Intellectual Property Rights and Digital Imaging

Originally written by Jeremy Rees, this page reviews some of the issues concerning Intellectual Property Rights and Digital Imaging. It is one of a number of pages about museum information standards prepared by the International Committee for Documentation of the International Council of Museums (ICOM-CIDOC).

Introduction

This paper provides some brief pointers parallel and in addition to the IPR chapter in the CIDOC Multimedia Working Group publication on Multimedia in Museums.

Attitudes to copyright

The greatest barrier to investment in interactive multimedia is the inability to protect intellectual property in that medium. It could also be said that the greatest barrier to the exploration of the enormous potential for the dissemination of culture though interactive multimedia is not the inability to protect intellectual property but the inability on the part of rights owners to rethink objectives and priorities for dissemination of text and images world-wide.

The concept of fair dealing (e.g. USA has broader concept than UK, in some other European countries the concept is even more limited) does not provide realistic solutions

Economic value

Museums are realising that they will have to be better informed on the whole spectrum of (new) rights issues and that they have assets that, in many cases, have a considerable potential for financial appreciation - which they must be in a position to evaluate and sensibly exploit in relation to their declared corporate objectives.

Museums also have to be aware of the fact that the volume of copyright material needed in the production of many interactive multimedia projects is so large that the value of single images is going to have to be related to these new circumstances, which will in turn have to reflect market realities and retail pricing sensitivity.

Exploitation and administration of copyright

Many people (and not just in the publishing and allied fields) are increasingly concerned to see sensible copyright exploitation, rather than narrow copyright protectionism.

To a far greater extent than conventional publishing, IT publishing and particularly the globalisation of networking work against the traditional forms of IPR protection (including moral rights) which, despite international agreements (Berne Convention, etc.), are primarily national in character.

Many people feel that technology must address the problems created by the technology, since changing law follows rather than leads always and is always too late.

As well as national and EC developments on legal harmonisation, the international discussions of GATT, G7, WIPO, the US Office of Technology, Japan's Institute of Intellectual Property and several other initiatives in Japan are focusing on the problems of IPR and digital imaging, including the concept of central registration of image copyright and "one-stop" rights clearance.

A variety of approaches to copyright protection and monitoring, including many forms of encryption and per- copy/per access charging are beginning to emerge on the market, particularly from the commercial publishing sector. Within the next twelve months solutions to these problems may seem much nearer.

The new EC project IMPRIMATUR, concerned with the management of IPRs in multimedia products brings together a consortium and a range of workpackages that look to be one of the most promising developments in this field.

Museums may find the Getty Art History Information Program Imaging Initiative, the Museum Educational Site Licensing project and the MUSE CD-ROM Model agreements of particular interest.

Problems and opportunities

Problems and opportunities that Museums have to address include:

• image resolution conundrum : too poor a resolution (a disservice to the work being portrayed); too good a resolution puts at risk the protection of the image from unlawful copying and future exploitation;
• moral rights;
• problem of quality context - a proliferation of "shovelware" titles or "coffee table" publications;
• implications of networking, including security of copyright assets;
• exploration of Joint ventures, nationally and internationally;
• connectivity / cross addressibility

Other resources relating to intellectual property

The cost of digital image distribution: the social and economic implications of the production, distribution, and usage of image data : final report / by Howard Besser and Robert Yamashita. - Berkeley : School of Information Management and Systems, UC Berkeley, 1998. - Available in print format or in .html or .pdf format

This report is the result of a 22-month UC Berkeley study of the Museum Educational Site Licensing Project (MESL), supported by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The MESL Project, sponsored by the Getty Information Institute, was the first attempt to create a collection of images and descriptive information from a variety of museums and deliver it digitally to university users of campus networks. The two-year experimental collaboration among seven museums and seven universities succeeded in distributing approximately 10,000 images for classroom use and individual research, primarily in the areas of cultural studies, art history, history, and photography.

The Cost of Digital Image Distribution identifies, defines, and explores MESL's primary cost centers in the digital network distribution of images and accompanying text. It examines the processes and costs of analog slide libraries, and compares the analog and digital distribution systems. It also considers the intangible factors that can lead to the success or failure of digital distribution schemes, such as learning curve, ease or difficulty of maintenance, and faculty attitudes towards teaching with digital images.

Major findings include:

• It will be a long time before digital image repositories will be able to deliver the critical mass of images needed for instruction and research. Analog slide libraries and digital image repositories will necessarily coexist for many years.
• The higher education community is enthusiastic about providing access to digital images and information from cultural heritage repositories. However, many impediments to widespread adoption must be dealt with—ranging from lack of comprehensive content and the absence of necessary tools to facilitate use, to inadequate recognition and support for faculty who adopt new technology in their teaching.
• The anticipated shift from analog slide libraries to licensed digital images represents a shift from ownership to access through ongoing subscription. This shift is analogous to the changes that have taken place in university library collections. University administrators are concerned about controlling content costs and faculty are concerned about ongoing access to the images they use and need. Those university positions are at odds with those of museum image distribution consortia, who seek a consistent revenue stream and are reluctant to assure ongoing access without ongoing payment. For such image distribution schemes to work, both museums and universities have to see their common goals as outweighing their individual concerns. - [Publisher's notes and press release]

This pioneering two-year project explored the legal, technical, and practical issues involved in using digital images of museum collections for educational purposes. The report includes essays by project participants for the fourteen museums and universities that participated in this project, and recommends terms and conditions for distributing digital museum images via the Internet and/or university campus networks.

Christie Stephenson is digital projects manager for the New York University Libraries. Patricia McClung is an independent consultant, specializing in networked digital imaging. They were project managers for the Museum Education Site Licensing Project. - [Publisher's Web site]

This companion volume to Delivering Digital Images includes nine essays by project participants highlighting their experiences and recommendations. It covers the impact of digital image availability on teaching and classroom interactions, on university and museum infrastructures, and also speculates about legal issues, including the site licensing model. - [Publisher's Web site]

"It is the policy of The Tech to permit other science centers and like institutions to have copies of The Tech’s exhibits and associated multimedia programs free of any charge for The Tech’s relevant intellectual property rights. This policy is to be effected without warranty or liability, and with minimal burden on The Tech’s staff. ..."

http://cidoc.icom.museum/ipr1.htm
revised/dernière mise à jour: 2002-12-20
contributor of information: Jeremy Rees , 1 March 1996
Now maintained by / Maintenant entretenu par: Leonard Will
link to/passerelle vers CIDOC home page/la page d'accueil du CIDOC or ICOM home page/la page d'accueil de l'ICOM
© the International Committee for Documentation of the International Council of Museums/Comité international pour la documentation du Conseil international des musées (ICOM-CIDOC), 1996-1999.