Copyright and Digitalisation in Cultural Organisations

Copyright and Digitalisation in Cultural Organisations - A Master’s thesis presented to the Master of Art and Cultural Studies programme at Erasmus University Rotterdam Anna Picard Keywords: copyright, digitalisation, cultural organisations, rights and permissions, intellectual property, innovation This thesis considers the implications of copyright on the increasing digitalisation of collections in cultural organisations, especially museums and libraries. Digitalisation is being pursued to make material available in digital form as well as to create new revenue streams to support their activities. The study defines and describes issues surrounding intellectual property and digitalisation and their application to museums, libraries, and other cultural heritage repositories. It reveals the relevance to both profit and non-profit cultural organisations; and how creativity, innovation, and entrepreneurship in cultural organizations are promoting digitisation and raising the importance of copyright and related issues within cultural organisations. The thesis studies how five museums and two libraries in the Netherlands and the United States are handling digitalisation and copyright issues. It is based on interviews with those operating the digital processes at, and material provided by, the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, Groninger Museum, Kröller-Müller Museum, Boston Public Library, Museum of Fine Arts Boston, Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, The Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine. The Boston-based cultural organisations selected in the United States were made on the basis that they exist is an art market with a reasonably similar to that of the Netherlands. The study finds that the stated missions of the organisations affect the strategies of digitalisation and the uses of copyright. It found conflicts between the avowed missions of some organisations and their copyright policies. Organisations tend to give more importance to their missions and objectives than to copyright because of limited understanding and acceptance of copyright and a strong sense of the need to disseminate knowledge and cultural heritage. Interviews in the organisations revealed wide differences in drivers of digitalisation, but a common realisation that creating digital collections and services creates new copyrights and market potentials. It also showed differences in the processes and applications used in digitalisation that appear to be related to the unique characteristics of individual cultural organisations. The research revealed differences in the strategies and risks that organisations are willing to incur as they exploit copyright. Most interviewees see copyright as a restrictive rather than enabling factor, but revealed a general willingness to make available objects, images, and works where the copyright holder is unknown or unreachable. None of the organizations have a dedicated copyright department; instead the functions are spread across departments. In its entirety, this thesis has shown that digitalisation is creating new copyright challenges for other cultural organisations and that they are having some discomfort implementing strategies and procedures that will bring them the greatest benefit. However the interviews show that these organisations are taking steps in the right direction and that they can be expected to incrementally benefit from copyright in the coming years as they become more comfortable applying entrepreneurial strategies into their public oriented activities.