Some of the documents in the Museum Collection are still protected by copyright. Copyright applies to written and recorded works, photographs and works of art.
The following notes are a summary of our understanding of copyright, and should not be taken as a statement of the law. To find out the correct current legal requirements please check the Intellectual Property Office site.
Copyright normally belongs to the creator of the work. When the creator of a work dies, any copyright they own is inherited under the terms of their will. This can make it quite complicated to identify the copyright holder. Owning the work does not mean that any copyright involved is also owned. If the work was created by an employee as part of their job, then copyright belongs to the employer but the duration is related to the date when the employee died.
For many works, copyright expires 70 years after the death of the author. However, there are a number of exceptions. These include
- Works not published before 1st August 1989 where the author died before 1969. Copyright expires on 31st December 2039. This is the case for many of the Museum's unpublished documents.
- Works published before 1st August 1989, where the author died more than 20 years before the publication date. In this case, copyright expires 70 years after the date of first publication
