Wikipedia, Museums and access to Art

Liam Wyatt, 20 April 2010

Columbia University,Copyright Advisory Office,

New York City

By way of personal introduction...

TheBM&

me

Andrew Dunn - CC-by-SAhttp://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:British_Museum_Great_Court_roof.jpg

http://www.wittylama.com/2010/03/the-british-museum-and-me/

Charity

Website

Software

Chapter

And a quick intro to Wikimedia...

“Free”

• the freedom to use the work and enjoy the benefits of using it • the freedom to study the work and to apply knowledge acquired

from it • the freedom to make and redistribute copies, in whole or in part,

of the information or expression • the freedom to make changes and improvements, and to

distribute derivative works

http://freedomdefined.org/

http://creativecommons.org/

“Free x2”not for profit, volunteer created,

available to use, and re-use.

Imagine never having to work with a licensing agency again!

Gratis Libre

If you love something, set it free.

(even if love isn’t always free)

http://www.imamuseum.org/art/collections/artwork/love-robert-indiana

Some local museum missions

Common theme...

Engaging the community with their culture.

Collect, preserve and share that culture.

But...

Art + Copyright =

Nate.erlin - CC-by-NC-ND http://www.flickr.com/photos/nateerlin/520085236/

• Freedom of Panorama

• Cultural rights

• Donor restrictions

• Museum photo policy

• Different national laws

• Website terms of use

• Commercial licenses

• Attribution

• TPMs/DRMs

• Fair use / fair dealing

• Copyright in scans

• Database rights

Some potential issues for those images...

Tricks and traps for Wikimedia, Museums and access to Art...

1. License conditions (in real life)

http://jumpinginartmuseums.blogspot.com/2010/03/sol-lewitt-jumping.html/

Massachusetts museum of contemporary art:“Our policy is to allow photography

everywhere” :-)

Reasons given for “no photo”• I.P. - this should be nuanced, not blanket to everything

• Conservation - Fair enough, accounts for no flash

• Revenue streams - most common, if not admitted

• Disruption of others - compare with sketching

• Security of the building - really?!

http://museumtwo.blogspot.com/2009/08/museum-photo-policies-

should-be-as-open.html

Caro Wallis - cc-by-NC http://www.flickr.com/photos/carowallis1/3189114504/

Licensing Conditions on 3rd parties?

http://ragesoss.com/blog/2009/10/09/wikipedia-and-olympics-committee-heading-for-collision/

Richard Giles - CC-by-SA (??)http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Usain_Bolt_Olympics_Celebration.jpg

If you take a picture (when you’re not supposed to) and give it to me, am I bound by your license conditions?

2. Licensing Conditions (digital)

Image now also available, without permission, at: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Nla.ms-ms5393-2-s1.jpg

National Library of Australia permissions statement.Text

First page of Captain William Bligh’s log book - on the NLA Website.

3. Fair Use

Same article in:

< Afrikaans Swedish >

http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Non-free_content

4. Freedom of Panorama

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WPSPAhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zephyr_%28sculpture%29

5. Copyright in collections and in scans

Feist v. Rural Telephone (1991)

Bridgeman v. Corel (1999)

Originality v. “Sweat of the brow”

Some obviously haven’t heard about this law...

This is the Frick Collection’s copyright statement. Is it deliberately flouting New York law?

De-accessioning by Copyright

To take something that is the public’s* and to make access restrictions on its digital manifestation that would not be countenanced for the original object is effectively...

*in a publicly funded collection and/or in the Public Domain

...and just like real-life de-accessioning in museums it’s sometimes necessary.

But neither activity should be done just because some money can be made.

Paying a license fee sometimes feels like a papal indulgence. It’s often not to cover costs, but to make a problem disappear. I don’t mind paying for staff time and materials. I do mind

paying for access to already digitised and Public Domain material and having to sign a usage contract in order

to receive it.

The kind of things some claim copyright over! (examples)

http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Agamemnon

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Berlin_Diplodocus.jpg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Illuminated.bible.closeup.arp.jpg

Wikimedia takes a stand, so you don’t have to.

:-)

Peace, Love & Metadata

liamwyatt@gmail.com[[user:witty lama]]

@wittylamawww.wittylama.com/blog