17 November 2021

By Stephanie Ashcroft, Consultant and Rights Researcher Digitisation projects offer a fantastic opportunity for heritage institutions to preserve and share their collections with wider audiences. The national lockdowns and restrictions in recent years, resulting in limited access to research material, exhibitions and outreach programmes, have highlighted the need to increase digital and remote access to […]

25 October 2021

By Amalyah Keshet, Senior Consultant Those of us toiling in the cultural heritage sector may all feel the occasional bit of copyright exhaustion. As it happens, that is actually a legal term, and it’s come up in the news recently. The U.K. Intellectual Property Office has announced a consultation on the matter of post-Brexit exhaustion […]

6 October 2021

Earlier this summer, we launched the brand new Data Protection Toolkit for Archive Services, commissioned by The National Archives and delivered by Naomi Korn Associates in collaboration with an advisory group of archivists. Archival collections are a hive of information but managing requests for access to personal data held within them can be challenging. Understanding the […]

19 May 2021

By Faye Cheung, Researcher The Digital Identity and Attributes Trust Framework In February 2021 the UK Government published its draft policy paper on a digital identity and attributes trust framework.[1] The trust framework provides rules and standards for organisations who create, provide or use digital identity services. Therefore, the framework will be relevant to large […]

25 March 2021

By Amalyah Keshet, Senior Consultant “In the face of a pandemic, copyright law may seem a frivolous concern; but its importance lies in the ever-expanding role that it plays in either enabling or constraining the kinds of communicative activities that are critical to a flourishing life.” An article published last October by the Washington College […]

5 March 2021

By Naomi Korn, Managing Director The Problem Orphan works are works in copyright where the rights holders are either unknown or cannot be traced. Across UK heritage institutions, there are probably hundreds of millions of orphan works, sometimes representing up to 40-50% of collection items[1]. These include photographs, letters, prints, films, sound recordings, plays, broadcasts, […]

1 February 2021

By Liz Bowers, Senior Consultant The closure of museums, galleries and other heritage venues for much of 2020 has wiped out their biggest income sources – admissions, exhibition ticket sales, shop and café income and revenue from corporate hospitality and events. Business areas that do not rely on visitor numbers have therefore become ever more […]

5 January 2021

By Amalyah Keshet, Senior Consultant There is a fascinating episode of Malcom Gladwell’s podcast “Revisionist History” that begins with the story of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s financial crisis of 2018. The museum, which owns some 2 million items, mostly in remote storage facilities and literally never seen, was for the first time contemplating an […]

11 December 2020

By Amalyah Keshet, Senior Consultant The closure – and re-opening and re-closing – of cultural institutions has been severely financially damaging in a number of ways, affecting income, staff, mission, and the visiting public.  While many museums have moved online with a remarkable outpouring of creativity, the bottom line has been badly damaged for heritage […]

19 November 2020

By Faye Cheung, Researcher Libraries, archives, museums and galleries have a responsibility to safe-guard their collections, including making sure that they are well looked after, preserved, and safe protected from loss and theft (including on site and online). Fortunately, whilst such incidents are relatively rare, famous incidents in libraries include the ‘Transy Book Heist’,[1] or […]

21 October 2020

By Amalyah Keshet, Senior Consultant For every reason imaginable, the recent death of US Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg (RBG) shouldn’t go unmentioned – even in the realm of copyright. Justice Ginsburg leaned in general towards strong copyright protection; unsurprisingly, she found favour in the entertainment industry. Upon her passing, Motion Picture Association Chairman Charles […]

25 August 2020

By Matthew Bailey Why it is Important that Cultural Heritage Institutions don’t Get Fixated on an All-or-nothing Approach to the e-Use of Digital Content In a previous blog published by Debbie McDonnell[1], she highlighted the increasing number of UK museums and galleries making digital images available under the terms of open content licences. Most of […]