Of Art and Copyright

This is going to become a really contentious area:

Many museums and art libraries have digitized their collections of artworks. Digital imaging capabilities represent a significant development in the academic study of art, and they enhance the availability of art images to the public at large. The possible uses of these images are likewise broad. Many of these uses, however, are potentially defined by copyright law or by license agreements imposed by some museums and libraries that attempt to define allowable uses. Often, these terms and conditions will mean that an online image is not truly available for many purposes, including publication in the context of research or simple enjoyment. Not only do these terms and conditions restrict uses, they also have dubious legal standing after the Bridgeman case. This paper examines the legal premises behind claiming copyright in art images and the ability to impose license restrictions on their use.

It would be absurd if the amazing possibilities of digitising museum and art collection holdings were squandered because of a short-sighted and misguided obsession with copyright. We need to nip this in the bud, and get some leading institutions to come out in favour of disseminating their holdings in this way. If we don't we've decades of lock-down in front of us, just when things should be available to all.

Follow me @glynmoody on Twitter or identi.ca.

British Library's Bitter Digital Milestone

Oh look, the British Library thinks it has passed a milestone:

The British Library has added the 500,000th item to its long-term Digital Library System. The milestone item was a digitised copy of a newspaper originally published in 1864 and scanned as part of the Library's 19th Century British Library Newspapers project, which recently made more than 2 million pages of historic newspapers available online at http://newspapers.bl.uk/blcs/

In eight pages of densely-packed text, The Birmingham Daily Post dated Monday 19 December 1864 offers a vivid snapshot of life 145 years ago. Along with accounts of an 82-year-old man who died after falling out of bed and two men before the courts for bigamy, the paper also reports on President Lincoln recommending to the US congress the passing of a constitutional amendment to abolish slavery, and 'a number of the worst "roughs" of the town' who pelted churchgoers with snowballs after several inches of snow had fallen.

The digitised newspaper joins hundreds of thousands of other items including e-journals, digital sound recordings, born-digital material received through voluntary deposit arrangements with publishers andmore than 65,000 19th century digitised books. The Digital Library System within which these items are now stored has been developed by the British Library to enable long term storage of the digital material that forms an increasing proportion of the nation's intellectual output.

Fab stuff...except:

To access the subscription-based articles in this database, you will need to first register as a user and then purchase either

* A 24-hour pass that provides you access to 100 articles over that period.
* A 7-day pass that provides you access to 200 articles over that period.

Cost?

a 24-hour pass for £6.99 allowing you to view up to 100 articles, or a seven-day pass with 200 article views for £9.99

That is: digitising content that is out of copyright, in the public domain, and then making us pay through the nose - us as in muggins public, which has kept the British Library going for two centuries thanks to our taxes, in case you'd forgotten - for the privilege of viewing it online.

Thanks a bunch, BL, for locking up "an increasing proportion of the nation's intellectual output" behind a paywall, where few will ever see it: that's what spreading knowledge is all about, isn't it? Great work from a quondam great institution, more millstone than milestone...

Follow me @glynmoody on Twitter or identi.ca.

Microsoft Gets Busy in the Ukraine

There are so many high-profile battles for the soul of computing going on that it is easy to overlook what is happening in some of the world's by-ways. For example, the Ukraine does not often figure in Western reporting, but that does not mean that Microsoft is not busily trying to lock down that country's computing infrastructure:

«Майкрософт Украина» провела конференцию «Правительство XXI века», посвященную использованию информационных технологий в деятельности органов государственной власти и организации «электронного правительства»

В ходе конференции специалисты компании Microsoft и украинских компаний- партнеров рассказали о стратегическом походе к трансформации государственного управления при помощи информационных технологий, а также продемонстрировали лучшие примеры уже реализованных проектов в Украине и за рубежом. В конференции приняли участие более 130 представителей государственных учреждений и организаций, а также эксперты компании Microsoft.

Открывая конференцию, генеральный директор «Майкрософт Украина» Эрик Франке сказал: «У нас есть большой опыт успешного внедрения технологий и инновационных решений компании Microsoft для оптимизации работы правительств многих стран мира. После визита Стива Балмера в Киев в мае этого года мы подписали меморандумы с рядом министерств и ведомств и продолжаем плодотворные переговоры с Госдепартаментом интеллектуальной собственности. Я думаю, что мы на правильном пути».

[Via Google Translate: «Microsoft Ukraine» held a conference «Government XXI century», on the use of information technologies in government and the organization «e-government»

During the conference, experts of Microsoft and Ukrainian partners talked about the strategic campaign to transform public administration through information technology, but also demonstrated the best examples have already implemented projects in Ukraine and abroad. The conference was attended by over 130 representatives from government agencies and organizations, as well as experts from the company Microsoft.

Opening the conference, Director General of «Microsoft Ukraine» Eric Franke said: «We have a long experience of successful technologies and innovative solutions to Microsoft for optimizing performance of many countries in the world. Following the visit of Steve Balmera in Kiev in May this year, we signed MOUs with a number of ministries and departments, and continue fruitful negotiations with the State Department of Intellectual Property. I think we are on the right track»]

If Microsoft's boss in the Ukraine thinks they are on the "right track", this can only mean things are on the *wrong* track for free software there. Time to send in RMS....