Not to take this down a completely different line (perhaps a subset of this 
terrific string) but, not mentioned in the Times article is the fact that the 
Rijksmuseum also has 140,000+ images, in very high resolution, available 
through the Europeana portal 
<http://www.europeana.eu/portal/search.html?query=rijksmuseum>. 

Are we getting close with the Digital Public *Library* of America 
<http://dp.la>?

David Green
redgen at mac.com
@redgen
203-520-9155 


On May 29, 2013, at 11:16 AM, "Peter B. Hirtle" <pbh6 at cornell.edu> wrote:

> The Cornell University Library adopted an open access to public domain images 
> policy in 2009.  You can read our rationale in this article at 
> http://publications.arl.org/rli266/2.  To date, the museum at Cornell has not 
> elected to follow the Library's lead.
> 
> Peter Hirtle
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: mcn-l-bounces at mcn.edu [mailto:mcn-l-bounces at mcn.edu] On Behalf Of 
> Cathryn Goodwin
> Sent: Wednesday, May 29, 2013 8:59 AM
> To: Museum Computer Network Listserv
> Subject: Re: [MCN-L] Permissions
> 
> An addendum to this thread is the fact that many institutions, Princeton 
> among them, are more quietly adopting an open access to public domain images 
> policy - I'd be interested in a show of hands.
> 
> Cathryn
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: mcn-l-bounces at mcn.edu [mailto:mcn-l-bounces at mcn.edu] On Behalf Of 
> David Green
> Sent: Wednesday, May 29, 2013 8:48 AM
> To: Museum Computer Network Listserv
> Subject: Re: [MCN-L] Permissions
> 
> Absolutely agree, of course. And see today's NYT article about the 
> Rijksmuseum's contribution to the way forward: 
> http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/29/arts/design/museums-mull-public-use-of-online-art-images.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20130529&_r=0
> 
> "We're a public institution, and so the art and objects we have are, in a 
> way, everyone's property," said [Taco Dibbits, the director of collections at 
> the Rijksmuseum,] in an interview. "'With the Internet, it's so difficult to 
> control your copyright or use of images that we decided we'd rather people 
> use a very good high-resolution image of the 'Milkmaid' from the Rijksmuseum 
> rather than using a very bad reproduction," he said, referring to that 
> Vermeer painting from around 1660."
> 
> David Green
> redgen at mac.com
> @redgen
> 203-520-9155 
> 
> 
> On May 27, 2013, at 8:46 AM, Kenneth Hamma <khamma at me.com> wrote:
> 
>> Thanks, Peter.
>> 
>> It is dismaying that anyone could not imagine that  there's any way around 
>> the wide variety of charges and procedures that collections  - perhaps 
>> sometimes thoughtlessly? - interpose between themselves the public for whom 
>> they are stewards.  For those, here are some starting points.
>> 
>> https://images.nga.gov/en/page/show_home_page.html
>> 
>> http://britishart.yale.edu/collections/using-collections/image-use
>> 
>> http://www.britishmuseum.org/about_this_site/terms_of_use/free_image_s
>> ervice.aspx
>> 
>> https://www.lacma.org/about/contact-us/terms-use
>> 
>> http://thewalters.org/rights-reproductions.aspx
>> 
>> Knowing that it can be bothersome to visit websites and read, let me copy 
>> the simple image rights/use statement from the Walters Art Museum:
>> 
>> All photography on our website(s) is governed by Creative Commons Licensing 
>> and can be used without cost or specific permission. Artworks in the 
>> photographs are in the public domain due to age. The photographs of 
>> two-dimensional objects have also been released into the public domain. 
>> Photographs of three-dimensional objects and all descriptions have been 
>> released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported 
>> License and the GNU Free Documentation License.
>> 
>> Cheers,
>> 
>> ken
>> 
>> Kenneth Hamma
>> 
>> Yale Center for British Art
>> kenneth.hamma at yale.edu
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> On May 27, 2013, at 7:05 AM, Peter B. Hirtle <pbh6 at cornell.edu> wrote:
>> 
>>> For a different perspective from a different field, MCN-L readers might be 
>>> interested in a forthcoming paper from John Overholt addressing the future 
>>> of special collections in libraries.  It is called "Five theses on the 
>>> future of special collections," and a preprint is found at 
>>> http://dash.harvard.edu/bitstream/handle/1/10601790/overholt.pdf.  
>>> 
>>> One of his five theses speaks precisely to the issue of permissions.  It 
>>> begins this way:
>>> 
>>> The future of special collections is openness.
>>> 
>>> We are not the creators of our collections; we are their stewards. They 
>>> were entrusted to us to preserve them, certainly, but preservation without 
>>> use is an empty victory. It ought to be our primary purpose at all times to 
>>> minimize barriers to use, so it is all the more shameful when we interpose 
>>> such barriers ourselves, not out of concern for the health of the 
>>> collections, but out of the misguided belief that we are entitled to 
>>> control, even to monetize, their use. When we claim copyright over our 
>>> digital collections, or impose permission fees or licensing terms on users, 
>>> we are arguably misrepresenting the law, and certainly violating one of the 
>>> central ethical tenets of the profession: to promote the free dissemination 
>>> of information.
>>> 
>>> It would seem to me that image permissions would be much simplified if only 
>>> permission of the copyright owner had to be secured (and then only if the 
>>> use was not a fair use).
>>> 
>>> Peter Hirtle
>>> 
>>>> -----Original Message-----
>>>> From: mcn-l-bounces at mcn.edu [mailto:mcn-l-bounces at mcn.edu] On Behalf 
>>>> Of Deborah Wythe
>>>> Sent: Friday, May 24, 2013 3:59 PM
>>>> To: mcn-l at mcn.edu
>>>> Subject: Re: [MCN-L] Permissions
>>>> 
>>>> I don't think there's any way around the wide variety of charges and 
>>>> procedures, but I was struck by the frustration of the writer, who 
>>>> clearly had never done image acquisition before. It's a skill, just 
>>>> like any other. Filling in for our R&R coordinator, I've learned 
>>>> just how many emails it can take to get all the information we need to 
>>>> help them.
>>>> 
>>>> I've often wondered if there was a way to connect museum staff with 
>>>> art history grad programs to get this topic on their curriculum.
>>>> Shouldn't every budding writer have a brief tutorial on copyright, 
>>>> image acquisition, image quality, etc?
>>>> 
>>>> Then again, when I was in grad school and suggested to my advisor 
>>>> that we put together a guide to doing primary source research, he 
>>>> put me off, saying that we should all be figuring it out ourselves 
>>>> and that was one way they sorted the wheat from the chaff.
>>>> 
>>>> I won't address the differing policies and prices -- that's a 
>>>> different (and difficult topic) -- but putting chocolate on our fee 
>>>> schedules is an interesting concept.
>>>> 
>>>> Deborah Wythe
>>>> Brooklyn Museumdeborahwythe at hotmail.com
>>>> 
>>>>> From: lesleyeharris at comcast.net
>>>>> Date: Fri, 24 May 2013 12:06:38 -0400
>>>>> To: mcn-l at mcn.edu
>>>>> Subject: Re: [MCN-L] Permissions
>>>>> 
>>>>> Whoops--article is at
>>>> http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/comment/opinion/opinion-snap-
>>>> decisions/2003969.article.
>>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>>> On May 24, 2013, at 12:05 PM, Lesley Ellen Harris
>>>> <lesleyeharris at comcast.net> wrote:
>>>>> 
>>>>> This article on obtaining permissions from museums will be of 
>>>>> interest to
>>>> MCN members.
>>>>> 
>>>>> Lesley
>>>>> 
>>>>> lesley at copyrightlaws.com
>>>>> www.copyrightlaws.com
>>>>> 
>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>> You are currently subscribed to mcn-l, the listserv of the Museum 
>>>>> Computer
>>>> Network (http://www.mcn.edu)
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>>>> 
>>> 
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