorized individual or community representative such as a band leader or community leader.

  2. In point one, when referring to complying with "any applicable human subjects-based research regulations" the keyword is "applicable." If a depositor's research was constrained or guided by human subjects (IRB – Internal Review Board) requirements then the depositor must follow those guidelines in obtaining permissions. The EVIA Project understands that human subjects approval was not required for some research conducted in the past.

  3. Point four refers to annotation text and translations and other accompanying material other than the video itself. This section is ensuring that the depositor has not copied materials from a source for which they do not own the copyright. This includes journal articles for which the depositor is the author but the academic society that published the article owns the copyright. The same can be true of books depositors have written. If a depositor has used significant materials from their own published works they still need to have permission from the publisher.

  4. In reference to the "trustees of Indiana University," the EVIA Digital Archive Project does not exist as an independent legal entity. Therefore, this contract needs to identify some legal entity, and because the media is being stored on and delivered from servers at Indiana University, that legal entity is The Trustees of Indiana University.

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