[INDOLOGY] NGMCP images and copyright law

[Anna Slaczka]

Just a note… high definition photographs of the Rijksmuseum paintings and other objects ARE available online free of costs. It is only not allowed to earn on the photographs, for instance by producing Rijksmuseum ‘souvenirs’ on a large scale and selling them. Downloading for research purposes, using in (scholarly) publications and small-scale reproduction for yourself (like printing it on a mug or a T-shirt) is allowed.

https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/research/image-requests
Of course, as anywhere else, we like to be mentioned in credit lines and, if possible, receive a copy of a publication where the image appeared. 

With best wishes,
Anna.

Sent from my iPhone

> On 10 Apr 2022, at 15:55, Jonathan Silk via INDOLOGY <indology at list.indology.info> wrote:
> 
> 
> I am not a lawyer, but...
> 
> According to the research I have done, at least under US, EU and UK copyright law, it is NOT possible to claim copyright on two dimensional reproductions of two dimensional objects (not only mss but also paintings for example) which themselves are not subject to copyright.
> 
> What *can* be exterted is contact rights. So, if you order an image from someplace, and they make you sign a contact, then you are bound by the terms of that contact. However, if you for instance have access--however you have that access--to such a two dimensional image (see above) there is no issue of copyright.
> 
> What this means in practice is that if I were to take, for instance, the University of Washington Press volumes of Gandhari manuscripts and scan the images (NOT the text) there is nothing they could do about it. 
> 
> Why do some museums and libraries try to restrict copying? Because they think they can make money, that's all! The Rijksmuseum some years ago considered just making high definition images of all its paintings free on line. Why did they not do it? the gift shop objected...
> 
> Jonathan
> 
>> On Sun, Apr 10, 2022 at 2:57 PM Harry Spier via INDOLOGY <indology at list.indology.info> wrote:
>> Dear list members,
>> Does anyone know, if according to international copyright law, the manuscript images of the  NGMCP (Nepal German Manuscript Cataloguing project) will eventually go into public domain. And if so, when.  Or do the agreements signed between the project and the Nepal government supercede this, and the Nepal government has copyright for the images forever.
>> Thanks,
>> Harry Spier
>> 
>> _______________________________________________
>> INDOLOGY mailing list
>> INDOLOGY at list.indology.info
>> https://list.indology.info/mailman/listinfo/indology
> 
> 
> -- 
> J. Silk
> Leiden University
> Leiden University Institute for Area Studies, LIAS
> Matthias de Vrieshof 3, Room 0.05b
> 2311 BZ Leiden
> The Netherlands
> 
> website: www.OpenPhilology.eu
> copies of my publications may be found at
> https://leidenuniv.academia.edu/JASilk
> 
> _______________________________________________
> INDOLOGY mailing list
> INDOLOGY at list.indology.info
> https://list.indology.info/mailman/listinfo/indology
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://list.indology.info/pipermail/indology/attachments/20220412/14afde38/attachment.htm>