Linkage Project:
Cultural Collections, Creators and Copyright:
Museums, Galleries, Libraries and Archives and Australia's Digital Heritage
2007-2009

This project is investigating current and emerging ways of using digital collections in Australian museums, galleries, libraries and archives, in light of copyright law and the interests of creators. The outcomes from the project are intended to serve the public interest in facilitating digital access to material held in national collections while also ensuring efficient management of copyright in that material.

Digital communications technologies offer new ways for museums, galleries, libraries and archives to promote public access to their collections. However they also create challenges for the institutions. Disseminating digital material may potentially infringe copyright and, in their use of digital technologies, cultural institutions have responsibilities to creators and copyright owners as well as to the public. This is also a significant issue for creators, who are faced with the potential for increased public access to their work alongside greater possibilities for generating income by commercial licensing of that access.

Existing Australian research on copyright, digitisation and cultural institutions suggests that copyright has a significant impact on the selection of material to digitise and how digitised content is used and made publicly available.(1) This project will highlight the tendency of copyright to treat all works in a similar manner, despite potential differences in the circumstances of their creation and the interests – economic and non-economic – of creators and copyright owners. Reform of law and practice may be important to help institutions use digital technologies to adequately fulfil their public interest missions while also protecting creators’ interests.

The  Partner Organisations in this research project are: Arts Law Centre of Australia, Australian Centre for the Moving Image, Museum Victoria, Museums Australia, National Film & Sound Archive, National Gallery of Victoria, National Library of Australia, National Museum of Australia, National and State Libraries Australasia, Powerhouse Museum, Screen Australia, State Library of Victoria

Chief Investigators: Andrew Kenyon and Andrew Christie
Research Fellow: Robin Wright
PhD candidate: Emily Hudson

Between October 2007 and February 2008, researchers from the CMCL conducted interviews with creators and representatives of cultural institutions to identify and explore the copyright issues facing them in the digital environment. Group interviews were conducted in Melbourne, Canberra and Sydney with creators working in the following art forms:

• visual arts and craft practitioners, photographers and graphic artists;
• performers and musicians;
• film, television and new media producers and directors;
• writers;
• community artists;

and also with administrative and curatorial staff from a number of cultural institutions. A survey was also disseminated to Indigenous Community Art Centres throughout Australia.

A conference will be held at the State Library of Victoria on 23 October 2009 to explore issues that have arisen from this project.

Exploiting the potential of digital media and maximising Australia's creative capability both depend on providing adequate incentives for content production while also allowing access to creative material as a resource for new production. The project will assist Australia better manage its digital cultural collections and balance the interests of creators, institutions and public accessibility in the future.

See Hudson and Kenyon, ‘Digital Access: The Impact of Copyright on Digitisation Practices in Australian Museums, Galleries, Libraries and Archives’ (2007) 30(1) University of New South Wales Law Journal 12-52.