Copyright in Fire Insurance Plans

  • Jean Dryden

Abstract

Fire insurance plans are among the most valuable records documenting the development of Canada’s cities and towns during the late 19th and 20th centuries. Many of these plans are preserved in Canada’s archives and libraries. However, for nearly three decades, making copies for researchers and (more recently) digitizing for online access have been subject to a copyright “chill” as a result of the copyright claims of the companies that created these plans and their successors. This article recounts the history of Canadian fire insurance plans preserved in Canadian repositories and establishes their current copyright status in terms of ownership and duration. The article then explores the extent to which the copyright concerns are justified and offers possible solutions.

RÉSUMÉ

Les plans d’assurance incendie comptent parmi les documents les plus importants pour témoigner du développement des villages et villes canadiennes vers la fin du XIXe et au XXe siècles. Plusieurs de ces plans sont préservés dans les archives et bibliothèques canadiennes. Toutefois, depuis près de trois décennies, la photocopie pour les chercheurs ou (plus récemment) la numérisation pour un accès en ligne ont fait l’objet de limitations liées aux droits d’auteur découlant de revendications des droits d’auteur faites par les compagnies ayant créé ces plans et leurs successeurs. Cet article relate l’histoire des plans d’assurance incendie canadiens préservés dans les dépôts et établit la situation actuelle des droits d’auteur s’y rattachant en fonction de la propriété et de la durée. Cet article explore ensuite à quel point les préoccupations en matière de droits d’auteur sont justifiées et offre des solutions potentielles.

Author Biography

Jean Dryden

Jean Dryden has many years of experience as a staff archivist and archival administrator at the National Archives of Canada and the Provincial Archives of Alberta and as Chief Archivist of the United Church of Canada/ Victoria University Archives. Her doctoral dissertation investigated the copyright practices of Canadian archival repositories in making their holdings available online. While a faculty member at the University of Maryland, she completed a grant-funded comparative study of the practices of American repositories. In 2015, she completed a Master of Laws degree specializing in intellectual property at Osgoode Hall Law School. She has been active throughout her career on committees and boards of professional associations, and she currently represents the International Council on Archives at the World Intellectual Property Organization’s Standing Committee on Copyright. In addition to being the author of numerous publications and presentations on copyright issues, she is the author of Demystifying Copyright: A Researcher’s Guide to Copyright in Canadian Libraries and Archives, 2nd ed. (2014) and a past editor of Archivaria.

Published
2021-06-03
How to Cite
Dryden, Jean. 2021. “Copyright in Fire Insurance Plans”. Archivaria 91 (June), 150-73. https://archivaria.ca/index.php/archivaria/article/view/13793.
Section
Studies in Documents