I see this was also announced on the WM-UK blog - http://blog.wikimedia.org.uk/2014/01/wellcome-images-freely-releases-100000-images/
I've copied in Jonathan who is the WMUK GLAM coordinator in case he's had any involvement in Wellcome's announcement. Perhaps he can lend insight?

I've worked on quite a few image-release negotiations and it is possible that this has been done this way through honest mistake, through justifed fears, through meddling of the legal/marketing departments....  I quite like Andy Mabbett's comment on Wellcome's blog announcement, sums up the problems (legal and technological) quite well in my opinion:

"It’s great to have these images available, digitally, but why are you claiming copyright over, and to be the original source of, artworks and images from books which are already in the public domain? Why have you added a strapline underneath each image? And why is the precess of downloading high resolution versions of these public-domain works so tortuous, with a CAPTCHA, irrelevant terms & condition, and zipped files – why not make them available directly?" - (comment no.3) http://blog.wellcomelibrary.org/2014/01/thousands-of-years-of-visual-culture-made-free-through-wellcome-images/

I also agree with Andy's response here - to chose option 2b - take the images that we can, label them as PD and *politely* explain (preferably in person) why we do not legally recognise their CC-BY claim even though we WILL make every effort to attribute properly. While we're at it, I would point Wellcome to the Europeana PD charter http://pro.europeana.eu/web/europeana-project/public-domain-charter-en

-Liam


wittylama.com
Peace, love & metadata


On 22 January 2014 09:42, Andy Mabbett <andy@pigsonthewing.org.uk> wrote:
On 21 January 2014 16:53, Magnus Manske <magnusmanske@googlemail.com> wrote:

> So, we have the following options:
>
> 1. Ignore them (pity)

Not going to happen; note work-in-progress, and discussion, at:

   https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Batch_uploading/Wellcome_Images_CC-BY

> 2. Upload them as public domain and re-iterate the National Portrait Gallery
> issue, and teach them that these open content wiki people are not to be
> trusted

2b politely explain to WT that their licence statement is in error,
and why, and that even if people in the UK abide by it, it is
unenforceable internationally.

> 3. Label them CC-BY so the Wellcome Trust can get a mandatory attribution,
> which we would do anyway

No, for the reasons stated by Christoph, and in the Commons discussion
cited above. And we would not advise re-users that the attribution is
mandatory.

--
Andy Mabbett
@pigsonthewing
http://pigsonthewing.org.uk

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