Monday, April 11, 2011

What is the point of publishing cultural heritage on the web II

The "Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed" is missing out on the benefits of crowd sourcing. When you have to pay for what is on offer, would you share the result of work done on the images made available on its website?

In a previous blog I mentioned that much of the material shown is out of copyright anyway and, claiming the availability under a restricting license is copy fraud. The illustration was a print by C. van Noordt dated 1756, and it was pointed out to that as it is a print this makes it even more audacious to claim rights.


This digital restored image of the Diever church is a wonderful example of what can be achieved in the crowd space. As an illustration it serves better then the stained original. It is also debatable if the restoration will refer to the cultureel erfgoed website. While any claim to the rights of this print is bogus, a print allows for multiple sources and sourcing it can potentially create problems.

Not sourcing it is however a bad practice.
Thanks.
      GerardM

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