Online Privacy

Introduction

We can provide digital copies of our documents on request.  Orders can be sent to our digital copying service by email or post, or can be submitted when you visit our record office searchroom.

We can provide you with a digital copy of any document, in preference to a photocopy.  However digital copies are more expensive, and where photocopying is possible, you may wish to order an ordinary photocopy.   

Documents which are larger than A3 size, as well as pages in bound volumes, and those in poor condition cannot be photocopied, and must be digitally photographed or scanned.   If the copies which you have requested fall into any of these categories, we will let you know before making a digital copy.

Digital copies or photographs of original documents or searchroom library books, which are ordered in the searchroom, cannot be provided on demand.  However, you may request digital photographs of documents by completing a digital copying request form.  We require prepayment or provision of credit/debit card details when you submit an order.   

We may be able to send you digital copies by email.  We can also provide them as printouts, or on a CD-Rom.  You may collect your order when it is ready, or we can send it to you by post.

Digital copying, use of copies and copyright

We provide digital copies for personal use or private research.  Copies may not be used for exhibition, publication or any other use without the permission of the owner of the documents concerned, and, where copyright exists, the owner of the copyright. Copyright is the exclusive legal right of the author of an artistic, literary or musical work to copy, publish or perform their work, or to authorise its copying, publication or performance.  Most archives are classed as literary or artistic works and so come under the laws of copyright.  This means that they may not be used, other than for personal use or private research, without the copyright owner's consent.

Copyright lasts for a specific period depending on the kind of work, on when it was produced and by whom.  Note that in many cases the owner of the copyright is not the person who owns the document.

We cannot provide more than one digital copy of the same item if it is in copyright (many documents are in copyright until at least 31st December 2039).

A copyright declaration form which states that you are requesting a copy for personal use or private research only, must be completed and signed with every request for digital copies of original documents where copyright exists.

Note that entries from parish registers of baptisms, marriages and burials may be digitally copied without completing a copyright declaration form, as they are not in copyright. Documents that come under Crown Copyright (works prepared under the direct control of the Crown or of a government department), and which were unpublished at the time of their deposit, may also be copied and published without formal permission.  These include tithe maps and apportionments, land tax assessments, and other records in Devon Quarter Sessions.

If you require a copy for exhibition, reproduction or publication in printed form or on a web-site, please inform us.  We can then identify and contact the document and copyright owners for permission, or assist you to do so yourself.  If you do not inform us that you wish to exhibit, reproduce or publish a digitised document or an image to which copyright applies, you will be infringing the laws of copyright.

To read more about our copyright policy.

Charges

The charge for this service is £6.00 per image.   There is no additional charge if we send you the image as an e-mail attachment.  There is an additional charge of £1.00 if we supply images on a CD-Rom, as well as a charge for postage and packing when an order is posted to you.

Note that for very large items, or for a large number of digital or scanned images from one document or volume, a price will be quoted on application.

How to Pay

Digital copies of photographic prints and documents for publication or exhibition

If you require a duplicate print of one of our photographs, or a digital photograph of a document taken to a professional standard, we may be able to supply this in many cases.  Please ask at the search-room desk for an order form.  The charge for this service is as quoted above.   

If we are unable to undertake your order, we may suggest that you make arrangements with a professional photography service.

• Information on taking your own photographs in the searchroom.