Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) Policy

Leeds Museums & Galleries (LM&G) is committed to protecting the intellectual property rights of others. We also seek to protect, enhance and realise the commercial value of our own intellectual property in support of the mission of our service and in compliance with IPR legislation.

We will behave responsibly and fairly in relation to the IP rights of others; promoting an efficient ‘touch once’ culture in the acquisition of intellectual property rights and licenses for assets in our possession.

We actively promote public access to our collections, libraries, archives and knowledge for the benefit of all our audiences through the proper and effective use and management of our IPR and aim to provide the highest quality content for public use.

We will ensure our staff are able to exercise their duties with respect to IPR professionally, authoritatively and efficiently.

Leeds Museums & Galleries is part of Leeds City Council.

3.1
For objects in LM&G collections, objects that we acquire and works or content that we commission, we will seek, where possible, an assignment of rights.

3.2
Where an assignment of rights is not possible, we will seek a non-exclusive, irrevocable licence to use the works for all purposes in perpetuity.

3.3
LM&G will seek ownership of rights in material/content created by third parties including freelancers, interns, students and volunteers.

3.4
Where LM&G hold the rights or copyright has expired, we offer images for use under creative commons licence CC BY NC SA.

4.1
Wherever possible LM&G will credit the creator of any works or content.

4.2
Likewise, if a third party uses our works or content then we must be credited.

5.1
LM&G take breaches of copyright and IPR issues seriously.

5.2
Any third party breach of our IPR may result in civil and criminal proceedings.

5.3
LM&G will regard wilful or reckless breach of this IPR policy by LM&G staff as a disciplinary offence, which will be subject to Leeds City Council’s disciplinary procedures.

6.1
LM&G will take reasonable steps to trace rights holders. This process will be documented. Where it has not been possible to trace a rights holder the work will be classed as an ‘orphan work’.

6.2
No images of orphan works will be offered for use under a CC BY NC SA licence.

6.3
LM&G reserves the right to make limited use of images of orphan works, in particular for insurance, security and conservation reasons. If images of these works are used publicly, LM&G will advertise the fact that the rights holder has not been traced and will provide contact details for anyone who may have information regarding the rights holder.

6.4
If a rights holder contacts LM&G regarding an uncredited/incorrectly credited image, we will remove the image until the appropriate rights have been cleared or permissions granted and the work can be correctly credited.