1The development of digital historiography, based on the approach of studying and (re)presenting the past with new digital communication technologies, has led to a re-conceptualisation of history and historiography. Even before we historians were able to ask ourselves at the beginning of this evolutionary journey whether we were ready to accept the fact that the understanding and practice of traditional history was fundamentally changing with the development of the digital humanities, we encountered several questions or issues. One particularly extensive and at the same time very important area involved copyright law and the internet, discussed by the authors in the present article from a professional and substantive point of view, using the example of the History of Slovenia – SIstory portal.

2We have divided the work into two major thematic units, focusing on the first steps in the copyright journey from the selection of materials to their publication on the SIstory portal and on the practical examples of copyright regulation.

3In the conclusion, we summarise the lessons learned about economic and moral rights under copyright law in the digital age. We have found that economic rights give creators primacy over particular forms of exploitation of their creation (the right of reproduction, public performance, etc.). They can decide how to pursue their economic interests, whether to exploit their work themselves to the exclusion of all others or to allow someone else to exploit their creation in exchange for a fee. We point out that recently, “economic rights no longer refer only to the exploitation of copyrighted work, but also to certain forms of using copies of copyrighted work” (distribution right, rental right). We have also established that moral rights ensure that authors can pursue the personal interests associated with their creation. This is also the case when authors have transferred the right to exploit their work to another person. Moral rights guarantee that the author’s name appears on every copy of the copyrighted work, or, in the case of communication to the public, and that the author’s work will not be mutilated, defaced, etc.

4We believe that copyright is a collective term for a variety of different entitlements that ensure the realisation of the creator’s economic and moral interests in connection with the exploitation of the copyrighted work. As such, it is indispensable for further creation in both the analogue and digital worlds.