Museums and the Web

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Collections online and legal issues


I am moderating a seminar on social media/collections online and policy issues. I would like to get in touch with institutions having their collections online, publishing items on Flickr etc. and who have encountered or experienced "problems" with these images being "stolen" (i.e. showing up on blogs, on Wikipedia, commercial sites).

I would be very grateful to learn more about other institutions' policies on transparency, participation in social media sites, or just publishing collections online.

Best regards,
Kajsa Hartig, Nordiska museet
Stockholm, Sweden

Kajsa Hartig's picture

Hi again, thank's for your comments! Good idea to re-consider the word 'stolen'. Some concerns:

1) I want to avoid watermarking, since I want to promote the use of historical images (especially by teachers/school students). Also watermarking alters our conception of the image. These days we also start to get scientists doin research online, then watermarking is not an option I believe.

2) What if the images are not attributed correctly? No cultural institution can set aside money to go after organisations/companies that take images from our websites and let them go in "The Cloud". Especially the term "Orphan Works" is worrying since previously attributed work that gets lost can suddenly be orphan.

 My BIG question is: Should we just count on loosing control over our images online? And therefore:

a) either "lock in" our collections online (make sure IP-adress can be retrieved etc).

b) not publish unique material with high value?

c) Only publish material that is no longer protected by copyright?

 

Best regards
Kajsa

 

 

 

Kajsa Hartig
Digital Navigator, New media
Nordiska museet
Stockholm, Sweden

sparrow_bee's picture

I'd be tempted to problematise the notion of 'stolen' content - as long
as it's attributed, and ideally linked to the source, I'd consider
re-use as marketing we didn't have to pay for.

I agree Mia.

With regard to Content re-used without attribution is different, has anyone experimented or had success with watermarking images they publish online?

I have not investigated how to create and apply them to images but I doubt it would be excessively complicated or time consuming. Not only do they protect the image and provide instant attribution (depending on what watermark you create), but  they can be an explicit advertisement for your museum or institution.

Mia Ridge's picture

These BBC guidelines might be useful: http://www.bbc.co.uk/guidelines/editorialguidelines/advice/bbcweb/index....

This blog post from the Powerhouse suggests other resources, including the BBC and their own blogging policy: http://www.powerhousemuseum.com/dmsblog/index.php/2008/04/14/updating-yo...

I'd be tempted to problematise the notion of 'stolen' content - as long as it's attributed, and ideally linked to the source, I'd consider re-use as marketing we didn't have to pay for.  Content re-used without attribution is different - much closer to 'stealing', though of course the resource still exists in its original location.

Marika's picture

Jag ser fram mot diskussionen.
Jag har förresten några kontakter jag kan bjuda på.
Meddela mig var du publicerar resultatet.
Marika. Swedish Travelling Exhibitions

Marika. Swedish Travelling Exhibitions