On Tue, Sep 22, 2009 at 2:57 PM, David Monniaux <[email protected]> wrote: > Of special relevance to us is this section of the report: > > Second recommendation > > Lift the obstacles to the presence of French data on collaborative sites > > Context > > The Internet has changed because of the development of a multitude of > personal sites, as well as a new generation of platforms and services > whose content is provided by “communities”, some of which have become > powerful international industries. Thus, the sites Wikipedia around the > world welcome a total of 240 million unique visitors a month and the > site in French 10 million unique visitors a month. The articles on these > sites on topics related to France are currently illustrated by amateur > photographs, or photographs from foreign collections. > > Arguments > > When an encyclopedic site such as Wikipedia needs photographs of > Egyptian antiquities in order to get illustrations for its articles, it > calls a museum. For the Louvre, accepting to donate its photographs > would significantly augment their exposure to the world and, thus, the > visibility of the museum as opposed to, say, the British Museum or the > Cairo Museum. All the more, the presentation of paintings or drawings of > Ingres on a site with such a high number of visitors would be positive > for the museum of Montauban. > > The presence of public cultural data on community-run platforms would > augment their visibility and that of the public organizations that > provided them, both nationally and internationally. > > Nevertheless, some legal obstacles currently hinder agreements with > these platforms. Indeed, because these sites are mostly constituted of > texts written and posted by private individuals, they propose so-called > “free” licenses which are in certain respects incompatible with current > French intellectual property law : no royalties for right holders, > indefinite rights of reuse, incompatibility with certain moral rights. > Therefore, a common ground should be reached so that these legal > difficulties are not insurmontable. > > Conditions for fulfilling this recommendation > > Elaborate and implement a specific reflection that would take into > account the forces of the parties, the potential gains for visibility of > the data and public cultural institutions, and the legal obstacles of > the exposition of our public data on collaborative sites. Such an > agreement would evidently include restrictions on the resolution of > photographs or videos put online and the obligation to create links, > which could maximize the flow of visits and income to the donating > institutions and the distribution pole considered (RMN, INA, etc.). > > [Note of translator: the report suggests centralizing the currently > dispersed system for licensing of public works on a few number of poles, > such as the Reunion of national museums (RMN; museum photographs) and > the National audiovisual institute (television archives).] > > > _______________________________________________ > Commons-l mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/commons-l >
Great news, David. Just so I'm sure I understand, the above is the official report to the Culture Minister that he adopted? And the report mentions Wikipedia twice in the second section? If so, awesome work. Nathan _______________________________________________ Commons-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/commons-l
