Amalyah, Your situation is a good illustration of how possible changes in museum policy could avoid the situation you describe.
First, the museum should require that it be given one (or more) copies of the negatives/images made of items in its collection as a condition for accessing the materials. The museum should have the right if it chooses to do so to place those materials with an archival facility like the Ancient Biblical Manuscript Center or similar organization for museums to deposit materials for reduplication. (This allows the museum to avoid the expenses and administration of reduplication and yet to enjoy some income from requests for copies of those materials.) Second, an open respository of those materials would avoid situation where scholars (the bad actors in your case) could convey their images to "a very expensive product" since most people would choose the lower price reproductions rather than purchase an entire CD-ROM database. In this instance it is the very limitation of access as a matter of museum policy that makes the conduct of the scholars in question possible (and profitable). I have no quarrel with the notion that if income is to be derived from museum holdings (or libraries) that it should be the museum or library that benefits from it. Unfortunately, I have yet to see any indication on this list of what museum or libraries actually have gained from licensing the use of such items. It is therefore difficult to say, other than as an article of faith, that museum or libraries would suffer any real economic impact from allowing imaging of their materials. In your case the CD-ROM database may be very expensive but that is not determinative of the value your materials would command for inclusion in the set. (I can privately name some publishers who take camera-ready copy and then charge > $125 per volume for 200-300 page monographs. You can imagine the immense royalties that the authors enjoy! (sarcasm)) I suspect I know the CD-ROM you mention in your post and the only way that situation will ever change is if scholars, museums and libraries simply refuse to have further dealings with those responsible for such products and conduct. While we are waiting for better conduct from some scholars and commercial concerns unnamed, providing wider access to museum materials will deprive them of the exclusivity that allows them to continue to offend against the academic community. I am sorry that your time and resources will be diverted by the offense you mention but hope that different museum policies can deprive those in question of the exclusivity guaranteed by present museum policies. I also hope you will publically pursue those responsible for this offense. Patrick Amalyah Keshet wrote: > Diane and Julie have hit just about all the salient points. I would only > like to emphasize the point about "commercial" vs. "non-commercial" being > in the eye of the beholder. This is a classic problem. Right now, I am > dealing with a situation in which scholars who were given special > permission to photograph certain ancient manuscripts in my museum's > collection with special equipment (i.e. to create non-standard photographs > to aid in decipherment) -- on condition that they were for research > purposes only. Recently it was brought to our attention that the images > have been sold to a a CD-ROM database -- a very expensive product. > Commercial, in other words. Beyond the obvious breach of trust, there is > the breach of good will: the time and effort our staff devoted to > accomodating the photography work. And of course the untenable situation in > which we, the institution which secures, preserves, cares for and provides > access to these manuscripts, earns not a penny towards these expenses from > the production and sale of these commercial products. > > I spend considerable time and effort dealing with this and similar cases, > when that time and effort could be going towards creating good ways of > making quality images securely available to scholars. And to commercial > users, if properly licensed and paid for -- that's how we'll survive > financially, and maintain image sources of relevance to scholars and > non-scholars alike. > > <snip>prior posts deleted for space considerations<snip> > amalyah keshet > head of visual resources, the israel museum, jerusalem > board of directors, the museum computer network > chair, mcn intellectual property special interest group > akes...@imj.org.il -- Patrick Durusau Information Technology Services Scholars Press pduru...@emory.edu Manager, ITS
