This looks really interesting! A bit that caught my eye was:
> The document urges curators to refrain from restricting the public domain > arbitrarily This relates to the third recommendation in "Public Interest Information Policy in Germany": > Keep the public domain in the public domain. Encourage publicly funded > cultural heritage institutions to allow digital copies of their holdings to > be re-used by the public. Encourage the adoption of intellectual property law > and policy that takes account of public interest, as well as private > interests. See: http://blog.okfn.org/2009/02/17/public-interest-information-policy-in-germany/ It would be great if recommendations went beyond scholarly re-use to re-use by the public (by using open licenses, public domain declarations or other legal statements/waivers). The Flickr Commons project is a good example of this, as is the recent case where the German Federal Archives made a big donation of images to Wikimedia Commons (which I saw a presentation on last night): http://blog.okfn.org/2009/02/27/open-everything-berlin-cc-salon-berlin/ http://www.flickr.com/commons http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Bundesarchiv Great to see support from the Max Planck! Warm regards, Jonathan On Thu, Feb 26, 2009 at 10:06 AM, jonni jemp <[email protected]> wrote: > apologies for x-posting/rehashing > > re. opening line of message, Berlin Declaration is here > http://oa.mpg.de/openaccess-berlin/berlindeclaration.html > > jj > > > > From: Dr. Christine von Oertzen ([email protected]) > Date: 22 January 2009 > Subject: Call for Open Access to Digital Images > > > Call for Open Access to Digital Images > > The Max Planck Institute for the History of Science (MPIWG), a co-initiator > of the OpenAccess movement, has drawn up a set of best-practice > recommendations concerning the scholarly use of visual media. The > recommendations aimed at facilitating the scholarly use and publication of > historical digital images were drafted following consultations with scholars > and representatives of leading museums, libraries, image archives and > publishers. The aim of the document is to create a network of mutual trust > and cooperation between scholars and curators of cultural heritage > collections with a view to facilitating access to and the scholarly use of > visual media. The recommendations can be downloaded from the MIPWG website > which currently features a detailed report on the initiative. > > The recommendations were prompted by the barriers encountered by those who > wish to use and publish images of cultural heritage objects. High licence > fees and complicated access regulations make it increasingly difficult for > scholars in the humanities to work with digital images. It is true that the > digitization of image collections has acted as a catalyst for scholarly > research. However, archives, collections and libraries differ greatly with > respect to the question of how, where and on what basis images may be used > for scholarly purposes. Moreover, their policies in this regard are > becoming increasingly restrictive, especially when it comes to new > forms of e-publishing. > > The MPIWG drew up its recommendations for facilitating the scholarly use of > digital images following consultations with international experts which took > place in January 2008. The recommendations call on curators and scholars to > develop a mutually binding network of trust. The aim of the initiative is to > encourage stakeholders jointly to address the current and future challenges > raised by the digital age. The document urges curators to refrain from > restricting the public domain arbitrarily and calls on them to accommodate > the needs of scholars for reasonably-priced or freely-accessible > high-resolution digital images - both for print publications and new > Web-based forms of scholarly publishing. It exhorts scholars to recognise > museums, libraries and collections as owners and custodians of > physical objects of cultural heritage and to acknowledge their efforts in > making digital images available. Moreover, it urges them to take their role > as guarantors of authenticity and accurate attribution extremely seriously. > > > Website: > http://www.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/en/news/features/feature4/ > > _______________________________________________ > okfn-discuss mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.okfn.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/okfn-discuss > -- Jonathan Gray Community Coordinator The Open Knowledge Foundation http://www.okfn.org _______________________________________________ okfn-discuss mailing list [email protected] http://lists.okfn.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/okfn-discuss
