[WikiEN-l] "Permission required" on copyright expired images...

[Liam Wyatt]

On Wed, Sep 23, 2009 at 1:18 PM, Steve Bennett <stevagewp at gmail.com> wrote:

> On Sun, Sep 20, 2009 at 9:36 AM, Durova <nadezhda.durova at gmail.com> wrote:
> > Actually this isn't a copyright discussion.
> >
> > http://www.slsa.sa.gov.au/site/page.cfm?u=581
> >
> > "To ensure that publication of material from its collections receives due
> > acknowledgment and promotion, the Library requires that permission to
> > publish is obtained prior to publication."
>

This is absolutely standard, at least in Australia. For example, see the
permission statement here <http://nla.gov.au/nla.pic-vn3696029>(National
Library of Australia) and here
<http://acms.sl.nsw.gov.au/item/itemLarge.aspx?itemID=6984>(State Library of
New South Wales). They both state words to the effect of "you may use this
for yourself but you must ask permission for anything else. This is a
standard statement placed on every single record item in the collection of
institutions because, more often than not, they have made a risk-assessment
that they do not want to advise people about the copyright status of an item
in case someone complains/sues. So, they will only give copyright advice in
private and on a case-by-case basis. Therefore, because there is no metadata
field about copyright status, this "you must ask us permission" statement
appears next to every single item in the catalogues.

This issue is raised in GLAM-WIKI recommendations "Law section - to GLAM -
number 2: "Pro-actively publish the copyright status of specific content in
the online collection rather than blanket access statements for the whole
collection. Give guidelines for users to make their own copyright
assessment" and number 4: "Remove the policy that requires users to ask
permission for use of public domain content."
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/GLAM-WIKI_Recommendations

>
> Right, this is the issue I raised at the start. The library "requires"
> permission - but on what basis? If the image is public domain, and
> someone else copies it and republishes it - where do they stand? If
> it's not copyright infringement, what is it? Contract violation? On
> the basis that you used the website and agreed to the library's terms
> and conditions, and have now violated them?
>

Precisely. The approach is taken directly from the institution's policies
about making copies and access with regards to the physical object and
applied online. That is, there is an assumption when you go to a museum or
library that you must abide by the rules of the organisation - the
conditions of entry (e.g. no flash photography). So, these conditions of
entry now become the "terms of use" online... They assume that by accessing
their website then you are under an implied contractual agreement.

>
> Although I suspect what's also happening is the image that we see
> there is low quality, and you'd need permission to get a higher
> quality, printable version. And they'd never give permission to cc-sa
> it.
>

It's rarely the case that the museum/library owns the copyright to the
objects in their collection therefore it is not up to them to chose
Creative-Commons - they don't have the right. But, what happens instead is
that if you purchase a high resolution of something in their collection they
will give it to you only if you sign a contract detailing the ways you are
allowed to use the item. This contract is legal (perhaps immoral, but legal)
and is a way of creating copyright-like restrictions where otherwise they
would have expired. (however this contract is not binding on third parties
who come across the re-publication).

This issue is raised in GLAM-WIKI recommendations "Law section - to GLAM -
number 8: "Remove "clickwrap" and contracts which place copyright-like
restrictions on public domain content."

-Liam [[witty lama]]
wittylama.com/blog


>
> Steve
>
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