Hi Maggie, Not a lawyer, of course, but many museum have a "no commercial photography"' notice in their literature, entrance info displays etc. Perhaps that would give you grounds for a takedown notice. Just a thought. But if PAM has a fully open access policy, would you consider just providing Bridgeman with quality replacement images of those works? It would be a far easier solution. -Erik
On Thu, Aug 17, 2017 at 4:35 PM, Maggie Hanson <maggie.han...@pam.org> wrote: > Hi, all - > > This question recently came up in our registrars dept. and I thought I'd > kick it out to MCN to see if anyone else has encountered this issue and > might have guidance. We'd be most grateful for any insight. Our rights > specialist sent the following question to a registrars' list-serv and > hasn't gotten much of a response: > > "It has recently come to my attention that Bridgeman Images has been > selling images from our museum's collection (about 17 of them). We do not > have an agreement with them, and the images are poor quality. I contacted > our counsel, and he seemed to state that because everything they have is in > the public domain, we have no legal ground to stand on. That said, I think > it would be reasonable to contact them and ask them to take the images > down, especially since the images are of such poor quality. Has anyone else > had this experience?" > > It might be a non-starter since the underlying works in the images are > public domain, but we thought it was worth asking colleagues. Any precedent > would be useful. To be clear: this is not about us asserting rights, just > about wanting to disseminate better images of the works in our collection > (esp. when we'd provide better images for free!). > > Thanks, all! See you in Pittsburgh! > Maggie > > > Maggie Hanson > Head of Library and Collections Information > Portland Art Museum > 503-276-4224 | direct > portlandartmuseum.org > > > _______________________________________________ > 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@mcn.edu > > To unsubscribe or change mcn-l delivery options visit: > http://mcn.edu/mailman/listinfo/mcn-l > > The MCN-L archives can be found at: > http://www.mail-archive.com/mcn-l@mcn.edu/ > > -- *Erik Landsberg LLC* *Cultural Heritage Digitization Consulting* Serving Museums - Archives - Collectors - Artists eriklandsb...@gmail.com 732-456-0622 <(732)%20456-0622>
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