International Association of Libraries and Museums of the Performing Arts

Société Internationale des Bibliothèques et des Musées des Arts du Spectacle

Theatre Collections and their Commercial Use

Richard M. Buck (New York)

17. Internationaler SIBMAS-Kongreß / 17ème Congrès International de la SIBMAS / 17th International SIBMAS Congress, 1.-9. September 1988, Mannheim

Bericht / Actes / Documentation. Red.: Liselotte Homering. Mannheim : Städtisches Reiß-Museum, 1990. pp. 174-181

Of the many aspects of the commercial use of collections that might be considered, I will discuss the questions of the amount of the use fee, world or international rights and fees, and the use of material in film and television documentaries. The New York Public Library is now charging $25.00 for the first use and $10.00 for a second or re-use. We feel that this is not enough compared to other institutions, and we are studying the possibilities of an increase.

At this time of rapid communication, we are concerned about simultaneous publication and the use of still images in film and television documentaries that are to be distributed internationally. We have no fixed policy on these and are interested in formulating one.

In the Dance and Theatre Collections and the Archives of Sound, in the Performing Arts Research Center, we have the special situation of copying clips from audio and video tapes for use in documentaries. We have set a $40.00 and $100.00 per hour fee for these, respectively, plus raw stock and shipping costs, which covers the costs of rights searching and the actual copying, but have set no fixed policy.

For all of these cases, we are interested in working out a set of policies and procedures that take into consideration the cost of the work to the Library versus the cost to the user. We wish to be fair to ourselves and to the author, publisher or documentarist. What are the thoughts and suggestions of all those here on any or all of these concerns?

In my twenty-three years working as an administrator at the Performing Arts Research Center of The New York Public Library at Lincoln Center, I have overseen the structure by which the Library grants permission for publication of photographs and other visual material for commercial use.

One could discuss many aspects of the permission process. These include the problem of copyrights and photographers' rights, the cost of actual copying and of the permission fee, the question of who holds the rights to primary and secondary source material, the question of world rights as opposed to one-time use in one language, and the question of rights and fees for use of material in film and television documentaries, especially as to how these relate to rights and fees for the use of similar material in publication of printed matter.

I am sure that all of these aspects of the subject and more will be discussed at this workshop if time allows. I am going to concentrate on three of the points - the amount of the use or permission fee, the question of world or international rights and the use of material for film and television documentaries. My perception of the situation is that all of these are inter-related.

First, some historical background. Until about 1970, The New York Public Library allowed the commercial publication of illustrations from photographs and original materials such as prints and drawings from its collections at no charge. All that was requested was the proper credit, and a photographer's clearance, if that seemed appropriate. The only exception, at least at the Performing Arts Research Center, was the great Vandamm Collection of photographs of the commercial New York theatre, which had been purchased for $75,000. A fee of $10.00 each for each use, commercial or non-profit, was being charged as a publication fee to help recoup the cost of the purchase. By the early 1970s, the Library administration realized that other institutions holding rare and unique illustrative matter were charging a use fee - partly to help defray the cost of locating and preparing items for copying and partly, frankly, to discourage excessive use which had caused wear and tear to the material and much work for the staff. The fee for rare, unique or original material to be used for commercial publication was set at $10.00, to match the Vandamm Collection fee. There was still no charge for non-profit-use, by which is meant university presses and publications published by other not-for-profit organizations. Not-for-profits of course still had to pay for the use of material for which the Library owns the rights, such as Vandamm. The fee was soon raised to $25.00, as was the Vandamm fee. The charge, still $25.00, is for one-time use, that is for the first edition of a book in one language or use in one periodical article. Re-use in variant editions or in a second language is $10.00 additional. I have brought samples of the application form and of the permission form used by the Performing Arts Research Center [see below, pp.177-181]. There is no policy for fees for simultaneous publication in several countries or languages, and none on use of material in film and television documentaries produced within the United States or other countries that may be extensively dubbed and broadcast internationally.

On the first aspect, the amount of the fee, the Library is now beginning to feel that it is too low and that it must be raised, but by how much? When the Vandamm fee was raised by 150% there was a great hue and cry from potential users, and although the total income from Vandamm usage has of course risen, the number of uses per year has gone down. We know, however, that commercial services such as the Bettman Archive and Culver charge upwards of $100.00 per item, but we also know that their service is much faster than our three to four weeks. Also, the charge by the commercial houses includes the copying of the item. When The New York Public Library's Reprographic Services' cost of upwards of $30.00 for an 8 x 10" glossy photograph is added to the $25.00 permission fee, the total cost to the user is more than $50.00 already. Another factor in the fee cost that concerns me very much is the fact that, at least in the States, the author more often than not has to bear the cost of all of the illustrations, either up front or from the royalties. Higher fees often result in fewer illustrations. One way that we allow for large numbers of items is to employ a sliding scale - the per-picture fee goes down as the total number of items used rises. I would like to know how you feel about such fees and get a sense of what people here feel that "the traffic will bear".

The other two issues really do interlock - as the world grows smaller and everything seems to occur everywhere at the same time - simultaneous publication and nonprint documentary production are growing ever more common. In the absence of any fixed policy, or even any clear guidelines, when I receive word from say, Macmillan, that they plan to publish in the US and the UK simultaneously, I tell them that the fee will be $35.00 - $25.00 plus the second, or re-use fee of $10.00. But perhaps it should be two first-time uses, since neither is a re-use. A Swiss firm, the Office du Livre, is currently putting together a volume, New York: 1940-1965, very heavily illustrated, that is to be published simultaneously in two languages, I believe French and German, and in English very soon thereafter. They have requested rights in two languages now, and are using dozens of photographs from our Theatre, Dance and Music collections. I had planned to double any fee that we decided upon based on the sliding scale for quantity use, but finally ended up charging $15.00 for each item when the number reached beyond fifty. As of this writing, the Dance Collection is wrestling with the question of a quantity fee for the University of California Press' multi-volume International Encyclopedia of Dance, for which they plan to use upwards of 1000 items from the holdings of the Dance Collection. We are thinking of simply billing them for $10,000, requesting a copy of the published set gratis, and hoping that they will agree. Do any of you here, either as users of material for commercial publication, or librarians or archivists as holders of the material, have any ideas or suggestions regarding the fees for simultaneous or international publication?

Even more muddy are the waters of usage in film and television. The BBC, Thames Television, London's Channel 4, and Unitel have used the Library's collections for still pictures in many fine documentaries. When asked how the tapes or films are to be distributed around the world, of course they really do not know while the documentary is still in production. Obviously, they hope that distribution will be as wide as possible, in as many countries as outlets can be found. So, is the making of one documentary and then making copies (dubbing) that master tape and sending it all over the world the same as making one book in one language and then making copies (publishing) and selling it all over the world? Most film and television producers indicate that it is really not the same, but when asked about paying higher fees for still images, they tend to argue that it may be. When Channel 4 in London was making that remarkable documentary, Josephine Baker: Chasing a Rainbow, I was in communication with them for months - first on the choice of items and then on fees for world rights. We finally agreed on $50.00 per item for 10 images, since they knew that it would be seen both in the UK and the US, but both Channel 4 and I were sure that it would be shown on the Continent as well. My own feeling is that still images for commercial documentary films and videotapes should be at least $100.00 each. I would like to know the thoughts of others here on that.

While a revision of the policy on flat images as concerns the basic fee schedule, the special problems of simultaneous publication, and of fees for documentaries is at least in the discussion stage at The New York Public Library, three of the units at the Performing Arts Research Center - Dance Collection, Theatre Collection, and the Archives of Sound - are dealing with quite another special copying situation, that of dubbing video or audio tape segments of their holdings for video or film documentaries. The Archives of Sound duplicates material on to audio cassette if the potential user acquires the proper permissions. There is a charge for the blank tape and a $40.00 per hour fee plus shipping charges. The work is done in the Library's own sound laboratory and all of the monies received are credited to a phono duplication fund for the purchase of more materials for the Archives. The copying of film and video clips by the Dance and Theatre Collections is not so simple. Securing of rights is often very complex, and the determination of who holds rights often takes hours of staff time. The original sometimes needs to be sent to an outside laboratory for copying and the basic dubbing costs per item are much higher than for audio. Based on the average amount of staff time involved and the dubbing costs, the Theatre Collection has decided upon a $100.00 per hour charge for dubbing plus the raw stock costs. This seems reasonable, but discourages documentarists with small production budgets from using our materials. The Library administration has approved these fees for audio and video dubbing, but has not set forth the whole matter of this kind of copying as a policy as has been done with the copying of flat images. Are there any suggestions from those here about these fees? Are there any European standards that you know of?

The re-evaluation of The New York Public Library's permission policies and use fees, which ought to include a study of the fees for moving images, should bring us into a position in which the responsibility to the commercial user is in equity with our costs of supplying the materials. The Library's purpose is not to discourage the commercial use of these rare and remarkable holdings, nor is it to allow the processing of such requests to unduly burden the work load of a staff badly needed for more productive pursuits such as the processing of material in the backlog that will not be otherwise available to the public at all.

Finally, I have brought copies of a survey made by the staff of The New York Public Library of the user fee charges of several comparable institutions in the New York City area. We are using this survey to help reformulate our practices and procedures. I hope that these remarks have been useful and that our shared experiences will help both users and librarians to understand the dilemmas inherent in establishing fees and granting permissions for the commercial use of library collections.

SIBMAS Home

HOME-BIENVENUE

Rules
Statuts

Executive Committee
Comité exécutif

Institutional Members
Membres institutionnels

Joining SIBMAS
Adhérer à la SIBMAS

International Directory
Répertoire international

Congresses
Congrès

National Collections
Collections nationales

Research Sites
Sites de recherche

Partner Organisations
Organisations soeurs

WHAT'S NEW
NOUVEAUTÉS

FORUM