It will be interesting to see what the professionals say in response to what you have indicated here.
Let me respond as a lay person who regularly visits museums. If I go someplace, I regularly take pictures of the signs to identify where it is I was. It's not to steal anything; it is simply to make sure, when I get home, I remember what it is that I saw. The signs frequently put a place card to a picture.
I can't speak to what happened on Flickr, but maybe that's the reason. I don't imagine someone was trying to steal the exhibition, because I wouldn't put it in Flickr if that were the case. And, it could have the effect that, upon seeing there is so much detail there, it could provoke others to want to see it in person.
Like I said, it will be interesting to see how it plays here with the in crowd. But as someone on the other side of the coin, I'd chance to guess it was done in innocence, ignorance, or both.
----- Original Message ----
From: Kaia Landon <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Saturday, June 14, 2008 9:54:16 PM
Subject: [MUSEUM-L] Flickr abuse and copyright
We've been wanting to add some photos to Flickr for awhile, and I just now started uploading a few. I followed the tags to see what else was already there tagged with our museum's name, and I was awfully surprised to find 62 photos -- all of one small (700 square feet) very popular exhibition. Now, these aren't just photos, these are basically reproductions of ALL of the label text, along with everything in the exhibition. As it is Saturday evening and I just discovered it, I haven't had a chance to discuss with the exhibition's curator, or our graphic designer who spent countless hours on the labels, or my director, but I cannot imagine that they would be pleased.
Has anyone dealt with this sort of problem? Can anyone point me to relevant copyright regulations as applied to photos of labels, and photos of photos?
While we do allow photographs, and we should be fine with people posting photographs, this is basically a complete copy of the exhibition. It is an exhibition on a long-time popular local television program, and I believe we have several possible layers of difficulty, as some of the photos (in the exhibition, which are reproduced on Flickr) are undoubtedly originally from the television station, or private collectors, etc., along with all sorts of quotes. These do not seem to be "Hey, look at my trip to the Museum" photos, but rather "Hey, I'm reproducing the entire exhibition for you all here!" photos.
I'm just speechless.
Thanks,
Kaia Landon
Curator of Education (and tech guru)
Mesa Historical Museum
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