This is a Web Archiving Service video tutorial
on rights management.
This tutorial is a brief overview
of rights management as it relates to web archiving.
It is highly recommended that you utilize the additional information
we provide on the WAS help page.
We provide two very useful documents:
one on WAS rights management practices,
and one with answers to frequently asked questions about robots.txt.
There are two areas of copyright law
that are most relevant to web archiving.
Section 108 of the Copyright Act,
which relates to the limitations on exclusive rights
as they pertain to reproductions
by libraries and archives;
and Fair Use, addressed in Section 107
of the Copyright Act,
which states that permission
for reproduction and display of works
protected by copyright
isn't required in certain circumstances
such as scholarship and research.
Guidance for web archiving best practices
regarding copyright can be found
in two documents.
The first is the section 108 Study Group Report,
which contains recommendations
from copyright and library experts
representing libraries, copyright holders,
and others, on how copyright law's
library exceptions could be updated for the digital world.
The second is the Association of Research Libraries
2012 Code of Best Practices
in Fair Use for Academic and Research Libraries.
Links to these documents can be found
in the WAS rights management practices file.
WAS has distilled 9 assertions
regarding the rights of website owners
from the Section 108 Study Group Report
and the ARL Code of Best Practices.
This tutorial will go over each assertion
and explain how they inform WAS policies.
Assertion #1 states that libraries and archives
should have the right to capture and archive
publicly available websites without requesting
advanced permission.
WAS does not enforce any requirement
for proof of permission before capture,
and both the Study Group Report and
the Code of Best Practices support this policy.
Assertion #2 states that US Federal, State
and local government agencies,
political parties, political candidates and
political action committees
should not have the right to prevent
publicly available content from being harvested.
While WAS respects robots.txt exclusions by default,
curators do have the ability
to override these settings
in order to capture and archive content.
Assertion #3 states that claims of fair use
relating to material posted with
'bot exclusion' headers to ward off
automatic harvesting may be stronger
when the institution has adopted
and follows a consistent policy.
The Section 108 Study Group addressed
government and political sites specifically.
The ARL Code provides broader guidance
supporting WAS's practice of having default
settings that respect robots.txt exclusions,
that a curator is able to override.
In addition, WAS enforces consistent
requirements when curators choose to
override robots.txt.
Assertion #4 states that,
to the extent reasonably possible,
the legal proprietors of the sites
in question should be identified
according to the prevailing conventions
of attribution.
In order to override robots.txt exclusions,
WAS curators must provide
owner attribution for a site.
This owner attribution will appear
on the site details screen for any
archived website where robots.txt rules
have been overridden.
Assertion #5 states that libraries and archives
should be required to label prominently
all copies of captured online content
that are made accessible to users,
stating that the content is an archived copy
for use only for private study, scholarship and research
and providing the date of capture.
CDL's WAS service agreement expressly states,
"The Curatorial Partner recognizes Web Content
captured with WAS is for education purposes only
and may not be used for commercial purposes
by the Curatorial Partner or other third party."
In addtiion, all publicly displayed content
is marked "This document is an archived copy
for study and research."
Assertion #6 states that archived materials
are represented as they were captured,
with appropriate information on mode
of harvesting and date.
It is important to know that WAS does not
edit or alter content in any way.
In fact, CDL's preservation repository
has an ongoing fixity checking process
for all harvested web content,
to ensure that no changes have been made.
In addition, details of harvest and date
are available on the "Show Description" screen
of any publicly displayed archived file.
Assertion #7 states that an embargo of
a "reasonable period of time"
should be observed before archived materials
are made available to the general public.
WAS complies with this assertion
by enforcing an embargo between
the time that content is harvested and
when that archived material can become publicly accessible.
At the moment, this embargo time is 6 months.
Assertion #8 states that libraries and archives
should be prohibited in engaging
in any activies that are likely
to materially harm the value or operations
of the Internet site hosting the online content
that is sought to be captured and made available.
WAS service agreements with CDL's Curatorial Partners
clearly state that CDL may intervene or stop
a capture in progress based on an objection
raised by the content owner.
In addition, WAS crawlers are always run
with a significant delay, to avoid
impacting a site's performance.
Assertion #9 states that libraries
should provide copyright owners
with a simple tool for registering objections
to making items from such a collection
available online, and respond to such objections promptly.
WAS crawlers leave identification information
on each server that they interact with.
This includes a URL to a webpage
explaining the crucial role of web archiving
in preserving our cultural heritage and history.
This page contains a phone number, a webform,
and email address to contact CDL.
It is also possible for curators and CDL
to block specific archived files, directories
or all content from public view.
This provides the ability to block content
that has been requested to be taken down
without blocking an entire archive.
Selecting your desired robots.txt settings
can be easily done when you create a site.
Under the "Capture Settings" screen
you have the option of leaving the default
"yes" to honor robots.txt,
or to choose "no."
If you are interested in changing
the robots.txt settings for a previously
created site, find the site you wish
to adjust on your "Manage Sites" screen.
Choose "Edit," and then adjust the robots.txt
settings as desired, and click "Save."
This has been a Web Archiving Service
video tutorial on rights management.
As always, if you have questions,
contact us at washelp@ucop.edu