Typically in copyright infringement prosecution the questions that are asked are the following:  1) is the work in question copyrightable in the first place?  2) is the person bringing the claim the proper owner of the copyright?  3) is the infringer representing your intellectual property as his/her own creation?  4)  if so, is the public likely to be confused as to the real author of the copyrighted material?   5) if so, is the infringer capitalizing on this confusion by receiving money that is rightfully yours as the copyright owner?  6) is the reputation of the copyright owner damaged by the infringement?  7)  if so, what is the monetary value of that damage?

 

Copyright legislation exists so that the author(s) of copyrightable material can take full monetary advantage of his/her/their work.  If it’s clear that the Flikr images are not being represented as someone else’s own work and there are no monetary damages that can be assigned, trying to prosecute this abuse is a waste of your time and money if, as others have said, you allowed the photographs to be taken in the first place.

 

However, you may want to alert people who licensed you to use their copyrights for their original material that this is happening.  Maybe someone with deeper pockets would be more successful at least in scaring the person who posted the entire exhibition online.

 

Julia Muney Moore

Public Art Administrator

Blackburn Architects, Indianapolis, IN

(317) 875-5500 x219

  

 

 

From: Museum discussion list [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Heather McClenahan
Sent: Sunday, June 15, 2008 5:32 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [MUSEUM-L] Flickr abuse and copyright

 

The person who put the images on Flickr isn't making any money off of the photos and probably isn't taking money away from the mueum. In fact, it could be viewed as good publicity, possibly reaching an audience who otherwise never might have heard of your museum.

 

This is a "jump in with both feet" introduction to the concepts of Web 2.0 -- if we don't share our own stuff about our museums on sites like YouTube and Flickr, someone else will.

 

As others have said, a "no photography in the museum" policy is the best way to protect yourself. 

 

Heather McClenahan, museum assistant/web master
Los Alamos Historical Society
http://www.losalamoshistory.org
[log in to unmask]
P.O. Box 43
1921 Juniper St.
Los Alamos, NM 87544
505-662-6272 (office)
505-470-2912 (cell)

----- Original Message -----

From: [log in to unmask]">Kaia Landon

Sent: Saturday, June 14, 2008 10:54 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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