Blog post: Libel Suit over Digitized Article Dismissed

Quoting American Libraries (6/13/2008):

A federal judge has dismissed a $1-million lawsuit filed by a Cornell University alumnus who claimed that the school libeled him in a 1983 Cornell Chronicle article reporting that he had been charged with third-degree burglary when he was a student. Back issues of the Chronicle, a newspaper published by the university’s press office, are being digitized by the campus library.

Marry Minow wrote in her blog post:

Disclosure of private facts claim was dismissed since the item was newsworthy.

As she notes, this is an important issue, since so older news is being digitized and will likely surface news items that some people would rather have forgotten.

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Technorati tags: Digitization, Privacy

The right to be left alone

Greta Garbo is famous for saying "I want to be alone."¹

The right to be left alone is the right of privacy. We have the right to keep our private lives private. This is now referred to as the Vegas rule.² However, sometimes we reveal parts of our private lives, which is our right.³ This right does end generally when we die.⁴ This becomes important to us with some digitization programs. For example, if you are digitizing burial records, it is important to know that technically nothing on the record is private. Some people may want to redact (or black out) the cause of death, since it may reveal information that the family doesn't want shared. Oh, your father died of that?!

I tell people that even though privacy ends at death that they may want to use some common sense in deciding what to digitize. For example, if you were digitizing information from a family and in those papers there was evidence of abuse, you may decide to not make public that information. It could be that you do not want to bring a spotlight to that part of a family's private history or that you are concerned about the spotlight that will be shown on your project. Some people feel that this is being a censor and we -- especially librarians -- have a hard time with that.

Do programs find themselves not digitizing materials of deceased people due to a concern about privacy? I would suspect that the answer is "yes." I would also suspect that it doesn't happen very often and that when it does, the course of action is clear.

By the way, this topic came to me as I watched ABC This Week on Sunday morning. Each week, they do a brief segment on those who have died, and include photos and sometimes quotes. The quote used for Heath Ledger came from his most famous movie⁵ and was:

"Why don't you just let me be huh?"

Sadly, after his untimely death, he is not being "let be." Because of his fame, he hadn't had a truly private life in years and will not even in death.

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¹ Although reportedly what she really said was "I want to be let alone."
² What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas. Or more correctly, "What happens here, stays here."
³ With Vegas' new ad campaign, this will soon be known as "Your Vegas is showing." Although it seems that people don't like this slogan.
⁴ In the U.S., the right of privacy is governed by laws at the state level.
⁵ If you listen to the media, you might think that he had done very little before playing a cowboy in the 2005 tragic western.

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Technorati tag: Privacy

Privacy & Publicity

In October, I posted two articles (here & here) that I had written for WNYLRC Watch on copyright. This article below was just published in the Jan./Feb. 2007 issue of WNYLRC Watch and compliments the other two articles.

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The September/October and November/December issues of WNYRLC Watch contained articles about copyright and copyright clearance in regards to a digitization program. This article is focused on two remaining concerns that are frequently overlooked: privacy and publicity. While copyright gives the creator the right to reproduce the work, prepare derivatives, distribute copies, perform the work publicly and as well as display the work publicly, it is the rights of privacy and publicity that force us to stop and consider our moral responsibilities.

Both privacy and publicity are protected by state, common or statutory law. In a broader sense, the roots of the right of privacy are found in the U.S. Constitution, which has been interpreted to give us the “right to be left alone.” There are four types of invasion of privacy: intrusion, appropriation of name or likeness, unreasonable publicity and false light. In understanding whether you are violating someone's right to privacy, you might ask questions such as: Does the matter cast a false light on the person? Are you intruding on an aspect of the person that they wanted to be truly private? How would you feel if this information was disclosed about you? Generally the right of privacy ends with the death of the individual; however, you may decide – based on the content of the materials you are digitizing – to extend the right of privacy beyond death in deference to the family.

The right of publicity “prevents the unauthorized commercial use of an individual's name, likeness, or other recognizable aspects of one's persona. It gives an individual the exclusive right to license the use of their identity for commercial promotion.” (Right Of Publicity: An Overview, Cornell Univ.) The right of publicity can extend beyond a person's death and be controlled by his/her estate. We encounter the right of publicity generally with famous individuals, both dead and alive.

With both the rights of publicity and privacy, common sense will be you best guide in understanding if you are in violation. Likely you have already been educated by news story of various litigations involving these rights. Remember those stories as you make your decisions. If you would like a second opinion, contact your organization's legal counsel for advice.

In conclusion, when deciding if materials can be digitized, you must consider rights related to copyright, privacy and publicity. Keep in mind that doing copyright clearance, which can be resource-consuming, is only one of the huddles. By clearing all three, you will be assured of your right to digitize the materials.

Resources:

1. WNYLRC Watch, Sept/Oct 2006, contained a brief overview of copyright law, www.wnylrc.org/PUB/OnLineNews/2006/Sept_Oct.pdf
2. WNYLRC Watch, Nov/Dec 2006,) contained an article on the copyright clearance process, www.wnylrc.org/PUB/OnLineNews/2006/Nov_Dec.pdf
3. Right Of Privacy: An Overview, www.law.cornell.edu/wex/index.php/Privacy
   
4. Right Of Publicity: An Overview, www.law.cornell.edu/wex/index.php/Publicity
   
5. Right of Publicity, www.publaw.com/rightpriv.html

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Technorati tag: Copyright, Privacy, Publicity