Policy Paper on the Digitization of Museum Collections

This policy paper aims at clarifying the applicable general copyright law principles for the relevant stakeholders in the museum community worldwide and at formulating policies to facilitate museum activities in the digital environment, following preexisting initiatives and reports that addressed the interface between museums and copyright and/or intellectual property extensively. 

These policies may serve as guidance to stakeholders in other areas dealing with cultural heritage. These policies are not carved in the stone, but rather represent work-in-progress policies that shall progressively integrate feedback of all stakeholders. For instance, the proposals do not deal with museums as creators of their own copyrighted works extensively (but rather museums as users of third parties copyrighted materials), while it may be worth paying attention to the management of their own IP rights and mediating the potential third party uses. This could be analyzed in a version 2.0. Consequently, any stakeholder interested in these policies is invited to comment on this project, and to help us update the whole project into a 2.0 version.

For ease of reference, this policy paper is divided into three general parts. 

Part I: Policy Proposals
Part II: Museum Code of Conduct for a “Safe Harbor Right Statement”
Part III: Alternative Dispute Resolution System for Disputed Statements

You may also download the full paper here.