When it comes to copyright laws, I am most familiar with Intellectual Property rights from the side of a creator. As an artist, whenever you post artwork online you are opening yourself up to the possibility of the image being stolen, reposted, and sold by another party. And it happens all the time. And now this seems to be a concept of which historians are now facing in regards to creating their own web pages.
A few key phrases to remember are Creative Commons and Fair Use. With a Creative Commons copyright, the creative work will enter the Public Domain after 14 years unless extended. This allows for the work to be distributed and built upon without charge. In many cases this is only for non-commercial uses.
Fair Use is described as the fluid area of Copyright as it has the guidelines can be interpreted on a case by case basis in courts. Generally if it is being used for nonprofit and/or educational uses, if the size of what is being sampled is relatively small and/or not the central message, and will not negatively impact the market of said quoted/sampled items then you are good to use it.
Like when writing a paper, always site your source and link to the original content whenever possible. Give credit where credit is due.
The one thing Rosenzweig and Cohen mention which I disagree with is the idea of not asking creators for permission of the use of their items even if it falls within the Creative Commons. While there is a distinction between asking a large corporation or the rights to use a image clips or music and a an individual, in my experience people do not respond kindly to stumbling upon their work in places they do not expect it to be. That is when cease and desists are sent out, or large fees are charged for usage rights.
This may just be a case of the attitudes in regards to copyright have changed over time.
The Reston Musuem, Loudoun Museum, and Alexandria Archaeology feature a tag line at the bottom of the page with the copyright symbol date of latest update and their name (ex. © 2017 by Reston Historic Trust and Museum). The City of Fairfax has its own page for copyright, but it merely lists the same information as the taglines. Manassas City website has an entire page devoted to accessibility and its copyright information which is very interesting. The Cold War Museum site does not feature and copyright information that I could easily find, but the contact information is listed on every page so interested parties can easily ask.
You are correct that you should always try and contact the copyright holder for permission to use.
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