Georgetown University faculty, staff, and students who use the Digitization Studio to convert media from one format to another (e.g., VHS to a digital file or DVD) must be aware of applicable provisions of copyright law before using Library equipment for reformatting purposes. Under § 106 of the Copyright Law of the United States, the owner of the copyright in a work has the exclusive right to make copies of that work, unless an exception applies. When considering reformatting media, please note that individuals do not have an automatic right to reformat a work from one format to another. In order to legally convert media, your use must fall into one of the following categories:
You are solely responsible for determining the copyright status of the materials you wish to digitize, establishing who the copyright owner is, locating the copyright owner, and obtaining permission to digitize if needed.
*The Copyright Act contains an exception for fair use, which allows the limited use of copyrighted materials for certain purposes, including teaching, scholarship, research, criticism, commentary, and news reporting. For more information on fair use and its limits, visit our Fair Use page. Please note that Library staff cannot assist you with determining what is or is not fair use; you are solely responsible for making that determination.
This guide will provide you with information pertaining to media conversion in the Digitization Studio (Rm 133) located on the 1st floor of Lauinger Library in the Gelardin Center. To receive additional support regarding ways to convert your legacy media types, please request a consultation with this link, or refer to our Media Conversion page for additional resources.
In the Digitization Studio you can convert the following formats:
Aiwa VCR | |
Technics Audio Cassette Player | |
Sony MiniDV/DVCAM player | |
Ion LP2CD record player | |
Canon Canoscan Scanner |
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