Protection and Control of Museum Images in

EducationStraddling the Not-So-Bright Line Between Necessity

and Infringement

Christine L. Sundt, University of Oregon

Copyright & Art Issueshttp://uoregon.edu/~csundt/copyweb/

My Goals: Provide background for academic practices Look at museums’ educational goals Examine the causes of conflict between

practice and tradition, the law and museums

Offer ideas for expanding and promoting AAM’s educational mandate

Purpose and Uses of Images To teach To inspire To illustrate To supplement To review

To enhance To display To share To promote To decorate

How images are acquired - From artists/creators or galleries/agents From museums From vendors or licensors From catalogs and books By photographing on site Through bequests and donations

Museums as educational institutions “Assert that museums

place education…at the center of their public service roles.” (#1)

“Engage in active ongoing collaboration efforts with a wide spectrum of organizations and individuals who can contribute to the expansion of the museum’s public dimension.” (#6)

“Commit leadership and financial resources—in individual museums, professional organizations, and training organizations and universities—to strengthen the public dimension of museums.”(#10)

The view from the trenches

Art historical practices and traditions: The ties with museums and the

Copyright Law

Museums as responsible protectors Access may be regulated by copyright but

more often it is contract and/or property law that rules

The laws are complex and cumbersome – a bundle of rights and many generations of owners

Revenue issues take precedence over goodwill in the real world

Where the law assists education The constitutional mandate Privileged use Special exemptions Codification of fair use TEACH Act Guidelines

Where education and copyright collide

Limitations with exemptions Creativity vs. preparedness Images as integral entitles Lawfully viable? Cumbersome processes Discord through criticism

More collisions Fair use is not warm and fuzzy The public domain as the great unknown The consequences of the K-12 ‘cut & paste’

curriculum Appropriation as an expression of honor Technology & the instant copy Licensing and contracts The disappearing public domain

Educational scholarship: The facts How much is actually ‘published’? Scholarship IS mandated, not just an option Color images are seldom possible in low-

budget scholarly publications An educator is unlikely to reap profits from

scholarly publishing Scholarly publishing is a ‘limited edition’

when compared to commercial publishing

More facts Small market + high costs = diminishing

audience Value added through scholarship should be

properly compensated Limitations on use are disproportionate to

value derived from exposure and discourse AAM’s educational mandate must be

revisited

The shrinking world of resources Services being abandoned:

Slide sales Bookstores Lending libraries & collections

Digital is just another technology, not a replacement for everything

High costs associated with technology do not go away

And still more shrinking… Community outreach is replacing services

to research and scholarship When does control threaten access? Usage rights are more complex under

today’s laws Images are proliferating on the Web, but

the ‘look, but don’t touch’ rule can cause confusion and frustration

Museums’ fears Images will be lost forever if they are freely

available The promised revenue stream from images

may never be realized Museums will not be able to protect their

interests and act responsibly Attendance will suffer if images are too

readily accessible

Controls and balances Piracy and any other unauthorized exploitations can and

should be litigated Fair use, especially in education, is not piracy, even though

the user must ‘take’ something in order to use it Images of artwork in the public domain should not be subject

to the same controls as work still under copyright Museums must work together to create an equitable & fair

method for protecting their interests without disabling access for educators and scholars

The art ‘experience’ is still more thrilling than looking at a digital substitute

A proposal to assist in requesting permissions – a ‘fair use’ test Developed by Tom Bower, National Museum of

American History, for the CAA/NINCH Copyright Town Meeting, Chicago, 2001

Available for examination online at http://www.pipeline.com/~rabaron/CIP/CAAdoc2.htm

Recently offered to the AAMD for review by Patricia Failing, Chair, Committee on Intellectual Property, College Art Association

Final thoughts

Try to distinguish between true creativity and hard-core exploitation

Raise the bar for commercial uses to cover & eliminate costs for education and scholarship

Order Today!

http://www.amazingmugs.com/fineart/

And finally…

Re-examine the ‘Excellence and Equity’ mandates to look for ways to encourage access in the name of education even though some risk is involved.

Links, News, and Views:

Edited by Christine L. Sundthttp://uoregon.edu/~csundt/copyweb/

Email address:csundt@darkwing.uoregon.edu

Credits www.yale.edu/arthistory/courses/ courses_homepage.html http://www.jyu.fi/taidehistoria/english/ An Art History lecture in the

big lecture hall (JT 120) in Juomatehdas www.unm.edu/~medinst/ photos/bobo_1_th.jpg Institute for Medieval

Studies University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM 87131-0001 http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/S4B/sem09.html http://www.hatii.arts.gla.ac.uk/old/Labs/DigiClassroom2girls.JPG

The Humanities Advanced Technology and Information Institute http://condor.depaul.edu/~gallery/Web%20Page%20Design.1%20c

opy.JPG http://www.history.ox.ac.uk/hoa/ Museum News advertisement: Maltbie, Women’s Museum