At 05:58 PM 2/27/97 PST, Amalyah wrote:

>Robert: don't forget that any intellectual property that the museum (its
staff) creates, relating to a work of art, belongs to the museum. (Research
notes, catalogue texts, other writings, interpretive programs, photographs
created with the artist's/copyright holder's permission, conservation
technical reports, and I've probably missed a bunch...) This is entirely
separate from the artist's copyright in the original work of art.

And I respond:

Yes, indeed, and that's how museums are going to come out winners in the
intellectual property wars.  They, better an almost anyone, are in a prime
position to create profit-making products celebrating their holdings.  By
uniting audience, access and intellect museums are strategically better
placed than most other observers and critics to profit here.  Holding onto
a dubious (at best) claim to the right to control a property that has
dropped into the public domain, I think is a waste of time and energy.
Better to create than to protect.

Robert