Due Diligence, Futile Effort: Copyright and the Digitization of the Thomas E. Watson Papers

As archives and libraries digitize and make their collections available online, they are faced with the challenge of meeting growing patron expectations in the online environment while still adhering to copyright statutes. This article reports on a case study investigating the copyright status of materials from a recent effort to make the Thomas E. Watson Papers, a manuscript collection housed at the Southern Historical Collection at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, accessible online. The article also explores fair use as a possible approach for digital publication of archival collections containing materials protected by copyright.