Sunday, March 06, 2011

#Italy loves its #monuments

When you go to Italy on a holiday, its monuments, its #culture and its #food are the star attractions. The tourists take their snapshots and share it with their envious friends who also want to see Napoli before they die.

When these friends prepare for their trip to one of the roots of the classic civilisations they seek out Wikipedia for information. Arguably it is in the macro economic interest of Italy to provide them with superior articles and magnificent illustrations.

It is therefore astonishing to learn that Italy cannot take part in Wikipedia loves Monuments because the state is said to have the copyright on all of Italy's monuments. Some will argue that we cannot have photos of Italian monuments on Commons. Others will argue that the swarms of tourists who descend on Italy are exempt from such Mafia practices. As monuments are monuments for a reason, it is reasonable to expect to find illustrations in images that are out of copyright.

It is likely that these illustrations may need as much restorations as the buildings that are still standing. This is something we can certainly do as Wikipedia loves Monuments.
Thanks,
       GerardM

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Have you got any link about this? We do lots of stupid things in Italy so if true I would not be that surprised; however this is the first time I heard such claim.

Спас Колев said...

Unfortunately they are trying to introduce similar restrictions in Bulgaria too. A group of Wikipedians was able to discuss the subject with a deputy minister of culture and they even softened some of the texts in the proposed bill but the general principle remains. The intention is to provide an extra source of income to the regional history museums - not very realistic but alas.

Anonymous said...

Said by true. Here you have the link:
Decreto 20 aprile 2005 - Ministero per i Beni e le Attività Culturali. Indirizzi, criteri e modalita' per la riproduzione di beni culturali, ai sensi dell'articolo 107 del decreto legislativo 22 gennaio 2004, n. 42.