Andrea Wallace

“ To this point, it worth quoting from the Commission Recommendation on a common European data space for cultural heritage, published 11 October 2021: Cultural heritage is not only a key element in building a European identity that relies on common values but also an important contributor to the European economy, fostering innovation, creativity and economic growth. ”

“ Others feel copyright is not a prerequisite to income generation and noted its absence had more of a positive impact. There appears to be a general conflation of copyright with commercialisation goals, or copyright as even being necessary to commercialise media, perhaps informed by assumptions that controlling access is necessary to controlling revenue streams. For these GLAMS, scarcity around collections is understood as necessary to attracting commercial interest from the private sector. ”

“ It should be noted that a demand for such technologies creates a market for restrictive interfaces that replicate barriers to the public domain, rather than a market for permissive interfaces that support new types of public reuse, knowledge generation and innovation. The effect is to further direct public funding into a private sector that responds to such demand, rather than building new technologies that emancipate the potential of the UK’s outstanding cultural heritage collections and support public demand. ”

“ For many GLAMs, decisions on digitisation, access and open access hinge on the commercial viability of materials. Staff expressed additional concerns considering such assessments are often made based on potential commercial viability, rather than any immediate or concrete plans to commercialise. This can impact different collections disproportionately. Those ripe for public engagement are seen to be equally ripe for commercialisation due to their attractiveness and the GLAM’s ability to leverage their public as future consumers through a commercial partnership. ”

“ GLAMs have real and serious concerns around the resources required to digitise, prepare and publish collections, including the fear that open access poses risks to commercial partnerships and income that is direly needed. Many expressed desires for new research on open access business models that can support creative opportunities while taking a holistic approach to asset creation, management and open access goals. How open access to the digital national collection can support the UK economy. ”

“ Participants interviewed stressed the incredible amount of work that goes into preparing collections for digital systems even prior to the incredible amount of work required for publication and for open access. As one open GLAM participant observed, "Open access is hard too. For something that seems simple, it's really not." A participant from a second open GLAM explained, "Change comes from the few. Having internal champions really helps, and yet there is still a long way to go even for people who have made the first step." ”

“ Leveraging the sector's inaction to its advantage. The sector's early stage is also a benefit. Many participants engaging with open access discussed what they would do differently if they could start from scratch, starting by not proceeding with open access on an incremental basis. These participants noted the difficulties and legacy errors now embedded in collections data and internal processes that stem from starting with a closed licence approach, then moving to an open licence approach before finally embracing the public domain status for eligible digital collections. ”

“ Digital access to view content is a standard open access approach in scholarly publishing. Further distinctions are made between Green and Gold open access, which reflects the reuse parameters of the content itself and may be conditioned upon release fees paid by the author, rather than by individual users. However, there is a huge difference between scholarly publishing of new research articles and GLAM publishing of digitised public domain collections: rights undoubtedly exist in the scholarly content published via the platform. ”

“ Conversations revealed many open access approaches are informed by various business driven and narrow understandings of copyright and the public domain, except for those already engaged in open GLAM:
Many view commercialisation and open access as being mutually exclusive, particularly with respect to the collection as a whole. Many view themselves as rightsholders whose rights must be balanced alongside the creators' rights of in-copyright collections where public access is concerned. ”

“ Some staff expressed a sense of unfairness when for-profit commercialisation or the commercial sector steps in and “free-rides” on the collection. Many do not want things to be “wrongfully commercialised”. Other staff reasoned this is why GLAMs use copyright: to prevent others from taking content that is not theirs, and to safeguard it for the nation. GLAMs cannot presume to know how artists intended for their works to be reused, particularly considering such reuse includes the GLAM’s perpetual commercialisation. ”

“ This data and other research published by open GLAMS can be used to design more direct and informed strategies for the UK sector and its many GLAMs who have yet to engage.
Supporting open access as a commercial decision. For the majority of GLAMs, commercial licensing is not a sustainable or profitable business model. Nor does it justify the copyrights of GLAMs that do see a profit. Instead, the financial impacts of open access are far greater for the wider economy than licensing images at the point of access. Open access must be seen and embraced as a good commercial decision. ”

“ More than one participant noted that the amount of funding attracted by the GLAM's well-known open access programme far outweighed the revenue generated via commercial licensing on an annual basis. And while direct value is measured by the funding award, the added value of the open access programme to the GLAM as a research institution is immeasurable. Open access has positively impacted internal and external researchers' ability to pitch new projects and publish on topics that require images. Users are no longer required to navigate rights restrictions. ”

“ Financial precarity among the sector thus negatively impacts the stability and sustainability of digital and open access programmes. Almost all participants noted that staff turnover and loss of institutional knowledge raised barriers over the years. Complicated agreements signed with commercial partners or donors can render entire collections unsound for open access (and TaNC projects) where the staff involved have moved on from the organisation. Where the turnover involves staff who support open access implementation, efforts may stall, dissipate or regress entirely. ”

“ For many, severely limited resources make proactive digitisation impossible. Instead, most GLAMS digitise reactively, in response to public, scholarly or commercial requests. This enables GLAMS to pass costs onto consumers while producing digital assets necessary to collections management and digital operations, which can then be commercialised to support other activities (for the profitable few) . For some, digitisation funding has been secured via small grants for projects limited in scope, or by larger projects that involve onsite renovations or storage removal. ”

“ You need to build [tools] and distil impact into something people can understand.
While value-based assessments modelling may not be directly relevant to the lawfulness of IP licensing models, this data could help the sector reimagine commercialisation beyond copyright and move forward to benefit from the new opportunities that are activated by the collections’ public domain status.
Many participants commented that open access is, in fact, a good business model and commercial decision. ”

“ For example, cultural tourism represents up to 40% of all tourism in Europe, and cultural heritage is an essential part of cultural tourism. Advanced digitisation of cultural heritage assets and the reuse of such content can generate new jobs not only in the cultural heritage sector but also in other cultural and creative sectors, including for instance the video game and film industries. Cultural and creative industries contribute to 3.95% of EU value added (EUR 477 billion) , employ 8.02 million people and involve 1.2 million firms of which 99.9% are [small and medium-sized enterprises] . ”

“ Funding obligations to publish the underlying research data (e.g., a zipped file with images, data, translations) as open access with a repository can raise barriers for researchers in higher education seeking to work with GLAM collections. Where agreements to publish the data in open access cannot be reached, researchers are unable to go through with the project. A positive alignment across funding policies would improve conditions for UK higher education and GLAM collaborations. One suggestion was to move the UKRI policy into practice with GLAMs. ”

“ The above stressors provide an important backdrop to analysing the impact a culture of copyright has on open access to the UK's cultural collections. In sum, the quantitative and qualitative research suggests that open access in the UK GLAM sector remains an emerging trend rather than a sector-wide commitment to the public. It appears that difficult conditions experienced across the sector pose risks to the progress made, and have even motivated some GLAMS to return to traditional approaches. Copyright claims and commercialisation desires sit at the heart of these approaches. ”

“ Staff noted data on indirect revenue, new opportunities and value generated through open access were both difficult to produce and to present as representative. One participant commented, “Benefits are easy to frame as anecdotal one-offs. It becomes hard to counter the profit-making argument with ‘anecdotal’ evidence.” Another noted:
It’s difficult for institutions to articulate how important access has been to the work they do, how they do it and to the institution itself. ”

“ Open GLAM participation often stems from bottom-up and community-led organising. There is a huge opportunity to create a shift across the sector by getting senior management on board with the convening power and lobbying effort to support sustainable change. ”

“ A far greater number are now using images, which raises the profile and research interest in collections. Open GLAMs continue to be credited for use of images in academic publications and receive complimentary copies. Some GLAMs have stopped acquiring commercial image sets (which come accompanied by copyright claims) so they can focus on data that they can release via open licences and tools. Within TaNC projects, this has materialised as follows:
Many TaNC projects will produce open access platforms and new interfaces to deliver content for exploration and research within the new platform. ”

“ However, according to the Trust, the drop in income corresponds to the amount previously received from academics. In fact, staff from other GLAMS noted image licensing is dominated by academics who need particular images. [6] The Trust noted licensing sales produced by Bridgeman Images have slowed more gradually, as global pricing becomes more competitive and/or more images are published for free. Interestingly, commercial sales of prints have remained the same.
Many participants stated their data supports another conclusion: a traditional copyright approach is itself a bad business decision. ”

“ Fourth, in the aggregate, institutional decisions that shape what gets digitised, and which may be informed by the lack of copyright and the opportunity for commercialisation, can render collections relatively invisible, both digitally and for research. ”

“ Because it’s difficult to track, it’s at risk of being taken for granted. Open GLAM doesn’t make revenue. But it generates incredible value. It’s important we make the case around value for the institution, and to the institution, but staff just don’t have time. ”

“ Some open GLAMs noted an increase in collections inquiries and the need to respond to confirm that people can really reuse the images. Open GLAMS regularly receive positive attention online and in print for releasing images to the public domain. This is seen to add brand value, increase reputation and reach and raise interest around the collection, which carries monetary value. Open GLAMs are gaining a good reputation among educators and academics. ”

“ Copyright claims raise barriers to public innovations and the UK's technological and economic competitiveness with other markets.
Finally, copyright claims stall the generation of new cultural products and creations around the public domain. This impacts GLAMs' own abilities to collect new works made by the public that are inspired by their collections.
Some staff feel these conditions are negatively impacting the relevance of the collections, GLAMs and their role to the public. One participant stressed:
Everything has to be brought back to why institutions are here. ”

“ This stressor is compounded by the fact the sector has underinvested in copyright awareness and support. The majority of GLAMs have limited access, if any, to legal service and expertise. Some receive pro bono services for project-specific or one-off advice. Few have an IP manager or legal team to support the range of needs that go beyond rights management. Those who do rely significantly on such persons and are even expected (and happy) to defer to them. For many, such persons provide an invaluable resource. ”