Sheet music licensed and published in various digital formats, subject to copyright restrictions and often protected by digital rights management technologies.

Digital Species: Sound and Vision

Consensus Decision

Added to List: 2019

Previously: Endangered

Imminence of Action

Action is recommended within three years, detailed assessment within one year.

Significance of Loss

The loss of tools, data or services within this group would impact on people and sectors around the world.

Effort to Preserve | Inevitability

It would require a small effort to address losses in this group, requiring the application of proven preservation tools or techniques.

Examples

This entry includes all manner of published sheet music, including choral works, orchestral works, scores published in different forms such as PDF, PDF/A and XML.

‘Critically Endangered’ in the Presence of Aggravating Conditions

Encryption; uncertainty over IPR or the presence of orphaned works; uncertain business model of publisher; lack of legal deposit mandate.

‘Vulnerable’ in the Presence of Good Practice

Rights management conducive to preservation; held in a trusted repository; legislation in place such as legal deposit enabling copying.

2023 Review

In 2019, this entry was added as a subset of a previous 2017 entry, ‘Digital Music Production and Sharing,’ which was split to draw attention to the different challenges faced by the different forms. This entry focuses on digitally published sheet music, which often takes the form of PDF and PDF/A, and E-Book formats. The 2021 Jury made no changes to this entry classification or trend but did comment on the importance of legislation (such as legal deposit) to manage associated risks. The 2022 Taskforce noted no change to the trend (they agreed these risks remain on the same basis as before).

The 2023 Council agreed with the Endangered with the overall risks remaining on the same basis as before (‘No change’ to trend) though noted an increase in imminence of action.

2024 Interim Review

These risks remain on the same basis as before, with no significant trend towards even greater or reduced risk (‘No change’ to trend).

Additional Comments

The commercial value of these materials should be a protection against their loss, and the history of the music industry indicates that sheet music continues to have value, so even if an individual organization fails or its DRM servers go offline, and some music becomes inaccessible, it is not lost. However, the difficulties of archiving DRM-locked files remain real.

Primary and/or original recordings of radio broadcasts generated live but often poorly stored thereafter, for example offline recordings on single LTO (Linear Tape Open) Tapes.

Digital Species: Sound and Vision

Consensus Decision

Added to List: 2017

Previously: Endangered

Imminence of Action

Action is recommended within three years, detailed assessment within one year.

Significance of Loss

The loss of tools, data or services within this group would impact on people and sectors around the world.

Effort to Preserve | Inevitability

It would require a major effort to prevent or reduce losses in this group, possibly requiring the development of new preservation tools or techniques.

Examples

Broadcast archives include but are not limited to national, local, public, commercial radio.

‘Critically Endangered’ in the Presence of Aggravating Conditions

Lack of archival mandate; lack of capability of archive; lack of policy or capacity within broadcaster; small or unprofitable broadcaster; uncertainty over IPR or the presence of orphaned works; overzealous rights management protection; device or software dependence; dependence on proprietary or obsolete formats; lack or loss of documentation; little use or inaccessibility; storage (typically tapes) older than warranty; lack of media refreshment plan; lack of error or integrity checking process; single copies.

‘Vulnerable’ in the Presence of Good Practice

Archival responsibility accepted and acted upon; replication; refreshment of media; good documentation; active in digital preservation community; trusted repository; content re-used.

2023 Review

This entry was added in 2017 as a separate entry due to concern over recordings on LTO tapes. These provide between 15 and 30 years’ storage which may be less depending on usage and storage conditions. LTO1 and LTO2, released in 2000 and 2003 respectively, have largely reached the final phases of viability. Reader compatibility may be more problematic than media resilience, however. Drives supporting newer releases of the format are typically only compatible within two generations, and experience with the recently released LTO8 suggests that it is only backwardly compatible to one generation. For instance, one major national archive and library had decided to expedite migration away from LTO6, which is becoming obsolete more quickly than anticipated. Through time, the risks to collections that have not been refreshed or replicated from early LTO tapes expand. Thus, the overall trend is towards greater risk when collections are not migrated. Older formats, perhaps as recently as LTO6, extinction events should be anticipated within two to five years. The 2020 and 2021 Juries, as well as the 2022 Taskforce, agreed with the Endangered classification, noting no change to the trend (they agreed these risks remain on the same basis as before).

The 2023 Council similarly agreed with the Endangered classification with the overall risks remaining on the same basis as before (‘No change’ to trend). The 2023 Bit List Council also recommended that the next major review for the Bit List consider creating a new ‘Broadcast’ species group where this entry may be better suited.

2024 Interim Review

These risks remain on the same basis as before, with no significant trend towards even greater or reduced risk (‘No change’ to trend).

Additional Comments

Depending on the legislative context, digital radio recordings may fall under published works if they are broadcast. Additionally, if the recordings are broadcast by a taxpayer-funded broadcaster, record-keeping guidelines may already exist to advise how long content should be kept, which would then inform a selective approach to caring and looking after them for as long as required.

While broadcasters may keep their own programmes, they are often not comprehensively collected or archived by memory institutions as contributions to cultural heritage.

Case Studies or Examples:

• The Radio Preservation Task Force (RPTF), created in early 2014, grew out of the Library of Congress’s National Recording Preservation Plan (2012). See Radio Preservation Task Force (2014), Library of Congress. Available at: https://www.loc.gov/programs/national-recording-preservation-plan/about-this-program/radio-preservation-task-force/ [accessed 24 October 2023].

• The British Library Save Our Sounds National Radio Archive project (2018) to create a digital radio archive that will preserve a representative proportion of ongoing UK radio output and make this available for research. National Radio Archive (2018), British Library. Available at: https://www.bl.uk/projects/national-radio-archive [accessed 24 October 2023].

• Meddeb, S. and Cecchine, R. (2023) ‘The Valorization of the Tunisian Radio Archive in the Artificial Intelligence Era’, iPres 2023, Urbana-Champaign, Illinois, USA, 19–22 September.

Materials saved to flash drives or other solid-state media in the last five years where the reader devices are still supported and can be integrated easily into hardware infrastructure.

Digital Species: Portable Media

Consensus Decision

Added to List: 2019

Previously: Endangered

Imminence of Action

Action is recommended within three years, detailed assessment within one year.

Significance of Loss

The loss of tools, data or services within this group would impact on people and sectors around the world.

Effort to Preserve | Inevitability

It would require a small effort to preserve materials in this group, requiring the application of proven tools and techniques.

Examples

USB memory sticks; flash cards in cameras; solid state portable hard disks.

‘Critically Endangered’ in the Presence of Aggravating Conditions

Poor storage conditions; encryption; digital rights management; uncertainty over IPR or the presence of orphaned works; lack of replication; lack of documentation; lack of periodic testing; lack of refreshment pathway; lack of access to readers; out of manufacturer warranty or no warranty; storage in paper files.

‘Vulnerable’ in the Presence of Good Practice

Regular review and testing; replication; refreshment plan; comprehensive documentation; high quality storage; regular maintenance of readers; multiple readers available.

2023 Review

The 2019 Jury introduced this entry to ensure that the range of media storage is properly assessed and presented. The 2020 and 2021 Juries, and 2022 Taskforce, agreed with the entry’s assigned risk classification with no noted changes towards increased or reduced risk (no change to trend).

The 2023 Council agreed with the risk classification of Endangered with the overall risks remaining on the same basis as before (‘No change’ to trend).

2024 Interim Review

The 2024 Council agreed these risks remain on the same basis as before, with no significant trend towards even greater or reduced risk (‘No change’ to trend).

Additional Comments

This entry is highly dependent on who is looking after the portable media but made more difficult over time. The lack of granularity in the definition means that only general advice can be offered, such as to refresh media. In time, it may yet be more useful to split all storage media (maybe 100 items long) with an indication of how long these can be expected to last. In many cases, specialists can recover obsolete media, but the cost of employing them can become an aggravating condition.

Materials saved to DVDs, CDs or other optical media in the last five years where the reader devices are still supported and can be integrated easily into hardware infrastructure.

Digital Species: Portable Media

Consensus Decision

Added to List: 2019

Previously: Endangered

Imminence of Action

Action is recommended within three years, detailed assessment within one year.

Significance of Loss

The loss of tools, data or services within this group would impact on people and sectors around the world.

Effort to Preserve | Inevitability

It would require a small effort to preserve materials in this group, requiring the application of proven tools and techniques.

Examples

CDs, DVDs produced in the last five years.

‘Critically Endangered’ in the Presence of Aggravating Conditions

Poor storage conditions; encryption; digital rights management; uncertainty over IPR or the presence of orphaned works; lack of replication; lack of documentation; lack of periodic testing; lack of refreshment pathway; lack of access to readers; out of manufacturers’ warranty or no warranty; storage in paper files; environmental disasters; technical preservation measures.

‘Vulnerable’ in the Presence of Good Practice

Regular review and testing; replication; refreshment plan; comprehensive documentation; high quality storage; regular maintenance of readers; multiple readers available.

2023 Review

The 2019 Jury introduced this entry to ensure that the range of media storage is properly assessed and presented. The 2020 and 2020 Juries, and 2022 Taskforce, agreed with the entry’s assigned risk classification with no noted changes towards increased or reduced risk (no change to trend).

The 2023 Council agreed with the risk classification of Endangered with the overall risks remaining on the same basis as before (‘No change’ to trend). Additionally, the Council recommended that a nomination received for ‘DVDs produced under copyright’ would provide a valuable example to this entry rather than as a new, standalone entry.

2024 Interim Review

These risks remain on the same basis as before, with no significant trend towards even greater or reduced risk (‘No change’ to trend).

Additional Comments

This entry is highly dependent on who is looking after the portable media but made more difficult over time. The lack of granularity in the definition means that only general advice can be offered, such as to refresh media. In time, it may yet be more useful to split all storage media (maybe 100 items long) with an indication of how long these can be expected to last. In many cases, specialists can recover obsolete media, but the cost of employing them can become an aggravating condition.

Case Studies or Examples:

• One example, presented to the Council through a 2023 nomination, concerns the loss of digital materials stored in DVDs. A 3,500 DVD ‘film collection’ was destroyed during the fire at the University Library Archives and Special Collections, University of Cape Town, South Africa. There were no backup copies in large part because of the (mis)understanding that they were prevented by copyright from making backup copies. This example extends beyond the loss of material in the optical media, particularly in respect to backups and issues surrounding copyright, but in the context of the entry shows how aggravating factors can place content at greater risk due to aggravating factors not only to copyright but also global warming with more such fires, floods and natural disasters to be expected. See News in Conservation (2021) ‘Devastating Cape Town fire destroys University Library Archives and Special Collections’, News in Conservation, International Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works, Volume 84, p. 8-9, June-July 2021. Available at: https://www.iiconservation.org/content/news-conservation-issue-84-june-july-2021 [accessed 24 October 2023]

Original recordings of music and other performance from which retail products are derived, typically in multiple tracks and uncompressed high-resolution sound quality.

Digital Species: Sound and Vision

Consensus Decision

Added to List: 2019

Previously: Endangered

Imminence of Action

Action is recommended within three years, detailed assessment within one year.

Significance of Loss

The loss of tools, data or services within this group would impact on people and sectors around the world.

Effort to Preserve | Inevitability

It would require a small effort to address losses in this group, requiring the application of proven preservation tools or techniques.

Examples

Original official recordings of a song, sound or performance owned by music industry.

‘Critically Endangered’ in the Presence of Aggravating Conditions

Single point of failure; storage on old or degrading media; lack of ongoing investment in changing preservation requirements; lack of capability; poor documentation; dependence on small staff; Uncertainty over IPR or the presence of orphaned works.

‘Vulnerable’ in the Presence of Good Practice

High-quality storage; meticulous and consistent replication; trusted repository; preservation requirement understood at the executive level and funded accordingly; leadership in preservation community; expert staff.

2023 Review

In 2019, this entry was added as a subset of a previous 2017 entry, ‘Digital Music Production and Sharing,’ which was split to draw attention to the different challenges faced by the different forms. Though it overlaps with other entries, including ‘Digital Archives of Music Production,’ it is a separate entry to emphasize the inherent and great value of original recordings over and above those distributed and the concomitant need for active preservation. Both the 2021 Jury and 2022 Taskforce agreed with the Endangered classification with no noted changes towards increased or reduced risk. The 2022 Taskforce additionally recommended use of the term original or primary rather than the term master, except for where it is part of a format’s formal name or an industry-standard use, which is now reflected in this entry and other relevant areas of the Bit List.

The 2023 Council agreed with the Endangered with the overall risks remaining on the same basis as before (‘No change’ to trend).

2024 Interim Review

These risks remain on the same basis as before, with no significant trend towards even greater or reduced risk (‘No change’ to trend).

Additional Comments

The imminence of action will depend on format and age, and the significance of loss may be more largely felt if they are recordings of a major recording star.

This is interesting as the recording houses should be seeing the value of these – so why are they not taking responsibility for looking after them? Do they not feel it is in their financial interests? The archival practices of the studios are typically based on value – the recordings are assumed to be worth keeping. However, this means relatively low-value originals may not be transferred to new media in a timely way and could be lost. There is no comprehensive deposit scheme to address the long tail of music production, and it is often unclear exactly where responsibility lies.

Case Studies or Examples:

• The Jury was particularly aware of the case of the ‘Universal Fire’ of 2008. See Rosen, J. (2019) ‘The Day the Music Burned’, The New York Times. Available at: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/11/magazine/universal-fire-master-recordings.html [accessed 24 October 2023].

• MQA (Master Quality Authenticated), a means of digitally capturing and storing original master recordings as files without the usual loss in fidelity usually experienced with compressed audio files, has gone into administration - if you have MQA files it should still work. That being said, MQA is not lossless and it’s better to get true lossless FLAC files. See McKerrell, H. (2023), ‘MQA has gone into administration: what does this mean for Tidal and supported products?’, What HI-FI? Available at: https://www.whathifi.com/features/mqa-has-gone-into-administration-what-does-this-mean-for-tidal-and-supported-products [accessed 24 October 2023].

See also:

• Purdy, K. (2024) ‘Music industry’s 1990s hard drives, like all HDDs, are dying’, Ars Technica. Available at: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/09/music-industrys-1990s-hard-drives-like-all-hdds-are-dying/ [accessed 13 September 2024].

• Mattmann, B. and Lindenmann, I. (2021) ‘Starting with complexity: Archiving digital-born music compositions from Mac systems of the 80s/90s’, Digital Preservation Coalition Blog. Available at https://www.dpconline.org/blog/wdpd/starting-with-complexity [accessed 24 October 2023].

Documents, correspondence and other records created in the course of contractual dealings between individuals and agencies, especially where the subjects are of long duration and may be subject to legal scrutiny at undefined points in the distant future.

Digital Species: Legal Data

Consensus Decision

Added to List: 2019

Previously: Endangered

Imminence of Action

Action is recommended within three years, and detailed assessment within one year.

Significance of Loss

The loss of tools, data or services within this group would impact on people and sectors around the world.

Effort to Preserve | Inevitability

It would require a small effort to preserve materials in this group, requiring the application of proven tools and techniques.

Examples

Contracts, receipts, correspondence, licence agreements, building consent, warranties, and any other document or record that represents a legally binding transaction or permission. Such records may be useful in the avoidance or resolution of disputes, whether in court or prior to proceedings. Includes Online Terms and Conditions for e-commerce or end-user agreements for services.

‘Critically Endangered’ in the Presence of Aggravating Conditions

Loss of context; loss of authenticity or integrity; external dependencies; poor storage; lack of understanding; churn of staff; poorly framed or over-zealous disposal; ill-informed records management; misplaced fears with respect to data protection, encryption; Uncertainty over IPR or the presence of orphaned works.

‘Vulnerable’ in the Presence of Good Practice

Managed appraisal; well managed data governance and infrastructure; preservation and appropriate retention strategies enabled at the point of creation; carefully managed authenticity; use of persistent identifiers; finding aids; well managed records management processes; application of records management standards.

2023 Review

This entry was added in 2019 as a subset of an entry introduced in 2017 for ‘Digital Legal Records and Evidence,’ which was split into four more discrete entries. There is overlap with Pension Mortgage and Insurance Records entry, but this entry addresses digital records with value over the long term that may not be immediately obvious at the point of creation.

The likelihood of liquidation, mergers or acquisitions means that these records are trending towards greater risk. There was a 2020 trend towards greater risk in light of the Covid Pandemic causing profound dislocation across the economy, placing many companies and agencies at financial risk. There was no identified trend for 2021 or 2022. While there are some noticeable improvements in record-keeping legislation and regulations and guidance to this area, with a growing number of agencies handling and advising on what needs to be kept and for how long, both the 2021 Jury and 2022 Taskforce agreed there remained room for improving how legal agreements are managed through records management standards and processes.

The 2023 Council agreed with the Endangered classification with the overall risks remaining on the same basis as before (‘No change’ to trend).

2024 Interim Review

These risks remain on the same basis as before, with no significant trend towards even greater or reduced risk (‘No change’ to trend).

Additional Comments

Closer collaboration over the digital record lifecycle with recordkeeping organizations such as IRMS/ARA and digital preservation organizations would help to ensure best practice from (before) record creation to its long-term preservation and would help to identify any risks and bridge gaps ‘from the cradle to the grave’. Joining forces and resources will enable the community to raise awareness of the impact of best practices on the organizational governance and related efficiencies. 

Managed appraisal of these documents and records would also aid in lowering the risk of this entry.

See also:

• The work and outputs of the EDRMS Preservation Taskforce, such as the EDRMS Preservation Toolkit, may be helpful for guidance as many of these records will be held in EDRMS type systems. See Digital Preservation Coalition (2021) ‘EDRMS Preservation Toolkit’. Available at: https://www.dpconline.org/digipres/implement-digipres/edrms-preservation-toolkit [accessed 24 October 2023]

Open source social media and web content that has been used to support the conclusions of crowd-sourced investigation and fact-checking in political or military conflict.

Digital Species: Legal Data

Added to List: 2019

Previously: Endangered

Imminence of Action

Action is recommended within twelve months, detailed assessment is a priority.

Significance of Loss

The loss of tools, data or services within this group would impact on people and sectors around the world.

Effort to Preserve | Inevitability

It would require a major effort to prevent or reduce losses in this group, possibly requiring the development of new preservation tools or techniques.

Examples

Social media sources relating to recent conflicts.

'Critically Endangered' in the presence of Aggravating Conditions

Encryption; loss of authenticity; lack of preservation agency; limited or no digital preservation capability; Uncertainty over IPR or the presence of orphaned works.

‘Vulnerable’ in the Presence of Good Practice

Offline backup captured by a journalist or investigating authority; materials presented and documented in court; court able to deliver preservation; authenticity protected

2023 Review

This entry was added in 2019 and subsequently split into three elements by the Jury, relating to current, recent and historic sources. This entry relates to materials used in evidence in completed investigations, as well as those presented to courts or other investigatory agencies. Social media companies have a policy to take down or suppress content that they consider propaganda for terrorist groups. This has had the unintended consequence of deleting or suppressing content used in open source investigation or fact-checking for journalistic or judicial purposes, which may impede refutation or prosecution. However, a new generation of cloud-based services now allows investigators to copy and stabilize content to private accounts in the process of investigating it, so the ethical requirements of social media companies and the integrity of the investigation are both served. The 2020 Jury noted that such content remains at risk. The presentation of data to a court or prosecuting authority, or the publication through news media, implies the introduction of a long-term preservation function. The 2021 Jury agreed with this assessment and Endangered classification but changed the 2021 trend towards greater risk in light of recent developments in crowd-sourced investigations and fact-checking. The 2022 Taskforce agreed on a trend towards even greater risk based on the increased significance of crowd-sourced investigations and fact-checking in light of ongoing global conflicts that include (but are not limited to) those in Ukraine.

The 2023 Council agreed with the Endangered classification with the overall risks remaining on the same basis as before (‘No change’ to trend), noting that some of the description and language used in the entry may be confusing. For example, one might think if investigations are complete that surely the parts used as evidence or published in articles are captured elsewhere and presumably preserved there? While this may be the case, presuming long term preservation may lead to future loss in instances where this is not true. Here, risks can overlap with those found in 'Evidence in Court' and 'Proceedings in Court' entries, which themselves indicate that standard records management processes within designated agencies should be able to take care of the preservation of materials like this but, given that it is likely to involve complex types of data, such agencies may not be equipped to deliver preservation effectively.

The 2023 Council additionally recommended further scoping of the entry with input from those working with these materials directly, to help explain the unique challenges as well as examples where content has been lost due to deletion by social media companies and/or legal retention periods where certain content may not fall under the scope of records for long-term or permanent retention.

2024 Interim Review

These risks remain on the same basis as before, with no significant trend towards even greater or reduced risk (‘No change’ to trend).

The Council noted the work by the Syrian Archive, WITNESS, Data Cívica, Amnesty International’s Citizen Evidence Lab, the Human Rights Data Analysis Group, Mnemonic and UC Berkeley Human Rights Center potentially contributes specific preservation strategies and technologies for open source intelligence.

Additional Comments

Case Studies or Examples:

• The 2020 Medical Facilities Under Fire report by the Syrian Archive., which provides information on how The Syrian Archive and its partners (Syrians for Truth and Justice, Justice for Life) analyzed and verified pattern of attacks by cross referencing a combination of open-source visual content, flight observation data, and witness statements. Through collecting, verifying and reporting investigative findings from these incidents, the authors hope to preserve critical information that may be used for advocacy purposes or as evidence in future proceedings seeking legal accountability. See Syrian Archive (2017), ‘Medical Facilities Under Fire’. Available at: https://syrianarchive.org/en/investigations/Medical-Facilities-Under-Fire [accessed 24 October 2023]

See also:

• Higgins, E. (2019) ‘Bellingcat and beyond. The future for Bellingcat and online open source investigation’, iPres Conference 2019, Amsterdam. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZAb7CVGmXM [accessed 24 October 2023]

• European Human Rights Advocacy Centre (EHRAC) blog post providing a Q&A on ‘Using Open Source Investigations in Human Rights Litigation,’ noting their approach to gather and present evidence of Russian military presence in and around Ilovaisk in August 2014. See European Human Rights Advocacy Centre (EHRAC) (2022), ‘Q&A: USING OPEN SOURCE INVESTIGATIONS IN HUMAN RIGHTS LITIGATION’. Available at: https://ehrac.org.uk/en_gb/blog/qa-using-open-source-investigations-in-human-rights-litigation/ [accessed 24 October 2023]

• Baumhofer, E., and Reilly, B. (2022) ‘Preserving Open Source Digital Evidence a Guide for Practitioners Working on Dealing with the Past Essential’ Swiss Peace. Available at:https://www.swisspeace.ch/assets/publications/Essentials/Essentials20221031_Preserving-Open-Source-Digital-Evidence.pdf [accessed 7 October 2024]

Recordings of game playing and e-sports that show how games are experienced and played, especially multi-user online games and tournaments.

Digital Species: Gaming, Sound and Vision, Social Media, Web

Consensus Decision

Added to List: 2019

Previously: Endangered

Imminence of Action

Action is recommended within three years, detailed assessment within one year.

Significance of Loss

The loss of tools, data or services within this group would impact on people and sectors around the world.

Effort to Preserve

It would require a major effort to prevent or reduce losses in this group, possibly requiring the development of new preservation tools or techniques.

Examples

Material uploaded to Amazon Twitch, game channels on YouTube and other playback services.

‘Critically Endangered’ in the Presence of Aggravating Conditions

Uncertainty over IPR or the presence of orphaned works; lack of offline backup; changing business model of providers; limited recognition of the cultural and historic value of game play; over-dependence on goodwill subsidy of an ad-hoc community; lack of preservation know-how at service providers; dependency on bespoke hardware or interfaces; DMCA takedowns.

‘Vulnerable’ in the Presence of Good Practice

Offline backup; managed intellectual property rights; players and audiences invested in data.

2023 Review

This entry was added in 2019 as a subset of an entry made in 2017 for ‘Gaming,’ which the Jury split into four more discrete entries. There are overlaps with Social Media entries, except this category specifically draws attention to gaming and e-sports and therefore is a subset of both. By including as a separate entry, the 2019 Jury encouraged greater consideration of the cultural and historic value that such recordings are likely to acquire as well as the technical and economic challenges to preservation. The content is not particularly distinctive in technical terms, but there are aggravating circumstances, namely an almost complete reliance on commercial third parties (Google/YouTube and Amazon/Twitch) for the infrastructure around video capture and hosting. As the majority of this material is experienced and hosted on user-driven and ephemeral platforms such as YouTube and Twitch, it is less 'collectable' than the actual games and is unlikely to exist in private or public collections. Involves platforms that the digital preservation sector does not have much experience working with, e.g., Twitch. For these reasons, the 2021 trend was towards greater risk.

In 2023, whilst the Endangered classification and overall risk remained the same, the Council noted an increased trend towards greater risk due to an increase of copyright strikes on content, especially Nintendo gameplay videos. The 2023 Council also noted this is tied to other entries under the gaming species, especially ‘Shut Down and Discontinued Games’, as gameplay videos might be all that remains of the original experience of some games as well as being used to document the moment a server closed. Additionally, there can be intersecting issues with entries under the social media species, such as ‘Born Digital Photographs and Video shared via Social Media Platforms’ when addressing broader issues surrounding the capture and sharing of video content via a social media platform.

2024 Interim Review

These risks remain on the same basis as before, with no significant trend towards even greater or reduced risk (‘No change’ to trend).

Additional Comments

Copyright claims on video content by publishers such as Nintendo also complicate things. One example of major copyright claims affecting content creators has been Nintendo issuing copyright strikes on a Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild video due to its demonstration of a fan-made mod and, once the issue had been raised, more copyright strikes were issued on Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild videos that did not contain footage of the mod. In other cases, content creators have had to deal with copyright strikes being issued due to the in-game music.

The significance of loss here is high because recordings, including commentary, and onscreen interactions with other players, seem likely to be the best way of preserving the experience of playing certain games at certain times. We are familiar with the challenges of preserving video, but we need to think about how established approaches will work in the context of the aggravating circumstances outlined above. There is a degree of urgency associated with working out how (legally and technically) preserving the materials that they hold may be preserved.

Important for social context, and from a DP point of view videos should not be too hard, but if we are capturing the experience to inform digital preservation actions and intents, then do not these videos exist in places such as YouTube and wouldn't they be brought in as part of the 'documentary' evidence of DP actions taken on the game or sports that have come into the archive?

Case Studies or Examples:

• Ubisoft (2024) ‘Posting copyrighted Ubisoft material’, Ubisoft. Available at: https://www.ubisoft.com/en-gb/help/connectivity-and-performance/article/posting-copyrighted-ubisoft-material/000062649 [accessed 06 September 2024]

• The Game Archivist YouTube channel is dedicated to recording full gameplay videos with no commentary to “keep their experience preserved”. See The Game Archivist (n.d.), YouTube. Available at: //www.youtube.com/@thegamearchivist/about">https://www.youtube.com/@thegamearchivist/about [accessed 24 October 2023].

• Bedingfield, W. (2023) ‘Nintendo’s Copyright Strikes Push Away Its Biggest Fans’, WIRED. Available at: https://www.wired.co.uk/article/nintendo [accessed 24 October 2023].

Digital records of the creative and production process for film and television, such as initial designs, screenplay and script, on set still photography, rushes or out-takes that are not included in the final production and therefore not available to on-air broadcast archives or film libraries.

Digital Species: Sound and Vision

Consensus Decision

Added to List: 2017

Previously: Endangered

Imminence of Action

Action is recommended within twelve months, detailed assessment is a priority.

Significance of Loss

The loss of tools, data or services within this group would impact on many people and sectors.

Effort to Preserve | Inevitability

It would require a major effort to prevent or reduce losses in this group, possibly requiring the development of new preservation tools or techniques.

Examples

TV and Movie production archives in digital form; outputs of script management software; drafts of a screenplay; continuity photography; costume design; set design; lighting and sound design.

‘Critically Endangered’ in the Presence of Aggravating Conditions

Lack of custodial responsibility; Uncertainty over IPR or the presence of orphaned works; lack of appraisal; lack of recognition of preservation at executive level.

‘Vulnerable’ in the Presence of Good Practice

Preservation responsibility understood and acted upon; preservation infrastructure and planning for key items; access and use of collections to inform subsequent productions.

2023 Review

This entry was first introduced in 2017 and noted as being ‘of concern,' though the Jury did not have the capacity to assess the entry thoroughly. Additional expertise was recruited for the 2019 Jury, and the entry was added with the Endangered classification based on the materials not being collected in any coherent way, likely loss when not valued by production companies, costly space needed to hold them, and lack of expertise needed to catalogue and collect them. In other words, this is not primarily a technical problem and advocacy is needed urgently. The 2021 Jury added the trend towards greater risk in light of the rise of streaming services. The movie and film industry has been digitizing for a long time, but COVID has brought with it the rise of streaming services like Netflix, Disney+ etc., with productions tied to their organizations. These types of pre-production materials are great for promotion before and immediately after release; ongoing preservation after promotion finishes is unclear or uncertain. The 2022 Taskforce noted no change to the trend (they agreed these risks remain on the same basis as before).

The 2023 Council agreed with the Endangered with the overall risks remaining on the same basis as before (‘No change’ to trend) but noted an increased imminence for this entry.

2024 Interim Review

These risks remain on the same basis as before, with no significant trend towards even greater or reduced risk (‘No change’ to trend).

Additional Comments

With the importance of advocacy in mind, it is important to raise awareness and educate directors and filmmakers about managing their digital archive so that it is still accessible if donated to a cultural institution in the future.

Digital materials where copyright is uncertain, disputed or unknowable, meaning that preservation actions are constrained or prevented.

Digital Species: Orphaned Works

Consensus Decision

Added to List: 2017

Previously: Endangered

Imminence of Action

Action is recommended within three years, detailed assessment within one year.

Significance of Loss

The loss of tools, data or services within this group would impact on many people and sectors.

Effort to Preserve | Inevitability

Loss seems inevitable. Loss has already occurred or is expected to occur before tools or techniques develop.

Examples

Photographs, music recordings, literature.

‘Critically Endangered’ in the Presence of Aggravating Conditions

Lack of understanding of copyright; lack of documentation; dependencies resulting from hardware, software or media; lack of use resulting in lack of priority; lack of strategic investment in digital preservation; workflows that inhibit preservation of content that has not been licensed; encryption; poor storage.

‘Vulnerable’ in the Presence of Good Practice

Preservation pathway enabled; proven preservation plan applied; active effort to resolve IPR issues; institutional willingness to take risks for preservation.

2023 Review

When this entry was added in 2017, there was little evidence of any renewed effort to address the issue of orphaned work. While there have been improvements to the baseline competence of the archival and library professions in their understanding of copyright and the skills to preserve contents, this alone provides a narrow basis for optimism and the scale of the challenge is likely to have grown just as quickly if not more so as aggravating conditions become more prevalent too. The 2021 Jury added that while content is preservable, the preservation of orphan works is a matter of process and risk appetite. Added to the complexity are changes to copyright legislation in and across different national and regional contexts, particularly for UK institutions post-Brexit, as noted in the additional comments below. For this reason, there was a 2021 trend towards greater risk.

The 2023 Council noted that this entry was trending towards greater risk as the longer orphaned works are left without preservation attention, the more vulnerable they become. The complexity of copyright legislation as well as works that cross over several domains/institutions adds to this increased risk. They additionally recommended that, given Orphaned Works is both a species and an entry, that the next major review for the Bit List includes a rescoping and splitting of this entry to cover the broad spectrum of Orphaned Works and their various preservation issues and efforts

2024 Interim Review

The 2024 Council agreed with a 2023 recommended rescoping of Orphaned Works as both a species and an entry. Intellectual property rights impact every category, so it is better to embed considerations of it throughout relevant entries than to keep it as a single entry and standalone species. These considerations have been incorporated into key elements and examples to relevant entries throughout the current Bit List, and the Orphan Works species and entry will be removed from the next 2025 Bit List.

Additional Comments

A risk-based approach is recommended for organizations. Copyright infringements are only likely to become a significant issue in the context of access, and in most cases, the likelihood of any specific action is small. Preservation needs to be presented as a social good, one without which copyright holders would simply be unable to benefit from the property rights they seek to protect.

For UK institutions, the 2021 Jury recommended commentary by Naomi Korn on the status of orphan works and the impact of Brexit – that UK institutions are no longer able to make use of the EU Orphan Works Directive and the alternative Orphan Works Licensing Scheme is costly. A list of resources is available at https://naomikorn.com/resources/. For those in the UK, there is also the UK Copyright and Creative Economy Centre (CREATe) for resources on orphan works and copyright more broadly at https://www.create.ac.uk/resources/.

Case Studies or Examples:

• The National Disc of the BBC Domesday Project offers an example of loss outside of the legal deposit mandate where the copyright owner cannot be traced. See Finnay, A. (n.d.) ATSF. Available at: https://www.atsf.co.uk/dottext/domesday.html [accessed 24 October 2023].

• Archive of Our Own is a non-commercial and nonprofit central hosting place for fanworks using open-source archiving software. As part of their system, there is a way for users to orphan works to keep the work active but delete any identifying data and transfer the work to a special account. Archive of Our Own (n.d.) ‘Orphaning’. Available at: https://archiveofourown.org/faq/orphaning?language_id=en [accessed 24 October 2023].