"When we build self-serve sites for image licensing which have trivial costs after the build, and especially if we are using the people's money, it is hard to justify charging for extant images of public domain art."
Trivial costs? Not according to our CIO. I'm struggling to get something like this online, due to the sheer cost, which is most certainly not paid for by "the people's money". And we need to remember that people aren't paying for "images of public domain art" (an abstract) but for image files + delivery + service. "As Mark Jones, director of the V&A remarked, paraphrased as told to me, "the people paid for this once, why should they pay again?" Perhaps the V&A is a fully-government-funded institution (with a very active commercial branch, V&A Enterprises, Ltd., to help support it -- including an excellent for-payment picture library). But not so my non-government-funded institution. We literally do not have a photography budget. High-quality images are paid for by individual exhibition catalog budgets, which are fully funded by private donations. Amalyah Keshet Head of Image Resources & Copyright Management The Israel Museum, Jerusalem ________________________________________ ? From: Newman, Alan <a-new...@nga.gov> Subject: Re: [MCN-L] Image Sizes (later Image Theft) To: "Museum Computer Network Listserv" <mcn-l at mcn.edu> Date: Wednesday, May 20, 2009, 1:12 PM Nik, Matt, Ken, Nancy, Mike et al, Here's another music model --- from Radiohead (quoting from Wikipedia") "Radiohead's seventh album, In Rainbows, was released through the band's own website on 10 October 2007 as a digital download for which customers could make whatever payment that they wanted, including nothing; the site only advised, "it's up to you".[46] Following the band's sudden announcement 10 days beforehand, Radiohead's unusual strategy received much notice within the music industry and beyond.[47] 1.2 million downloads were reportedly sold by the day of release,[48] but the band's management did not release official sales figures, claiming that the Internet-only distribution was intended to boost later retail sales." So we adopt a museum convention in use at the Met and elsewhere for admissions: pay what you can afford for images. What could be more fair? What could draw more attention to our collections? Who knows, this might be the answer to Mariet Westermann's recommendation to streamline image licensing. When we build self-serve sites for image licensing which have trivial costs after the build, and especially if we are using the people's money, it is hard to justify charging for extant images of public domain art. As Mark Jones, director of the V&A remarked, paraphrased as told to me, "the people paid for this once, why should they pay again?" Nik, wish me luck getting this through. Alan Newman On 5/5/09 6:23 PM, "Nik Honeysett" <NHoneysett at getty.edu> wrote: > This reminds me of a classic example in the music industry in the early 90's. > Blue Note Record's legal team came across a 12" single called "The Band Played > the Boogie" featuring an illegal sampling of Grant Green's "Sookie Sookie", > enjoying a huge underground following. Rather than pursue a suit, Blue Note > hired the group and gave them access to their full back catalogue. The > resulting release was Blue Note's first platinum-selling album (Us3 - Hand on > the Torch). So, put your images out there, wait for someone to figure out > how to make money from them, then hire them. (wish me luck with getting that > through our general counsel). -nik _______________________________________________ You are currently subscribed to mcn-l, the listserv of the Museum Computer Network (http://www.mcn.edu) To post to this list, send messages to: mcn-l at mcn.edu To unsubscribe or change mcn-l delivery options visit: http://toronto.mediatrope.com/mailman/listinfo/mcn-l The MCN-L archives can be found at: http://toronto.mediatrope.com/pipermail/mcn-l/ _______________________________________________ You are currently subscribed to mcn-l, the listserv of the Museum Computer Network (http://www.mcn.edu) To post to this list, send messages to: mcn-l at mcn.edu To unsubscribe or change mcn-l delivery options visit: http://toronto.mediatrope.com/mailman/listinfo/mcn-l The MCN-L archives can be found at: http://toronto.mediatrope.com/pipermail/mcn-l/
