Here's A Question Received by Ask Amigos, Our Free Service to Amigos Members That Provides Advice, Referral, and Resources Delivered by Phone and e-mail.

We have a collection – still being transcribed – of oral histories and transcriptions started in 2004. The county librarian at the time asked that all items in the collection be marked as copyright-protected. Without documenting whether or not it is, can we simply say that an item is copyright-protected?

Answer (from Ask Amigos consultant Tim Prather)
I found the following useful article about copyright and oral histories: http://ontheline.trincoll.edu/oral-history/creative-commons/

Although the main point of the article is about using a Creative Commons License so that copyright is shared by the original interviewee and the institution creating the history, it also discusses the standard procedures related to copyrighting oral histories. It also cites a specific work that will provide more information about this issue:

John Neuenschwander, Oral History and the Law

To summarize what the article says, traditionally the person interviewed signs over the rights to the organization in a consent form. If you don’t have the consent form, then I think the copyright belongs to the person who was interviewed and you would need permission to share it. It’s probably OK to make the transcription, but if you want to let other people read it, you need to own the copyright outright or get permission from the person interviewed.

I would also recommend posting your question to the Copyright Advisory Network: http://www.librarycopyright.net/. They have a forum where you can post questions and get answers from other librarians who have dealt with the issue.