Using collections
Copyright for Community Collections
Copyright for Community CollectionsCommunity archives share their collections on the portal. They have built the collections with materials acquired from various individuals, dating back to different time in history. Thanks to this, the portal users can explore the material and often use it in a creative way.
On the subpage of each item, you will find information about the copyright.
What you can do with a given archival material depends on its copyright status.
When using the collections, make sure you respect the rights of their authors.
What is a copyright?For example, Zofia Stryjeńska will always be credited as the author of the Slavic Gods series. However, the right to manage the image of her works may belong to someone to whom she transferred it or sold it, or to her heirs. Proprietary right is temporary and expires seventy years after her death.What types of copyright will you encounter on the Community Collection portal?
Copyright protects authors or other holders of proprietary copyright. It defines the rules of how a work can be used.
To put it simply, copyright can be divided as follows:moral right…...inalienable and unlimited in time right of the author of a work to be recognized as such, i.e. their name must always be credited.
proprietary right…...allow the author to decide where and under what conditions the work is made available. Such a right is time-limited and can be, e.g., sold or transferred.
Please remember that on the Community Collections portal the Polish legal context apply. If you would like to make use of community collections in your project, you should comply to Polish law and rules of usage. Information about the copyright of materials, to be found on the pages of individual archival items, comes from the community archives. Based on their knowledge, the archives inform portal users about the conditions for reusing these collections.
This collection includes works for which the proprietary copyright has expired or never existed.Works of authors who died at least seventy years ago are available in the public domain. The public domain also includes materials that are not subject to copyright protection, such as laws, official documents, or plain press releases.If a material is in the public domain, it can be reused without obtaining permission from anyone.Examples of collections in the public domain:
- Jan Poletyło h. Trzywdar and Franciszek Ksawery Drucki-Lubecki in the holdings of the Community Archives of Wojsławice Region
- 1935. Alfons Mulcan - National Sports Badge Certificate in the holdings of Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz Public Library in Sępólno Krajeńskie.
This collection includes works for which the proprietary copyright has expired or never existed.Works of authors who died at least seventy years ago are available in the public domain. The public domain also includes materials that are not subject to copyright protection, such as laws, official documents, or plain press releases.If a material is in the public domain, it can be reused without obtaining permission from anyone.Examples of collections in the public domain:
- Jan Poletyło h. Trzywdar and Franciszek Ksawery Drucki-Lubecki in the holdings of the Community Archives of Wojsławice Region
- 1935. Alfons Mulcan - National Sports Badge Certificate in the holdings of Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz Public Library in Sępólno Krajeńskie.
What you can always do with collections, or permitted personal use
If you need to use works for your private purposes, you are free to do so. You can browse archival materials kept on the Community Collections portal and download them for personal use.However, the possibilities for reuse or further sharing are specified for each material on the Community Collections portal (e.g., a Creative Commons license or public domain status).
Permitted educational useEmployees of educational institutions can take advantage of a copyright exception known as permitted educational (or school) use in their work.In this specific situation, all works—including those published on the Community Collections portal—can be used for teaching or academic purposes. This supports the dissemination of knowledge and the advancement of research.A teacher, pupils or a school librarian do not need permission to use community collections during a lesson or in an educational project conducted at a school, university, or in school library.
Would you like to better understand copyright and image protection in the context of community collections?
