waderoush

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• dros commented on UK National Portrait Gallery threatens Wikipedia over scans of its public domain art
  as an aside, many museums don't even own the copyright to likenesses of their own collections! -that honour usually goes to large photo agencies, or descendants of the artists. so perhaps the National Gallery doesn't even have the right to take photos of these paintings themselves, without paying a hefty fee to a picture library!...
• redesigned commented on UK National Portrait Gallery threatens Wikipedia over scans of its public domain art
  I don't get it. They are funded by the public and hence are required by law to let people into the museum for free to view the artwork, yet they somehow think they can copyright, control, and charge people for the digital viewing of these same works? Isn't that just a digital extension of what they are supposed to be doing for free? Making these images available to the public. What a shame they lost sight of and are undermining their intended purpose, allowing the public to view these images. If they need a revenue stream they should make high...
• CrosbieFitch commented on UK National Portrait Gallery threatens Wikipedia over scans of its public domain art
  A revenue stream from the digitisation of oil paintings that doesn't involve suspending the public's liberty - to freely share and build upon published works of art? And that doesn't simply constitute taxation? Tricky. It may take some time finding such a revenue mechanism... The Digital Art Auction is a means of determining the equivalent retail price of a digitally representable work of art if each bidder paid the same price (not exceeding their valuation). Thus, if 3,300 images cost £1,000,000 to digitise then each image need only fetch £300 at auction to break even. £300 could be raised by...
• Deidzoeb commented on UK National Portrait Gallery threatens Wikipedia over scans of its public domain art
  Am I right in thinking the national gallery is like a public museum? On the one hand, I understand they need income to meet their costs. On the other hand, this seems fundamentally opposed to the mission of any public museum, displaying their artifacts for the public....
• teufelsdroch commented on UK National Portrait Gallery threatens Wikipedia over scans of its public domain art
  @38 oh yeah, that IS the issue here. Once the hi-res copies go up on wikipedia, they get distributed to poster makers. Once you know that the NPG is willing to give out lo-res versions, this entire story turns to pudding. As others have noted, photographs aren't allowed in museums in order to protect the physical paintings, not the copyright. And, is no one else bothered by the lack of distinction between the BRITISH public paying for the museum and the WORLD public consuming the copies? Should the BBC make its programming free to its citizens? I dunno...NPR and CSPAN...