audiovisual archiving: digital media codecs and wrappers technical characteristics of digital a/v...

AUDIOVISUAL ARCHIVING: DIGITAL MEDIA

Codecs and wrappers

Technical characteristics of digital A/V

Digitized vs. born-digital

Tools for digital video

Storage

Rights and Access

FILE FORMAT: “a standard way that information is encoded for storage in a computer file”; “a byte-serialized encoding of an information model”

CODEC: coder-decoder; “a device or program that compresses data to enable faster transmission and decompresses received data”

WRAPPER: digital container format; container; file format; “a metafile format (format that can store multiple types of data) whose specification describes how different elements of data and metadata coexist in a computer file”

Diagram taken from AVPreserve: http://: www.avpreserve.com/blog/a-primer-on-codecs-for-moving-image-and-sound-archives-2/

Diagram taken from W3C:http://www.w3.org/2007/08/video/report

LOSSY vs. LOSSLESS

LOSSY: Decreases filesize by permanently removing information from the original data

LOSSLESS: Decreases filesize by encoding information in such a way that the original data can be recovered

COMMON VIDEO CODECS

H.264/MPEG-4

MPEG-2

MOTION JPEG 2000

FFV1

APPLE PRORES

UNCOMPRESSED V210, UYVY, YUY2

DV

COMMON VIDEO WRAPPERS

QUICKTIME

AVI

MXF

MATROSKA

MP4

SAMPLE RATE AND BIT DEPTH: AUDIO

Diagram taken from Charlotte Keating: https://charlottekeating.wordpress.com/

VIDEO BIT DEPTH

number of bits used per color channel per pixel(8-bit = 256, 10-bit = 1024)

COLOR SPACE

RGB YUV

stores color as combination of luminance, blue

channel, red channel;used for TV/video

broadcast

stores color as combination of green

channel, blue channel, red channel;

most cameras capture this

Diagrams taken from Adobe: http://blogs.adobe.com/VideoRoad/2010/06/what_is_yuv.html

CHROMA SUBSAMPLING4:4:4: same sample rate for light and both color channels; absolute highest quality

4:2:2: two color channels sampled at half the rate as light channel; used in many high-quality formats

4:2:0: alternates sampling between the two color channels; used in DVD, Blu-ray, and most common access formats

4:1:1: two color channels sampled at ¼ the rate as light channel; used mostly in low-end consumer formats

ASPECT RATIO

relationship between image width and height

Pixel Aspect Ratio: PARSample Aspect Ratio: SARDisplay Aspect Ratio: DAR

PAR x SAR = DAR

DIGITIZED VS. BORN-DIGITAL

INTERLACING

DEINTERLACING

PRESERVATION QUALITYDIGITIZATION

PRESERVATION FILEcodecs: 10-bit uncompressed v210, JPEG2000, FFV1color space: YUVchroma subsampling: 4:2:2aspect ratio: preserve original (for video, usually 4:3) wrappers: .mov, .aviaudio: 48 kHz/24-bit PCM

MEZZANINE FILE/PRODUCTION MASTERSmost useful in production environmentscodecs: ProRes, DV50, high-quality H.264

ACCESS FILEshould be suitable for web playback, streaming, or institutional viewingcan be digital or physical (DVD)codecs: low-quality H.264, MPEG-2

NORMALIZING FOR PRESERVATION

WHY DO IT?

- It’s easier for an institution to commit to preserving a small subset of file types than to try and preserve all file types

- Unusual, complex, or highly proprietary formats are difficult to preserve

- Uncompressed video is costly in terms of storage space and processing time

NORMALIZING FOR PRESERVATION

WHY NOT DO IT?

- Video is complex, and it requires a lot of planning and technical expertise to make sure all salient characteristics are being preserved

- It’s not always possible to restore the original from a transcoded version

- Every technological process provides an opportunity for error or corruption

TOOLS

displays relevant technical metadata for video and audio files

produces libraries and programs for handling video and audio data

STORAGE

Navigating access to digital AV collections

Presented by Casey Davis@caseyedavis1

caseyedavis12@gmail.com

WHAT IS COPYRIGHT?

17 U.S.C. 102

Copyright protection subsists in “original works of authorship fixed in any tangible medium of expression.”

= INDEPENDENTLY CREATED + AT LEAST SOME MINIMAL DEGREE OF CREATIVITY

Copyright protection subsists in “original works of authorship fixed in any tangible medium of expression.”

What is copyrightable?• Literary works• Musical works• Dramatic works• Choreographic works• Pictorial, graphic and sculptural works• Motion pictures and other audiovisual works• Sound records• Architectural works

WHY IS VIDEO SO COMPLICATED?

talent unions

contracts

narration

writers

co-productions

studios

directors

recorded music

composed music

third party footage

lost contracts

producers

What’s not copyrightable?• Facts• Ideas• Concepts• Principles• Discoveries• Words, phrases, familiar symbols• Works not fixed in a “tangible medium of

expression”

IDEA/EXPRESSION DISTINCTION

WHAT’S AUTHORSHIP?

Copyright protection subsists in “original works of authorship fixed in any tangible medium of expression.”

17 U.S.C. 201

Copyright “vests initially in the author or authors of the work. The authors of a joint work are co-owners of copyright in the work.”

WORKS MADE FOR HIRE (17 U.S.C. 101)

• Within scope of employment• Works by independent contractors, which were commissioned

for use as a • Contribution to a collective work• Translation• Supplementary work• Compilation• Instructional text• Test• Answer material for a test• Atlas

JOINT AUTHORSHIP

• Two or more authors make copyrightable contributions to a work

• All intent that their contributions be merged into a unitary whole

Exclusive economic rights of owners (17 U.S.C. 106)• Right to reproduce/copy• Right to modify & make derivatives– Make a work based on the pre-existing work

(translation, motion picture version, abridgment, etc.)

• Right to distribute– Sell, give away, rent, or transmit copies to the

public• Right to perform/display to the public

BUT THERE ARE LIMITATIONS...

17 U.S.C. 108 (reproduction by libraries and archives)

17 U.S.C 107 (fair use)

108(A) LIBRARIES/ARCHIVES CAN REPRODUCE AND DISTRIBUTE ONE COPY IF:

• You reproduce or distribute for nonprofit purposes• You provide public access to your collections• You make your collections available for not only to

researchers affiliated with your institution but also to other people doing research in a specialized field

• Reproduction and distribution includes notice of copyright & that reproduction occurs through provisions of 108.

108(B) LIBRARIES/ARCHIVES CAN REPRODUCE THREE COPIES OF UNPUBLISHED WORKS FOR PURPOSES OF PRESERVATION IF:

• The copy reproduced is part of your collection• Any digital copy is not distributed digitally and not

made available to the public in that format outside the premises of the library/archives

108 (C) LIBRARIES/ARCHIVES CAN DUPLICATE PUBLISHED MATERIALS TO REPLACE DAMAGED, DETERIORATING, LOST, OR STOLEN, OR IF THE WORK BECOMES OBSOLETE IF:

• Unused replacement can’t be obtained at a fair price

• You don’t provide access to the digital copy outside your premises

OBSOLETE = MACHINE/DEVICE NECESSARY TO RENDER THE WORK IS NO LONGER MANUFACTURED OR REASONABLY AVAILABLE

108 (E) YOU CAN REPRODUCE AND DISTRIBUTE ENTIRE WORKS TO USERS OR OTHER LIBRARIES IF:

• You determine that a copy can’t be obtained at a fair price

• You have no knowledge that the copy would be used for any purpose other than private study, scholarship or research

• You display copyright notice• The audiovisual motion picture “deal[s] with

news”

IS THAT IT?

Nah. Let’s look at 17 U.S.C. 107 (fair use).

17 U.S.C. 107

“fair use of a copyright work, including such use by reproduction in copies...or by any other means specified in that section [106], for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright.”

IN DETERMINING WHETHER THE USE IS FAIR, CONSIDER THE FOUR FACTORS:

(1) Purpose and character of the use(2) Nature of the copyrighted work(3) Amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation

to the copyrighted work as a whole(4) Effect of the use on the potential market for or value of

the copyrighted work

That fact that a work is unpublished shall not itself bar a finding of fair use if such finding is made upon consideration of al of the above factors.

1) PURPOSE AND CHARACTERCampbell vs. Acuff-Rose case determined by Supreme Court established what is considered the “heart of fair use” – transformativeness.

A use is transformative when it alters the original work with a completely new meaning, message or expression.

The more transformative the use, the less the significance of the other three factors.

2) NATURE OF THE COPYRIGHTED WORK

-Unpublished works tend to receive more protection than published works (Harper vs. The Nation)

-The more creative the work, the more protection it tends to receive

3) AMOUNT AND SUBSTANTIALITY

-not just quantitative amount, but more importantly, the qualitative amount

-the “heart” of the work is more protected than the less creative portions of a work (Harper vs. the Nation)

4) EFFECT OF USE ON POTENTIAL MARKET

-including loss of sales, loss in potential markets, and licensing fees

-if use is for educational nonprofit purposes, the market harm must be demonstrated

LET’S DO AN EXERCISE

Review example agreementDetermine what we can do with the donated materialsReview another example agreementDetermine what we can do with the donated materialsLook at two example items to be donatedNotice any issues?Fair use analysisDetermination of access

CREATIVE COMMONSCreative Commons is a non-profit that provides copyright owners with free licenses that they can use to relinquish their rights to varying extents, allowing for the public to share and reuse their copyrighted works. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/

• Attribution – most accommodating of licenses• Attribution-ShareAlike – can modify/create derivatives, even

commercially (used by Wikipedia, open-source code)• Attribution-NoDerivs – redistribution, even commercially, but no

derivs• Attribution-NonCommercial – can distribute and create derivs but

only noncommercially• Attribution-NonCommerial-ShareAlike -- can modify/create derivs,

but only noncommercially• Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivs – most restrictive, only allows

download and sharing with others non commercially, no derivs

Source: Creative Commons, CC 4.0 international license

CREATIVE COMMONS

Source: CopyrightX, Harvard Law Schoolhttp://cyber.law.harvard.edu/people/tfisher/cx/ CopyrightX_Lecture6_Illustrations.pdf, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License

RISK ASSESSMENT – WHO IS GOING TO GET MAD?

• Direct infringement of exclusive economic rights• Secondary Liability• Contributory Infringement requires

• Direct infringement

• Knowledge by the defendant• Material contribution

• Vicarious Liability• Direct infringement• Financial interest in the infringement• Right and ability to supervise direct infringer

SUGGESTIONS

• Get the rights to the extent the donor can give you the rights to put it online

• Document the fair use analysis and rights that you have• Analyze the genres of content in your collection• Put a big take down notice on your digital archive website• Make users acknowledge your Rules of Use • Technological considerations• Click through acknowledgement of Rules of Use• Applying multiple levels of access for different types of

content• Understanding “streaming”

• Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Academic and Research Libraries: http://www.cmsimpact.org/fair-use/best-practices/code-best-practices-fair-use-academic-and-research-libraries

• Copyright & Cultural Institutions: Guidelines for Digitization for U.S. Libraries, Archives & Museums, by Peter B. Hirtle, Emily Hudson, and Andrew T. Kenyon (2009) http://ecommons.cornell.edu/bitstream/1813/14142/2/Hirtle-Copyright_final_RGB_lowres-cover1.pdf

• CopyrightX course & resources, Harvard Law School: copyx.org/

• Copyright Term and Public Domain in the United States, by Peter B. Hirtle: http://copyright.cornell.edu/resources/publicdomain.cfm

• U.S.C. 17: https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/17/

• Flowchart of Legal Questions about Digitizing News Archives, WGBH and Harvard Law School’s Cyberlaw Clinic: http://bostonlocaltv.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Flowchart-5-May-18-2014-v.-2.pdf

• A Primer on Codecs for Moving Image and Sound Archives, AVPreserve: http://www.avpreserve.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/AVPS_Codec_Primer.pdf

• Born Digital Video Preservation: A Final Report, Smithsonian Institution Archives:https://siarchives.si.edu/sites/default/files/pdfs/bornDigitalVideoPreservation2011.pdf

• Digitizing Video for Long-Term Preservation: An RFP Guide and Template, New York University Libraries:http://library.nyu.edu/preservation/VARRFP.pdf

• Format Descriptions for Moving Images, Library of Congress, http://www.digitalpreservation.gov/formats/fdd/video_fdd.shtml

• The Video Road, Adobe blog:http://blogs.adobe.com/VideoRoad/2010/06/what_is_yuv.htmlhttp://blogs.adobe.com/VideoRoad/2010/06/understanding_color_processing.htmlhttp://blogs.adobe.com/VideoRoad/2010/06/color_subsampling_or_what_is_4.html