I neither work at the Rijksmuseum nor live in the Netherlands, so the others who have contributed to this thread might have access to "inside information" that I don't have, but in my understanding, the Rijksmuseum was a pioneer of the "CC-0" license, which allows commercial use (and indeed any type of use whatsoever, completely for free), as explained in their open data policy. The Rijksmuseum has high-quality photographic documentation for a lot of objects in its collection, but not all of these images are released under CC-0 licenses. Photographs of works in the public domain (like this Mañjuśrī) are available for free download under a CC-0 license, but photographs of works that are still under copyright (basically: anything produced within the last couple of decades) are not.

The point is moot for manuscripts, which (as far as I understand) are all in the public domain, but as others have alluded to, repositories and collections may try to get scholars to agree to (verbal or written) terms of use before making or acquiring photographs.  Enforcement of those terms is another issue.

On Tue, Apr 12, 2022 at 9:22 PM Dominik Wujastyk via INDOLOGY <indology@list.indology.info> wrote:
Dear Anna,

On Tue, 12 Apr 2022 at 05:40, Anna Slaczka via INDOLOGY <indology@list.indology.info> wrote:
[...] 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.


How is this "not allowed" achieved?  Does the Rijksmuseum itself take the photos and only hand them over if the scholar signs a contract with the above terms?

Best,
Dominik

_______________________________________________
INDOLOGY mailing list
INDOLOGY@list.indology.info
https://list.indology.info/mailman/listinfo/indology