The Getty Gets It: 'Open Content, An Idea Whose Time Has Come'
from the art-of-sharing dept
Techdirt has published a number of posts that explore the issue of whether art organizations can stop people sharing images of works in their collections when the latter are indisputably in the public domain. Even if museums might be able to claim copyright in their "official" photographic images, the more important question is whether they ought to. The good news is that some institutions are beginning to realize that using copyright monopolies in this way contradicts their basic reason for existing -- to share the joy of art. Here, for example, is a wonderful statement of that principle from the Getty Museum entitled "Open Content, An Idea Whose Time Has Come":
Today the Getty becomes an even more engaged digital citizen, one that shares its collections, research, and knowledge more openly than ever before. We've launched the Open Content Program to share, freely and without restriction, as many of the Getty's digital resources as possible.
As that makes clear, the scheme is not strictly "freely and without restriction" since you are asked for a description of what you plan to do with the image; there's also a request that attribution be given. However, these are minor restrictions. And the Getty certainly gets why collections should be doing this:
The initial focus of the Open Content Program is to make available all images of public domain artworks in the Getty's collections. Today we've taken a first step toward this goal by making roughly 4,600 high-resolution images of the Museum's collection free to use, modify, and publish for any purpose.
These are high-resolution, reproduction-quality images with embedded metadata, some over 100 megabytes in size. You can browse all available images here, or look for individual "download" links on the Getty Museum's collection pages. As part of the download, we'll ask for a very brief description of how you're planning to use the image. We hope to learn that the images will serve a broad range of needs and projects.
Why open content? Why now? The Getty was founded on the conviction that understanding art makes the world a better place, and sharing our digital resources is the natural extension of that belief. This move is also an educational imperative. Artists, students, teachers, writers, and countless others rely on artwork images to learn, tell stories, exchange ideas, and feed their own creativity. In its discussion of open content, the most recent Horizon Report, Museum Edition stated that "it is now the mark -- and social responsibility -- of world-class institutions to develop and share free cultural and educational resources."
That is the key point: art galleries and museums have a moral duty to share the expressions of creativity entrusted to them, so that others can "feed their own creativity" and contribute back to the commons of art for others to draw on. The Getty is to be congratulated not only for making this move, but articulating so clearly the reasons for doing so. Let's hope other art organizations around the world now follow suit.
Follow me @glynmoody on Twitter or identi.ca, and on Google+
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Filed Under: copyright, museum, open content, public domain, sharing
Companies: the getty museum
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Even if museums might be able to claim copyright in their "official" photographic images, the more important question is whether they ought to.
This is something copyright maximalists will never get and yet it's the core of quite a lot of copyright woes nowadays.
It's nice to see how society is routing around the excesses of copyright by itself and leaving the industry behind.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Kudos to Getty
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Museum income doesn't depend on selling those images.
Techdirt freetards praise the Rich for being "generous", while at same time those freetards take food out of mouths of working people by pirating music and movies.
If you're against copyright, quit putting your name on posts! You don't own the idea!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Museum income doesn't depend on selling those images.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Museum income doesn't depend on selling those images.
Anything more is redundant.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
...to share the joy of art
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Open Images
[ link to this | view in chronology ]