Now that the Rights Element has safely retained its place on the island, I'm starting to think about what it should contain. Dr. MacCall made a very interesting point in class, that the Rights Element needs to be carefully balanced. There's an inherent conflict in placing images in a digital library, available to the world--if we didn't want people to enjoy and use the images, we wouldn't go to the time, effort, and expense of making them available; on the other hand, we have to protect the copyright of the images, the wishes of the rightsholder, and the possible revenue stream use of the images might generate. Therefore, the language in the Rights Element needs to be firm and clear, yet welcoming.
In thinking about this element, I can see that repeatability probably aids clarity. A simple copyright statement stands alone, and is clear and neutral. Information for actually contacting the Bryant Museum or the University of Alabama regarding permission is best handled through a link to the contact page for easier maintenance. But what about that welcoming part?
Tonya helpfully provided a link to the Minnesota Digital Library guidelines in this post, and they are clear and simple. However, I found their Rights example to be a little off-putting from the user perspective: "This image may not be reproduced for any reason without the express written consent...." It's clear, it's firm, but it's not very friendly. I wonder if it would be better to phrase it more like "Interested in using this image? Express written permission is required for all uses. Please contact ... "
What do you all think? Is it more important to invite usage or to discourage unauthorized usage? Can both be accomplished?
Oooh this is really interesting Nikki! It is interesting to think about what Netflix does with all that information it is constantly asking you to rate and like. Now I'm off to read that Atlantic Article!
ReplyDeleteSorry, somehow I commented on a different post than I meant too. :(
DeleteLooks like you've got some good topics for discussion during the breakout sessions this Wednesday! Your group is their to help :)
ReplyDeleteNot everyone believes in copyright as much as we do so I think it is important to find a happy medium. If it’s allowed it’s possible to allow low definition images to be used with attribution, and request for high-resolution images. As Pinterest proves many people do not ask before taking images and reusing them in whatever method they please. There are various ways to prevent this via software means, for one it will segment the image into a variety of smaller images sooner to get the whole image someone would need to download 23 images and then piece them back together. If the purpose is to have imager out there it is easy to watermark the images like the ones in our test database so the image is clearly visible but the known rights holder is not easily removed. There can be a happy medium, but the client would need to decide where that line its.
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