Frequently Asked Questions: American Folklife Center

Rights over the recordings in American Folklife Center (AFC) collections generally belong to the performers featured on the recording or to the descendants / estates of these performers. However, the rights may belong to another party altogether, including (but not limited to) a collection's donor, a radio station, or the traditional community of origin.  

In order to assess the rights over a particular recording, AFC staff members will search the collection and correspondence files to see if the contact information for the recording's rights holder is on file. If no such information is available, the AFC will suggest various mechanisms by which you will be able to make a good-faith attempt to contact any rights holders.

In some cases, the songs/music that were recorded may still be under copyright protection; such a case would require and entail a separate copyright search.

Photographs taken by government employees are, generally, free of restrictions, but individual privacy rights may suggest that a permissions search be undertaken for individuals in portrait shots, etc., just to be certain those individuals are comfortable with their image appearing in the context you propose.

Please send us your inquiries with any information you may already have about the recording or photo in which you are interested.