Copyright, cultural heritage and photography: A gordian knot?

Abstract

EuropeanaPhotography was a project funded by the European Commission with the remit to digitise photographic collections from museums, libraries, archives and photograph agencies, and to make the digitised images available via the European portal, Europeana. The collections spanned 100 years of photography from 1839 to 1939 and many of the photographs depicted individuals and family life during these 100 years. In this contribution we explore the experiences of members of the consortium as they sought to navigate what are considered to be the complexities of copyright as it applies to digital photography. Of particular concern to many members of the consortium was (a) the desire to protect (family) privacy against commercial exploitation; (b) a concern to safeguard the authenticity and integrity of our cultural heritage; and (c) the perceived need to protect existing business models. This chapter discusses the challenges that members of the consortium faced and how they dealt with the challenges as they arose. Finally, the chapter suggests that the copyright strategy developed for the RICHES project that encourages cultural heritage institutions to think about their digitisation programmes first through the human rights lens to culture and cultural rights, and then ask how copyright may be used as a tool to meet those aims. While it is not suggested that such an approach could resolve all of the copyright conundrums that arise in this sector, what it could do is to help stakeholders to think differently about issues involved.