Copyright
The copyright law of the United States, Title 17 U.S.C., governs the making of electrostatic copies, photographic prints, and audio/video tape recordings of copyrighted material. Under certain conditions specified in the law, libraries and archives may furnish reproductions. One specified condition is that the reproduction of copyrighted material is not to "used for any purpose other than private study, scholarship, or research." If a user makes a request for or later uses a reproduction for purposes beyond those of "fair use," that user may be liable for copyright infringement. This institution reserves the right to refuse to accept a reproduction order if, in its judgment, fulfillment of the order would involve violation of copyright law.
The U.S. Government exercises no intellectual property claims on materials created by or for its offices (17 U.S.C 105), therefore the exclusive work products of government organizations and its employees or agents are non-copyrightable. Some Federal work products however contain compiled content created by third parties that may be subject to copyright or other forms of restrictions; Federal work products may also contain personal likenesses subject to publicity rights restrictions. Those desiring to reproduce materials bear the responsibility of making individualized determinations as to whether intellectual property rights are implicated by the nature of the materials and how they may wish to use such materials.
The National Archives and the Nixon Presidential Library and Museum do not have legal authority to rule on questions of copyright. The Library of Congress Copyright Office will, for a fee, undertake to research the copyright status of audiovisual materials made available from the Nixon Presidential Library and Museum and the National Archives.
Publicity and Privacy Rights
While copyright is a federally protected right under copyright law, privacy and publicity rights are the subject of state laws. While many states have privacy and/or publicity laws, others do not recognize such rights or recognize such rights under other state laws or common law legal theories such as misappropriation and false representation. Those desiring to reproduce materials bear the responsibility of making individualized determinations as to whether privacy and publicity rights are implicated by the nature of the materials and how they may wish to use such materials.
Licensing & Re-Use
The Nixon Presidential Library and Museum and the National Archives and Records Administration exercise no intellectual property claims on the materials in its holdings and cannot grant exclusive rights for the use of materials in its holdings.
In addition to U.S. Government works, the Nixon Presidential Library and Museum also has material in its holdings not created by the Federal government which may be subject to copyright, donor, or other forms of restrictions. Please email Nixon Library audiovisual staff if you have questions concerning the provenance of non-government created records. While not all records have such information attached to them, such information may assist those wishing to pursue researching the rights status of a given record.
