This workshop will introduce attendees to the complex issues of media licensing, copyright ownership research, ownership evaluations, and media acquisitions for museums, exhibits departments, content developers, and marketing departments.

Fundamentals in media research and acquisitions will be introduced including “due diligence” research, “fair use”, “public domain”, user fee determinations, and social media issues like crowdsourcing photographs and posting images to social media platforms with and without permissions.

Topics to be covered include differentiating between copyrights, trademarks, patents, ownership issues, and public domain items as well as social media concerns like using images and media for marketing purposes. Key terms will be introduced and clarified. A portion of the workshop will be dedicated to Questions and Answers for specific issues or concerns that may arise from attendees.

Seating is limited!

Goals for Workshop:

• Attendees will learn the difference between: Copyrights, Trademarks, Patents
• Public domain vs. “No known Restrictions”, What IS “public domain”?
• How do you know for sure if something is in the public domain?
• What to search when performing due diligence research while doing copyright and/or ownership evaluations
• What is “fair use”? When can I use it?
• When do I need to use Appearance Releases?
• When is a licensing agreement needed? When is a contracts needed?

Speaker: 

Renato Rodriguez works in the Exhibits department of the San Diego Natural History Museum as the Media Acquisitions Coordinator. He worked on the Natural History museum’s most recent permanent exhibit Coast to Cactus in Southern California and is currently working towards the completion of the newest permanent exhibit renovating and expanding the museum’s Research Library and Special Collections into a larger gallery and exhibit space centered around citizen scientists.

Prior to his work with the NAT, Renato spent nearly ten years working as a researcher and associate producer for Oregon Public Broadcasting and PBS working on shows like the History Detectives, America’s History in the Making, Bridging World History, Great Lodges of the National Parks and FRONTLINE. Following four straight seasons travelling around the country with a TV crew visiting museums while shooting stories and investigations for the History Detectives Renato’s love of history and museums compelled him to return to school in search of a new career in museums, libraries, archives, and special collections.

Renato has a BA in Spanish with minors in History and Political Science from the University of Oregon. In 2013 he received a Masters degree in Library and Information Science as well as a Graduate Certificate in Museum Studies from the University of Washington landing a job with the NAT’s exhibits department in the summer of 2013.