The Museum Computer Network MCN web page offers links to copyright and
intellectual property resources under "resources."  (Also they offer
links to what looks like all museums found on the web, for those doing
museums on the web research.)  Check them out at:

http://www.mcn.edu

Also, there is a conference Museums and the Web in March 1999 that will
offer sessions on copyright issues.  Perhaps contacting them or checking
out their web site could point you in the right direction:

http://www.archimuse.com/mw99/

I hope that helps.
Jen

>Date:         Wed, 18 Nov 1998 16:33:42 -0500
>Reply-To:     Museum discussion list <[log in to unmask]>
>From:         "Harper, Lucy" <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject:      Web etiquette re: other museums' images
>To:           [log in to unmask]
>
>We would appreciate a sense of the list re: the etiquette of placing
images
>from other museums on museum or museum-related websites.  The Memorial
Art
>Gallery of the University of Rochester has found several instances of
images
>from our collection showing up on other websites, without our
permission
>having been sought, or credit having been given.  We are formulating a
web
>image permissions policy before communicating with the sites in
question,
>and would appreciate any philosophical and/or suggested ideas for
inclusion
>in our policy statement.  Some of these are websites are that promote
>themselves as museum interest-related.
>
>Granted that there are some images that are in public domain in the US,
(and
>which may or may not be in public domain in their country of origin)
and
>that fair use will be a consideration for some users even if copyright
does
>apply, should we not expect/ask for the minimum courtesy of a credit
line,
>and better, a link to our website?  In text-based fair use, if one
copies a
>work without citing the source, one could be subject to a charge of
>plagiarism.  Why not with appropriation of images to a website?
>
>In all these instances, the image has been scanned from a print source,
as
>none of the images are available in that form in our website--we've
made a
>point of including label info within the .gif file for all images in
our
>website.  Needless to say, once an  image is on the web it's available
for
>anyone else to copy freely.  Since the image is unattributed, all those
>additional sites will also be unattributed and the problem will
balloon.  I
>know we can't do much about individuals' personal websites, but would
it be
>amiss for museum professionals to state a collective sense of what is
or is
>not appropriate for websites that are more closely tied to the
profession?
>
>Thanks for your feedback.
>
>Lu Harper
>webmaster
>Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester
>[log in to unmask]
>


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