Monday, May 28, 2007

ARTS


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6,000 PHOTOS THE SMITHSONIAN DOESN'T WANT YOU TO KNOW ARE IN THE PUBLIC
DOMAIN

AP - Grabbing pictures of iconic Smithsonian Institution artifacts just
got a whole lot easier. Before, if you wanted to get a picture of the
Wright Brothers' plane, you could go to the Smithsonian Images Web site
and pay for a print or high-resolution image after clicking through
several warnings about copyrights and other restrictions -- and only if
you were a student, teacher or someone pledging not to use it to make
money. Now, you can just go to the free photo-sharing Web site
flickr.com.

A nonprofit group is challenging the copyrights and restrictions on
images being sold by the Smithsonian. But instead of going to court, the
group downloaded all 6,288 photos online and posted them Wednesday night
on the free Internet site. "I don't care if they sell the photos, but
then once they sell it, they can't say you can't reuse this photo," said
Carl Malamud, co-founder of the group Public.Resource.Org, advocates for
posting more government information online. You're not allowed to chill
debate by telling people they can't use something because it's under
copyright when that's not true."

Most images the Smithsonian is selling, including photos of artifacts
and historic figures, are not protected by copyright, Malamud said. But
the Smithsonian site carries copyright notices and other warnings that
would discourage most people from using historic images that should be
publicly available, he said. Malamud testified last year in Congress
against the Smithsonian's long-term television deal with Showtime
Networks because he said it could restrict public access to the national
museums' archives. He is also critical of other Smithsonian business
deals, calling them "privatizing of the archives."

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07139/787225-42.stm

THE PHOTOS
http://www.flickr.com/photos/publicresourceorg/collections/72157600214199993/


MORE ARTS NEWS
http://prorev.com/arts.htm

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