Gift Agreement language around cracking passwords?

[Kari R Smith]

Hi there,

I’m looking for pointers to (or actual language used) for gift agreements that include transfer of born-digital material and the rights of the Archives to use password cracking to access/ transfer files that are password protected.

 

Thanks, BC HiveMind

 

Kari R. Smith

Digital Archivist and Program Head for Born-digital Archives

Institute Archives and Special Collections

Massachusetts Institute of Technology Libraries, Cambridge, Massachusetts

617.253.5690   smithkr at mit.edu   http://libraries.mit.edu/archives/  @karirene69

 

[Shira Peltzman]

 Hi Kari,

This is something that we're actually in the midst of figuring out ourselves at the moment. We tried to stick to language that would be relatively simple and straightforward:

 

“UCLA reserves the right to crack passwords or encryption systems to gain access to electronic data received as part of the Materials for the purposes of preservation.”

 

(One important caveat I should add here is that the above language has not yet been reviewed or approved by our campus counsel, so obviously it cannot be incorporated into our official deed of gift until that happens.)

What language did you come up with in the end? And were you able to track down any other examples of deed of gifts or donor agreements that address this topic?

 

Shira