Nina, This and similar nasty questions are the reasons our new museum science & management program(TU master’s level program) is collaborating with the University of Tulsa’s law school to offer a webinar on IPR(Intellectual Property Rights). Museums are faced with issues on a daily basis and most of us are not as aware of the applicable laws as we should be. We are also going to be able to place our MSM students in law classes at TU. That is an important new development.
The proliferation of high quality digital cameras, even cell phone cameras, means that anyone can create publication quality (if the standards are low) images without flash or tripods. Certainly, there is some promotional value to allowing anyone to create and publish images but it impacts the museums identity and in these days of financial hardship, every museum is looking for ways to provide income streams – charging fees for images is one of them.
We too have changed our policy, recently, and now forbid photography in the galleries. However, we do not believe that we can apply it retroactively.
I don’t know if this helps. If you don’t’ mind, I may use your question in our upcoming webinar, thus I’m copying Michelle Maxwell on this response
Bob
Robert B. Pickering, PhD
Senior Curator
Gilcrease Museum
1400 N. Gilcrease Museum Rd
Tulsa, OK 74127
(918) 596-2706 Office
(918) 596-2770 Fax
(918) 805-4780 Cell
From: Museum discussion list [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Nina Simon
Sent: Thursday, December 31, 2009 8:35 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [MUSEUM-L] Do visitors own the photos they take (legally) in museums?
Legal buffs,
I was contacted by an academic colleague who is writing a book and illustrating it with photographs he has taken (following then-current photography policies) at museums throughout Europe. He is now being asked by those institutions for royalty fees (see below for his full message). It was my understanding that if you take photographs in a museum legally, you own your creations and do not have to submit to fees.
Are these museums fleecing him, or are they in the right?
Over the years I've taken a lot of photographs in European museums. All of them were taken quite legally and no one asked me to sign anything. The only restriction was on using flash which is reasonable.
Now I have just completed a book on world religions for which the publisher asked me to provide 300 images - one every two pages. Fortunately, I have enough photos to do this, but I also discovered that using my museum photos is questionable.
In fact when I wrote to one museum to keep them informed they told me that I would have to pay $150 to use a photograph I had taken fifteen years ago of a six hundred year old Buddha.
While I don't mind making a donation I simply cannot afford to pay this sort of fee - my royalties will be a few thousand dollars unless by some unlikly chance the book became a best seller. So I have to think twice about paying anything. Besides, as far as I can see I am doing them a favor publicizing their collections.
Please can you comment and perhaps point me in the right direction for clarification on the legal issues.
Nina Simon
Museum 2.0 - www.museumtwo.com
831.331.5460
1040 Mystery Spot Road
Santa Cruz, CA 95065
skype, twitter, yahooIM, flickr, facebook: ninaksimon
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