Dear OUSA community,
Orienteering USA is exploring ways to preserve and share the history of our sport by digitizing past issues of Orienteering North America (ONA) for inclusion in an online OUSA library.
As many of you know, ONA – and before it Orienteering USA (the publication, not the federation) – was for decades a vital link connecting orienteers across the U.S. and Canada to events, ideas, maps, debates, and one another. We believe this history is worth preserving for future generations.
In discussions with the former publishers, we have learned that the primary obstacle may be copyright. While the magazine itself was published by dedicated individuals, many of the articles and photographs were contributed by freelancers. A key legal consideration is a 2001 U.S. Supreme Court decision (New York Times Co. v. Tasini), which addressed how publishers may reuse freelance content in digital formats. The Court ruled that publishers generally do not automatically hold digital rights to freelance articles or photographs that originally appeared in print. In particular, reproducing individual works in electronic databases or searchable systems typically requires the contributor’s permission.
However, the decision also recognized that publishers may be able to digitize and distribute faithful reproductions of entire issues – preserving the original layout, context, and presentation – as a “revision” of the original publication. Because the legal boundaries depend on how an archive is structured and accessed, OUSA is seeking legal guidance before moving forward.
We are therefore seeking help from the orienteering community:
- Do you know a copyright or intellectual property attorney who might be willing to advise OUSA on possible paths forward (preferably at low or no cost)?
- Are you familiar with archival or nonprofit models that address this challenge (for example, opt-in or opt-out permissions, contributor agreements, or other approaches used by historical publications)?
- If you were a contributor to ONA, would you be open – conceptually – to allowing your work to be included in a non-commercial OUSA digital library, with proper attribution?
At this stage, we are not yet asking contributors to grant permission. Rather, we are trying to determine whether a legally sound, respectful, and practical path exists before moving further.
If you have relevant expertise, suggestions, or contacts, please fill out this form. We would be grateful for any guidance you can offer as we work to preserve this important part of our shared history.
Thank you for helping us think this through, and for everything you do to support orienteering.
Warm regards,
Tori Campbell
President
Orienteering USA