[WikiEN-l] Wikimedian image restorations exploited on eBay

[Durova]

 Image uploads have a broad range of license options.  Over the last year
several knowledgeable people have approached me and advised that I assert
copyleft over restorations due to the amount of creative input involved.

The principal argument against that advice has not arisen in this
discussion, which is an indication of how much awareness needs to be
raised.  A large number of institutions withhold image collections from
public circulation.  The National Portrait Gallery legal threat against
Derrick Coetzee is the tip of a rather large iceberg.  Icebergs are
dangerous because they extend beneath the surface in multiple directions, as
is the case here.  Institutional claims of proprietary control take a
variety of shapes from innovative interpretations of copyright law to
attempts at extending contract law.  Some of these attempts are laughable
such as an otherwise respectable university library which claimed to own
copyright on an image merely because it came from book on their shelves.

The bottom line is money.  People are willing to pay good money for pretty
pictures.  Traditionally, the institutions that curated these items have
depended upon sales of reproductions to cover part of their operating
expenses.  They had a monopoly until digital technology changed things.  Now
we are in a transitional phase where cultural institutions are putting forth
a variety of arguments to reassert that monopoly.

A small number of institutions are experimenting with openness, and a small
part of the free culture movement is working to make that possible in ways
that yield benefits for everyone.

If I were to place restorations under copyleft license it would backfire.
Not necessarily backfire against me personally, but against the free culture
movement.  Look at the "paint by numbers" analogies within this list thread:
many people cannot distinguish between careful hand restoration and simple
crop/filter/auto-levels editing.  My featured picture restorations take
about ten hours' labor on average and one of my greatest fears is that
fellow Wikimedians will mistake that for five minutes of running plug-ins.
Imagine how simple it would be for an institution to protect its income
stream by exploiting that confusion.

There's a lot more to be said on the subject, but that's enough to digest
for now.

-Durova

-- 
http://durova.blogspot.com/