ITALIAN CHAPTER
Rome, March 15th, 2021
Common appeal to the EU Member States competent Ministers and European Cultural
Institutions (museums, libraries, archives, galleries and archaeological sites) for the free reuse of
the images of cultural heritage in public domain.
The Coronavirus emergency has led us to rediscover the centrality of the Internet and the
digital space in enhancing knowledge about the Cultural Heritage among the public. All over the
world, Cultural Institutions are implementing numerous initiatives to offer free access to digital
resources on the web, to overcome the physical distance imposed by contagion control measures.
These experiences will be even more fundamental after the end of the emergency, to relaunch
cultural entrepreneurship, creative industry, tourism and research activities. The proposal summarized
here moves exactly in this direction, by aiming to promote the free diffusion of images of public
cultural heritage no longer protected by Copyright Law.
The free re-use of images is an extraordinary lever for innovation, as it favours creative
industry and cultural publications (and therefore scientific research), as well as offers new incentives
to sectors such as fashion and design. Further, the use of these images can improve urban decorum
(supporting the graphic restyling of the interiors of infrastructures, vehicles and public areas), boost
tourism in less visited places and give impulse to different forms of economic initiative. Moreover, it
is a way to enact two fundamental principles: “Public Heritage belongs to everyone” and “culture can
be a driving force for economic development”.
Those principles have inspired an increasing number of Cultural Institutions around the
world, such as Library of Congress, New York Public Library, Getty Research Institute,
Rijksmuseum, National Library of Spain, Stockholm’s Nationalmuseum and the National Gallery of
Denmark - SMK (which adopted the slogan: It's your cultural heritage. Use it!). These institutions
decided to make available from their web sites high-resolution images of their collections, with the
aim of incentivising the free re-use of those images for any intended purpose, including commercial
one. The radical transformations that digital has produced in our society invite us to abandon
traditional "proprietary" paradigms, in favor of a more democratic, inclusive and horizontal vision of
Cultural Heritage.
In many cases revenues from the selling of images or fees applied to their commercial use are
negligible if not lower than the associated costs. On the other hand, the institutions which adopt an
open approach experience gains in terms of increased marketing activities, higher number of tourists
and, in general, improved attractiveness for public and private funds. Finally, the free sharing of
images, including for commercial purposes, may lead to new jobs and incomes in a circular economy,
which in turn will generate public revenues.
An important chance to move in this direction is now offered by article 14 of Directive
2019/790/EU, that promotes public domain removing related rights on reproduction of visual art work
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into the public domain. The rule states that “when the term of protection of a work of visual art has
expired, any material resulting from an act of reproduction of that work is not subject to copyright or
related rights, unless the material resulting from that act of reproduction is original in the sense that it
is the author's own intellectual creation”.
An implementation of article 14 as broad as possible, inspired by Communia guidelines
(https://www.notion.so/DSM-Directive-Implementation-Guidelines-45233be9c0e143338860ae5a0311
8bf3), is crucial for the development of culture, creativity, tourism, and all other economic activities
that benefit from the free spread of Cultural Heritage images, and enhances the spirit of the European
law in creating a single digital market for copyright and therefore for public domain. In particular, the
free reuse of images of cultural heritage in the public domain would allow Public Cultural Institutions
to achieve their institutional purposes.
For those reasons and for the need to relaunch culture and research activities, tourism and
cultural industry affected by the Coronavirus emergency, we appeal Member States to implement
principle stated by article 14 as broadly and harmonized as possible, encouraging the widespread
adoption of open licenses for the free re-use, for any purpose, of Cultural Heritage images by Cultural
Institutions.
Moreover, we encourage Cultural Institutions to adopt the tool of Public Domain Mark
(PDM) for the faithful reproductions of visual art works in public domain worldwide, or CC0
dedication to public domain, when there are concerns that the reproductions are subject to copyright in
some territory and the Cultural Institution was the rights holder.
In case of original reproduction of visual art works in the public domain, we ask Cultural
Institutions to adopt CC0. At last, in the case where Cultural Institutions are not the right holders of
the original reproduction of visual art works in public domain, we strongly recommend them, also
with specific agreements with the rights holders, to promote the adoption of CC0
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APRIL - Promouvoir et défendre le logiciel libre
Communia
Free Knowledge Advocacy Group EU (Wikimedia)
ICA - International Council on Archives
AIB - Associazione Italiana Biblioteche (Italian Library Association)
AISA - Associazione Italiana per la promozione della Scienza Aperta (Italian Association for the
Promotion of Open Science)
ANA - Associazione Nazionale Archeologi (National Association of Archeologists)
ANAI - Associazione Nazionale Archivistica Italiana (National Association of Italian Archivists)
ArcheoFOSS
CIA- Confederazione Italiana Archeologi (Italian Archeologists Confederation)
Federculture - Federazione delle Aziende e degli Enti di gestione di cultura, turismo, sport e tempo
libero (Federation of Companies and Management Bodies of culture, tourism, sport and leisure)
Hermes Center for Transparency and Digital Human Rights
ICOM Italia - International Council of Museums Italia
Wikimedia Italia
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