Online publications: What kinds of legal hurdles do archives face?
Martin Steiger, lawyer and expert on law in the digital space
Archives not only collect archival materials, they also secure it. In addition, they ensure that their archival holdings are available in keeping with certain conditions. Traditionally, archival holdings have been viewed on site and by a manageable number of people. However, a digital presence is now essential for archives, as only in this way can they ensure modern means of access to their materials and justify their existence. Archives that do not publish any archival holdings online not only risk their existence, but also their function.
With digitisation and the option to publish on the Internet, old legal hurdles are becoming relevant again, while new ones are emerging at the same time. First of all, there is the fundamental question of what archives are permitted to make accessible online and in what form that is allowed to take place.
But there are also other questions: Who holds which copyrights to the archival materials? What is the situation as regards data protection and the protection of privacy? How do licenses and agreements have to be structured?
In Martin Steiger’s lecture, you will find out possible answers that can be debated in more detail in the subsequent discussion.
As a lawyer and expert on law in the digital space, Martin Steiger looks, in particular, at issues relating to data protection and the protection of privacy as well as copyright law. Martin Steiger also deals with matters of this type at the Swiss Centre for Digital Responsibility (CDR) and the Swiss Data Alliance, among others. Furthermore, at Digitale Gesellschaft, a non-profit organisation in Switzerland, Martin Steiger works to ensure consumer protection and the protection of fundamental and human rights in the digital sphere.
Further information on Martin Steiger can be found here: external pagemartinsteiger.ch