Can I order a Microfiche
Answers
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There are microfiches in the Catalog which are book series, where the books themselves would be out of copyright and freely available, but the microfiches have been produced by a commercial organisation relatively recently. I suspect that there are probably quite a few microfiches of this type, and include some quite rare publications.
As an example "The India Office list, 1886-1940 : containing an account of the services of the officers in the Indian service and other information" , the original books stated to be published by HMSO 1886-1940 (that is British Government publications and therefore out of copyright) and reproduced as a series of 484 microfiches in 1986, by a commercial organisation.
The wording in the KA given above by @N Tychonievich says "Not all of the digitized content will be viewable online because of contract restrictions". However in the situation where FamilySearch has either purchased microfiches, or have had then donated, it seems to me there is no question of a contract, rather it its a matter of whether FamilySearch considers there are COPYRIGHT restrictions.
I have no idea of what attitude FamilySearch will take, but it will be extremely disappointing if FamilySearch decides that practically all microfiches are subject to copyright restrictions and will not be available to view.
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@Paul W I can only give my opinion. Quite a few of the records that are on microfiche have also been in other formats--books or microfilms. I assume that, if the same records have already been digitized from the books or films, that the fiche version will not also be digitized. But that is not any kind of official statement--just what seems logical to me. Time will tell.
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However in the situation where FamilySearch has either purchased microfiches, or have had then donated, it seems to me there is no question of a contract,
Caveat - I Am Not A Lawyer. If FS purchased microfiches then there is surely an implied contract - it's the terms & conditions under which the fiche are sold.
Donating stuff is probably a bit trickier but I know that in books there tends to be wording at the front of a book that surely applies to any holder of the book because it's there. So that's the terms & conditions that apply. No idea what you find on microfiches.
Copyright may not be the problem - terms & conditions of use, may be.
Like I say, IANAL. But I am inclined to think that it's not simple and suspect that loads of stuff bought in, or brought in, is unlikely to be digitised.
Think about it this way - if FS didn't copy them before and send them out to FHCs, it's unlikely to digitise them for open use, even across FHCs. We have to wait, I'm afraid.
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Surely the same criteria will be applied by FamilySearch, regardless of the format of the material?
In other words, if material would have been subject to restricted viewing rights had items been digitised from microfilm, surely it won't be made any easier to view publicly if digitised from microfiche?
I would have thought there is even less chance of our being able to view commercially produced material unless, as suggested, FamilySearch hold the rights (by agreement or default) to publish such online.
We can only rely on FamilySearch's word (as we always have in the past) that is will provide the widest possible availability of its holdings, in line with agreements with the providers, record custodians, copyright holders, or whoever is in a position to otherwise determine terms of publication.
Whether the records are digitised from microfilm or microfiche is surely irrelevant?
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