I agree that it's only a matter of time before somebody does it but, as
with the NPG a few years ago, the BM are likely to be quite upset if we
can't get them to see it from our point of view. If anyone has any relevant
contacts it might be worth reaching out. It could be that they don't fully
understand the difference between CC-By-SA and CC-By-NC and how the latter
prevents use on Wikipedia. On the other hand, it could be that they're
claiming copyright based on the "sweat of brow" doctrine, which hasn't been
fully tested in British courts.
On Thu, Apr 30, 2020 at 12:21 PM WereSpielChequers <
werespielchequers(a)gmail.com> wrote:
Andy makes some important points.
We know that even if editors in the UK respect what the British Museum is
doing and don't upload those images to Commons or Wikipedia; where they are
public domain images under US law, it is just a matter of time before
someone in the movement, anywhere in the world, uploads any of those
British Museum images that are of old two D objects to Commons as Public
Domain images that can be used without attribution to the photographer or
the institution.
Of course large parts of the British Museum collection would involve
images of three d objects. In those case we can't use the BM images, but
outside of lockdown people can either go there and take photos, or if you
can't get yourself to the British Museum with a camera, make a request via
the London Meetup, and if the object is on display we can get results such
as at
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miniature_altarpiece_(WB.232)
The chapter remains in the awkward position of liaising with institutions
that regard it as acceptable to claim a non commercial copyright on out of
copyright material, and of in effect advocating for a position at variance
with that of the wider movement.
One option that the chapter could consider would be to shift policy and
instead start to diplomatically lobby UK Museum's to, as Andy put it, stop
" trying to appropriate rights that belong to us all." Perhaps those on
this list who are still members of the chapter might consider raising this
for a debate at the next AGM?
Regards
Jonathan
On Wed, 29 Apr 2020 at 21:06, Andy Mabbett <andy(a)pigsonthewing.org.uk>
wrote:
On Wed, 29 Apr 2020 at 11:43, Owen Blacker
<owen(a)blacker.me.uk> wrote:
That it's a non-commercial licence is really disappointing, but that's
still a little better than nothing…
With the emphasis on the "little". There are two things wrong with
this, which we as a movement (and individually) need to challenge; at
very reasonable opportunity.
Firstly, there's the way they're spending public money making non-free
original content. we need to persuade GLAMs - and lobby funders - that
such material should be freely reusable.
But far more troubling is the attempt to claim copyright in works
whose copyright - if the work didn't pre-date copyright completely -
expired decades or centuries ago. The latter means, in effect that
they are trying to appropriate rights that belong to us all.
--
Andy Mabbett
@pigsonthewing
http://pigsonthewing.org.uk
_______________________________________________
Wikimedia UK mailing list
wikimediauk-l(a)wikimedia.org
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediauk-l
WMUK:
https://wikimedia.org.uk
_______________________________________________
Wikimedia UK mailing list
wikimediauk-l(a)wikimedia.org
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediauk-l
WMUK:
https://wikimedia.org.uk