Slides for a workshop on digital audiovisual material -- technical and copyright issues -- presented at Simmons College for Library and Information Science students, 5/7/2015

1. AUDIOVISUAL ARCHIVING:
DIGITAL MEDIA
Codecs and wrappers
Technical characteristics of digital A/V
Digitized vs. born-digital
Tools for digital video
Storage
Rights and Access

2. FILE FORMAT: “a standard way that information is encoded for
storage in a computer file”; “a byte-serialized encoding of an
information model”

3. CODEC: coder-decoder; “a device or program that compresses
data to enable faster transmission and decompresses received
data”

4. WRAPPER: digital container format; container; file format; “a
metafile format (format that can store multiple types of data)
whose specification describes how different elements of data
and metadata coexist in a computer file”
Diagram taken from AVPreserve: http://: www.avpreserve.com/blog/a-primer-on-codecs-for-moving-image-and-sound-archives-2/
Diagram taken from W3C:
http://www.w3.org/2007/08/video/report

6. LOSSY vs. LOSSLESS
LOSSY: Decreases filesize by permanently removing
information from the original data
LOSSLESS: Decreases filesize by encoding information
in such a way that the original data can be recovered

7. COMMON VIDEO CODECS
H.264/MPEG-4
MPEG-2
MOTION JPEG 2000
FFV1
APPLE PRORES
UNCOMPRESSED V210, UYVY, YUY2
DV

8. COMMON VIDEO WRAPPERS
QUICKTIME
AVI
MXF
MATROSKA
MP4

9. SAMPLE RATE AND BIT DEPTH: AUDIO
Diagram taken from Charlotte Keating: https://charlottekeating.wordpress.com/

10. VIDEO BIT DEPTH
number of bits used per color channel per pixel
(8-bit = 256, 10-bit = 1024)

11. COLOR SPACE
RGB YUV
stores color as
combination of
luminance, blue
channel, red channel;
used for TV/video
broadcast
stores color as
combination of green
channel, blue channel,
red channel;
most cameras capture
this
Diagrams taken from Adobe: http://blogs.adobe.com/VideoRoad/2010/06/what_is_yuv.html

12. CHROMA SUBSAMPLING
4:4:4: same sample rate for light and both color
channels; absolute highest quality
4:2:2: two color channels sampled at half the rate as
light channel; used in many high-quality formats
4:2:0: alternates sampling between the two color
channels; used in DVD, Blu-ray, and most common
access formats
4:1:1: two color channels sampled at ¼ the rate as light
channel; used mostly in low-end consumer formats

13. ASPECT RATIO
relationship between image width and height
Pixel Aspect Ratio: PAR
Sample Aspect Ratio: SAR
Display Aspect Ratio: DAR
PAR x SAR = DAR

14. DIGITIZED VS. BORN-DIGITAL

15. INTERLACING

16. DEINTERLACING

17. PRESERVATION QUALITY
DIGITIZATION
PRESERVATION FILE
codecs: 10-bit uncompressed v210, JPEG2000, FFV1
color space: YUV
chroma subsampling: 4:2:2
aspect ratio: preserve original (for video, usually 4:3)
wrappers: .mov, .avi
audio: 48 kHz/24-bit PCM
MEZZANINE FILE/PRODUCTION MASTERS
most useful in production environments
codecs: ProRes, DV50, high-quality H.264
ACCESS FILE
should be suitable for web playback, streaming, or institutional viewing
can be digital or physical (DVD)
codecs: low-quality H.264, MPEG-2

18. NORMALIZING FOR PRESERVATION
WHY DO IT?
- It’s easier for an institution to commit to preserving a
small subset of file types than to try and preserve all
file types
- Unusual, complex, or highly proprietary formats are
difficult to preserve
- Uncompressed video is costly in terms of storage
space and processing time

19. NORMALIZING FOR PRESERVATION
WHY NOT DO IT?
- Video is complex, and it requires a lot of planning
and technical expertise to make sure all salient
characteristics are being preserved
- It’s not always possible to restore the original from a
transcoded version
- Every technological process provides an opportunity
for error or corruption

20. TOOLS
displays relevant technical metadata for video and audio files
produces libraries and programs for handling video and audio
data

21. STORAGE

22. Navigating access to
digital AV collections
Presented by Casey Davis
@caseyedavis1
caseyedavis12@gmail.com

23. WHAT IS COPYRIGHT?

24. 17 U.S.C. 102
Copyright protection subsists in “original
works of authorship fixed in any tangible
medium of expression.”

25. = INDEPENDENTLY CREATED + AT LEAST
SOME MINIMAL DEGREE OF CREATIVITY
Copyright protection subsists in “original
works of authorship fixed in any tangible
medium of expression.”

26. What is copyrightable?
• Literary works
• Musical works
• Dramatic works
• Choreographic works
• Pictorial, graphic and sculptural works
• Motion pictures and other audiovisual works
• Sound records
• Architectural works

27. WHY IS VIDEO SO COMPLICATED?

28. talent unions
contracts
narration
writers
co-productions
studios
directors
recorded
music
composed music
third party footage
lost contracts
producers

29. What’s not copyrightable?
• Facts
• Ideas
• Concepts
• Principles
• Discoveries
• Words, phrases, familiar symbols
• Works not fixed in a “tangible medium of
expression”

30. IDEA/EXPRESSION DISTINCTION

31. WHAT’S AUTHORSHIP?
Copyright protection subsists in “original
works of authorship fixed in any tangible
medium of expression.”

32. 17 U.S.C. 201
Copyright “vests initially in the author or
authors of the work. The authors of a joint
work are co-owners of copyright in the work.”

33. WORKS MADE FOR HIRE
(17 U.S.C. 101)
• Within scope of employment
• Works by independent contractors, which were commissioned
for use as a
• Contribution to a collective work
• Translation
• Supplementary work
• Compilation
• Instructional text
• Test
• Answer material for a test
• Atlas

34. JOINT AUTHORSHIP
• Two or more authors make copyrightable
contributions to a work
• All intent that their contributions be
merged into a unitary whole

35. Exclusive economic rights
of owners (17 U.S.C. 106)
• Right to reproduce/copy
• Right to modify & make derivatives
– Make a work based on the pre-existing work
(translation, motion picture version, abridgment,
etc.)
• Right to distribute
– Sell, give away, rent, or transmit copies to the
public
• Right to perform/display to the public

36. BUT THERE ARE LIMITATIONS...
17 U.S.C. 108
(reproduction by libraries and archives)
17 U.S.C 107
(fair use)

37. 108(A) LIBRARIES/ARCHIVES CAN
REPRODUCE AND DISTRIBUTE ONE
COPY IF:
• You reproduce or distribute for nonprofit purposes
• You provide public access to your collections
• You make your collections available for not only to
researchers affiliated with your institution but also to
other people doing research in a specialized field
• Reproduction and distribution includes notice of
copyright & that reproduction occurs through
provisions of 108.

38. 108(B) LIBRARIES/ARCHIVES CAN
REPRODUCE THREE COPIES OF
UNPUBLISHED WORKS FOR PURPOSES
OF PRESERVATION IF:
• The copy reproduced is part of your collection
• Any digital copy is not distributed digitally and not
made available to the public in that format
outside the premises of the library/archives

39. 108 (C) LIBRARIES/ARCHIVES CAN
DUPLICATE PUBLISHED MATERIALS TO
REPLACE DAMAGED, DETERIORATING,
LOST, OR STOLEN, OR IF THE WORK
BECOMES OBSOLETE IF:
• Unused replacement can’t be obtained at a fair
price
• You don’t provide access to the digital copy
outside your premises

40. OBSOLETE = MACHINE/DEVICE
NECESSARY TO RENDER THE WORK IS
NO LONGER MANUFACTURED OR
REASONABLY AVAILABLE

41. 108 (E) YOU CAN REPRODUCE AND
DISTRIBUTE ENTIRE WORKS TO USERS
OR OTHER LIBRARIES IF:
• You determine that a copy can’t be obtained at a
fair price
• You have no knowledge that the copy would be
used for any purpose other than private study,
scholarship or research
• You display copyright notice
• The audiovisual motion picture “deal[s] with
news”

42. IS THAT IT?
Nah. Let’s look at 17 U.S.C. 107 (fair use).

43. 17 U.S.C. 107
“fair use of a copyright work, including such use by
reproduction in copies...or by any other means
specified in that section [106], for purposes such as
criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching
(including multiple copies for classroom use),
scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of
copyright.”

44. IN DETERMINING WHETHER THE USE IS
FAIR, CONSIDER THE FOUR FACTORS:
(1) Purpose and character of the use
(2) Nature of the copyrighted work
(3) Amount and substantiality of the portion used in
relation to the copyrighted work as a whole
(4) Effect of the use on the potential market for or value of
the copyrighted work
That fact that a work is unpublished shall not itself bar a
finding of fair use if such finding is made upon consideration
of al of the above factors.

45. 1) PURPOSE AND CHARACTER
Campbell vs. Acuff-Rose case determined by
Supreme Court established what is considered the
“heart of fair use” – transformativeness.
A use is transformative when it alters the original
work with a completely new meaning, message or
expression.
The more transformative the use, the less the
significance of the other three factors.

46. 2) NATURE OF THE COPYRIGHTED
WORK
-Unpublished works tend to receive
more protection than published works
(Harper vs. The Nation)
-The more creative the work, the more
protection it tends to receive

47. 3) AMOUNT AND SUBSTANTIALITY
-not just quantitative amount, but more
importantly, the qualitative amount
-the “heart” of the work is more
protected than the less creative portions
of a work (Harper vs. the Nation)

48. 4) EFFECT OF USE ON POTENTIAL
MARKET
-including loss of sales, loss in potential
markets, and licensing fees
-if use is for educational nonprofit
purposes, the market harm must be
demonstrated

49. LET’S DO AN EXERCISE
Review example agreement
Determine what we can do with the donated materials
Review another example agreement
Determine what we can do with the donated materials
Look at two example items to be donated
Notice any issues?
Fair use analysis
Determination of access

50. CREATIVE COMMONS
Creative Commons is a non-profit that provides copyright owners with
free licenses that they can use to relinquish their rights to varying
extents, allowing for the public to share and reuse their copyrighted
works. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/
• Attribution – most accommodating of licenses
• Attribution-ShareAlike – can modify/create derivatives, even
commercially (used by Wikipedia, open-source code)
• Attribution-NoDerivs – redistribution, even commercially, but no
derivs
• Attribution-NonCommercial – can distribute and create derivs but
only noncommercially
• Attribution-NonCommerial-ShareAlike -- can modify/create derivs,
but only noncommercially
• Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivs – most restrictive, only allows
download and sharing with others non commercially, no derivs
Source: Creative
Commons, CC 4.0
international license

51. CREATIVE COMMONS
Source: CopyrightX, Harvard Law
Schoolhttp://cyber.law.harvard.edu/people/tfisher/cx/CopyrightX_Lecture6_
Illustrations.pdf, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License

52. RISK ASSESSMENT – WHO IS GOING
TO GET MAD?
• Direct infringement of exclusive economic rights
• Secondary Liability
• Contributory Infringement requires
• Direct infringement
• Knowledge by the defendant
• Material contribution
• Vicarious Liability
• Direct infringement
• Financial interest in the infringement
• Right and ability to supervise direct infringer

53. SUGGESTIONS
• Get the rights to the extent the donor can give you the
rights to put it online
• Document the fair use analysis and rights that you have
• Analyze the genres of content in your collection
• Put a big take down notice on your digital archive website
• Make users acknowledge your Rules of Use
• Technological considerations
• Click through acknowledgement of Rules of Use
• Applying multiple levels of access for different types of
content
• Understanding “streaming”

54. • Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Academic and Research Libraries:
http://www.cmsimpact.org/fair-use/best-practices/code-best-practices-
fair-use-academic-and-research-libraries
• Copyright & Cultural Institutions: Guidelines for Digitization for U.S.
Libraries, Archives & Museums, by Peter B. Hirtle, Emily Hudson, and
Andrew T. Kenyon (2009)
http://ecommons.cornell.edu/bitstream/1813/14142/2/Hirtle-
Copyright_final_RGB_lowres-cover1.pdf
• CopyrightX course & resources, Harvard Law School: copyx.org/
• Copyright Term and Public Domain in the United States, by Peter B. Hirtle:
http://copyright.cornell.edu/resources/publicdomain.cfm
• U.S.C. 17: https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/17/
• Flowchart of Legal Questions about Digitizing News Archives, WGBH and
Harvard Law School’s Cyberlaw Clinic: http://bostonlocaltv.org/blog/wp-
content/uploads/2014/03/Flowchart-5-May-18-2014-v.-2.pdf

55. • A Primer on Codecs for Moving Image and Sound Archives, AVPreserve:
http://www.avpreserve.com/wp-
content/uploads/2010/04/AVPS_Codec_Primer.pdf
• Born Digital Video Preservation: A Final Report, Smithsonian Institution
Archives:https://siarchives.si.edu/sites/default/files/pdfs/bornDigitalVideoPr
eservation2011.pdf
• Digitizing Video for Long-Term Preservation: An RFP Guide and Template,
New York University Libraries:http://library.nyu.edu/preservation/VARRFP.pdf
• Format Descriptions for Moving Images, Library of Congress,
http://www.digitalpreservation.gov/formats/fdd/video_fdd.shtml
• The Video Road, Adobe
blog:http://blogs.adobe.com/VideoRoad/2010/06/what_is_yuv.html
http://blogs.adobe.com/VideoRoad/2010/06/understanding_color_processi
ng.html
http://blogs.adobe.com/VideoRoad/2010/06/color_subsampling_or_what_is
_4.html