Copyright mutterings
March 26th, 2008 by NaomiFor my first post on my new blog, I’m not going to provide profound words of wisdom, but rather just tell it how it is. I hope that I can maintain this vein of reporting back, and work permitting, use these entries to keep a record of issues that I come across, thoughts that occur to me and also a log of what I spend my working (and sometimes dreaming!) time on).
Today, I’ve been working on a range of projects which highlight in my mind the fragility of many public sector bodies in terms of owning and using stuff creating by other people. Copyright exceptions by and large don’t measurably apply (or in some cases, don’t apply at all) and in terms of helping them do what they need to do, they are pretty much stuffed. On another level, I heard of one cultural heritage organisation today, (call them Museum A) who is being sued for putting a photograph up on their website which they were given by a third party in all good faith. Museum A was contacted by the photographer and told to take the photograph down (which they did immediately), but despite this, the photographer is going after them big time. In so many ways, museums in particular are just stymied on every front…
So, what can I do to make a difference? In the scale of things, its a bit like taking a small gem stone pick axe and trying to carve out a tunnel…but, today, I have been putting the finishing touches on a number of submissions to the big UK-IPO Proposed Extensions to the Copyright Consulation - I am not holding out huge amounts of hope that any of our collective submissions will make a whole lot of difference this time, but certainly, I believe that we are, perhaps for the first time articulating the *real* issues and obstacles that public sector organisations are faced with in terms of providing access to stuff which they don’t own the rights, how hetrogeneous institutions working across the public sector are and the range of our contributions to the UK’s Knowledge Economy. It’s also about positioning and carrying through momentum and maybe, things will change if not now but soon….its also about hope and realising (and communicating) the value of what public sector bodies are doing…
More from me soon
Naomi
