Copyright is a complex and specialised area of the law and the following is not intended to be a definitive guide. Further useful guidance can be found at:-
It is however worth noting that facts such as the name of a site, its grid reference, dates etc. cannot be copyrighted.
In all cases if you have any doubt as to the suitability of Material, please do not upload it until you have discussed it with the IHO Administrator.
Any paper or digital photographs, drawings, or documents that you created for your own use and in your own time and not as part of your employment will almost certainly be your own copyright. The material must however not have been previously published elsewhere as in doing so you have probably assigned the copyright to the publisher.
Additionally you will almost certainly be the Copyright Holder of any Material that you have inherited, or purchased (proof of purchase is required). Care is needed with material that you have been given or loaned as the owner may not have transferred the Copyright as part of the gift or loan.
Any material, created as part of your employment will almost certainly be copyrighted to your employer and IHO requires that you check with your employer before uploading such material.
In most cases photographs taken in public places are not subject to any limitations or copyright restrictions, and can be uploaded. Exceptions however apply to most Military installations and caution is needed with Material relating to utility sites. Exceptions may also apply to photographs of buildings/structures/machinery etc. where the architect or designer is still alive or has died within the last 70 years or which show recognisable logos etc. that may be in copyright.
The position with photographs taken in private locations, including factories and buildings where you may have worked is more complex and again it is probable that the copyright of any such Material will be vested in your employer or the building owner.
It is also good practice not to include photographs which show recognisable people unless you have their written permission or that include children of any age.
If you have doubts about any Material please discuss it with the IHO Administrator.All Material that has been created by others is termed “Third Party Copyright” and they will hold the copyright subject to the same exceptions set out in A1.
Such Material can only be uploaded to IHO if the Third Party Copyright Holder has given you unrestricted permission in writing to do so. ie they have placed no restrictions, limitations or other constraints on how and for how long IHO may hold and use the material and that they are aware that it will be made available under the CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0 Licence Agreement. This permission should include any digital copyright rights.
IHO requires that you to provide copies of such permissions.
YAHS has given IHO permission to upload material from the YAHS Archive and as such no further copyright declaration is required.
The period for which material remains in copyright varies between countries and by the type of content. Whilst most material ceases to be in copyright after 70 years it would be safer to assume that only material over 100 years old is out of copyright and therefore can be uploaded to IHO. The source of any out of copyright material including title, author, and date of publication, should be detailed, and the original copyright attribution given if known Material for which the copyright holder is unknown should not be uploaded unless the material is known to be more than 100 years old.
Many web sites hold material that is relevant to the study of Industrial History and it is acceptable to upload material
taken from such web sites providing that it is covered by a Public User Licence Agreement (PUL). It is however
essential that you comply fully with the web sites PUL Agreement and provide as a very minimum the full URL.
Sites which are believed to have acceptable Public User Licence Agreement as of December 2020 are:-
Do not upload images from any either commercial or from the following web sites as they do not have PULA:-
If there are images on these sites that are particularly relevant these can be linked to in the text using the full URL.
As only digital material can be uploaded to IHO all Material on IHO will be covered by Digital Copyright.
To simplify the Management of the web site, IHO requires that you only upload Material for which you hold the Digital Copyright. (see A.1) Digital Material covered by third party copyright, may be also uploaded where the Third Party Copyright Holder has given you unrestricted permission in writing to do so. (see A.2)
You will almost certainly be the Digital Copyright Holder if you created the original material in digital format or where you have scanned or photographed paper photographs or negatives, drawings or documents that you have created. You will also be the Digital Copyright Holder if you scan or photograph Third Party or other Material that has been given or loaded to you and for which you have the necessary written permission.