Library of Congress - Minerva

Do I Lose the Copyright If I Accept?

[dcheney]

Howdy,

I just got an interesting message from the Minerva project folks at the Library of Congress wanted to archive parts of my site related to some recent bistorical events.

Anyone got this before?

It seems to be legit as best I call tell.

Thanks

[Beagle]

Very legit--Congratulations! (No money involved, but it's quite an honor.)

I don't know why anyone would run a scam on this, as there's no money to be had (if the message you got asked for some, I wouldn't trust it). But you might want to play it safe by going directly to the Library of Congress site instead of responding to an email.

You can also find the details about the program there. They copy web pages "with the permission of the copyright holder," which doesn't sound to me as if you're handing over the copyright but just that they're asking your permission to copy the pages because you hold the copyright. It's a one-time "capture" of the specific pages, not an ongoing link.

It's something like a library of web pages organized for the specific reason of being sure that important information on historical events doesn't get lost. So you might say they're asking if they can put some of your pages into the Library of Congress, as they would a book. You shouldn't have to give up copyright anymore than an author of a book would in the same circumstances. Of course, like the author of a book, you'd be allowing library users to read and make use of the information.

Guess I ran on a bit there... But I think it's kinda exciting!

[dcheney]

Thanks Beagle - I feel much better now :-)

They didn't seek any money, etc. - just permission to archive it.