ThomasMargoni - Digitizing cultural heritage at OKFestival 2014 in Berlin
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description
Thomas Margoni from the Institute for Information presents his research where he asks the question: When does a digital reproduction of existing (protected or unprotected) materials give riseto a new subject matter protected by copyright and or related rights?
Transcript of ThomasMargoni - Digitizing cultural heritage at OKFestival 2014 in Berlin
Digitizing the cultural heritage
OKFN Conference – Berlin 2014
● Cultural heritage is largely analogue● To make it widely available it needs to be
digitized and freely accessible through the Internet
● What are the legal (or at least copyright) related obstacles?
Definition of the problem
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When does a digital reproduction of existing (protected or unprotected) materials give rise to a new subject matter protected by copyright and or related rights?
Main research question
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● What are the underpinnings of the legal status of the photographed/scanned/digitized material: mere objects (not works); works (copyrighted or fallen in the public domain), material protected by related rights?
● How the different processes and techniques of digitization can influence the resulting legal status? (e.g.: automatic scans vs. professional photographs, semi-automatic digitization, etc).
Sub-questions considered
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● Legal research● Desk research (International/EU/MS)● Questionnaires (28 MS +)
– General questions
– Multiple choice (case scenario)
– Validation of results
Methodology
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2 parts:– General questions on copyright fundamentals
– Multiple choice questions on specific acts of digitization
Questionnaire
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● We developed 1 case scenario with 3 different hypothetical situations that summarize 3 different types of digitization processes
● Subject matter covered: images (painting, drawings, maps, photos, etc.), texts (books, newspapers, letters, etc.), objects (statues, sculptures, vases, coins, etc.), films, phonograms, and TV or radio broadcasts
Hypothetical cases
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● Automated reproduction/digitization realized in absence (or negligible presence) of human intervention (e.g.: Google scanning automatically all books of the entire collection).
3 Types of digitization: Automatic scanning
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● Reproduction operated by a specifically hired professional with the objective to realize high quality outputs (e.g.: photographer taking different shots in different light conditions to create hi-resolution images to be made available on the institution’s website)
3 Types of digitization: Photographs realized by artists
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● Automated reproduction realized by human operator (e.g.: human operator taking pictures/manually photocopying collections for inventory/classificatory purposes)
3 Types of digitization: In between...
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● Originality● Derivatives● Neighbouring rights (especially non original
photographs)● Scope of protection of phonograms/broadcasts
Definition of copyright key concepts
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● The general work hypothesis seems confirmed, i.e.: – Mere acts of digitization do not create new
rights (they are considered “reproductions”)
– The creation of “artistic photographs” creates new subject matter
– Simple photographs (where exists) can be relevant to acts of simple digitization
Some (very preliminary) results
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● However the main problem (as usual) is to define what is the level of originality that need to be added to the digital representation to have something “new”
● Many times the scope of this type of digitization is to reflect as closely as possible the reality, so no space for added originality
Some preliminary results
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● One of the main tasks/objectives is to look for MS case law offering an interpretation of the law in cases like the one at stake (eg: case reported in Poland)
● An ideal result would be to create a graphical representation indicating the type of new rights that can be created by digitization
Some preliminary results
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● Complete study● Website with maps and data● Academic paper/s● Extend geographical coverage● Possibly extend research questions
(cultural heritage legislation, Database, etc).
Forthcoming results
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Thanks!
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