Attempting to embarrass the British Museum is misguided and certainly would
not build bridges for future collaboration.
On 28 Jul 2017 13:03, "Fæ" <[email protected]> wrote:

> The Tullie House Museum in Carlisle has a number of objects on loan
> from the British Museum,[3] and it appears that it is only those
> objects that have any restrictions on photography. I took photographs
> of two of these (without any flash), as the restrictions are
> shockingly obvious cases of copyfraud, and not for any reason that
> might protect the works from damage.[1][2] It seems incomprehensible
> as to why the British Museum would ever want to make copyright claims
> over ~2,000 year old works especially considering they are not a
> money-making commercial enterprise, but a National institute and
> charity, with a stated objective[4] that "the collection should be put
> to public use and be freely accessible".
>
> Does anyone have any ideas for action, or contacts in the Museum, that
> might result in a change of how loans from the BM are controlled? I'm
> wondering if the most effective way forward is to make some social
> media fuss, to ensure the Trustees of the museum pay attention. The
> reputational risk the apparent ignorance over copyright by the BM
> loans management team seems something that would be easy to correct,
> so changes to policy are overdue. My own experience of polite private
> letters to a Museum's lawyer demonstrates that you may as well save
> hours of volunteer time by filing these in the bin, compared to the
> sometimes highly effective use of a few pointed tweets written in a
> few minutes and shared publicly and widely across social media.
>
> Those of us Wikimedians who work closely with GLAMs tend to shy away
> from any controversy, wanting the organizations to move towards
> sharing our open knowledge goals for positive reasons. I'm happy to
> try those types of collegiate ways of partnering, however drawing a
> few lines in the sand by highlighting embarrassing case studies, might
> mean we make timely progress while activist dinosaurs like me are
> still alive to see it happen.
>
> Links
> 1. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:British_Museum_2nd_
> century_bronze_jug,_with_copyfraud_notice.jpg
> 2. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:British_Museum_
> Fortuna_statue,_with_copyfraud_notice.jpg
> 3. Tullie House, Roman Frontier exhibition:
> http://web.archive.org/web/20161030151228/www.tulliehouse.co.uk/galleries-
> collections/galleries/roman-frontier-gallery
> 4. British Museum "about us":
> http://web.archive.org/web/20170714042800/www.britishmuseum.org/about_us/
> management/about_us.aspx
> 5. Commons village pump discussion:
> https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Village_pump#
> British_Museum_and_blatant_copyfraud
>
> Contacts
> * https://twitter.com/britishmuseum
> * https://twitter.com/TullieHouse
>
> Thanks,
> Fae
> --
> [email protected] https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Fae
>
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