Deazley, Ronan --- "Photography, Copyright and the South Kensington Experiment" [2010] ELECD 788; in Derclaye, Estelle (ed), "Copyright and Cultural Heritage" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2010)

Book Title: Copyright and Cultural Heritage

Editor(s): Derclaye, Estelle

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781849800044

Section: Chapter 4

Section Title: Photography, Copyright and the South Kensington Experiment

Author(s): Deazley, Ronan

Number of pages: 34

Extract:

4. Photography, copyright and the
South Kensington experiment
Ronan Deazley*

1. INTRODUCTION

On 21 March 1859 the Privy Council on Education took the unprece-
dented step of authorizing the photography department based at the South
Kensington Museum (now the V&A) to issue photographs of paintings
and other works of art in national and foreign collections to the public at a
price corresponding to the cost of production.1 In mid-nineteenth century
Britain, promoting public access to public collections of art became an
increasingly important aspect of government policy,2 a preoccupation that
was certainly reflected in this experiment at South Kensington. The policy
however was short-lived, ending in March 1863. Thereafter, the publica-
tion and sale of photographs of works of art in national collections was left
in the hands of private enterprise. During the life of the South Kensington
experiment, the government also passed the Fine Arts Copyright Act 1862
which, for the first time, extended copyright protection to original paint-
ings, drawings and photographs. The inclusion of photography within
the parameters of the legislation was not uncontroversial, and the ques-
tion of what exactly `originality' might mean in relation to a photograph
was a matter that soon came before the courts. Read together, the South
Kensington experiment and the substance of the Fine Arts Copyright Act


* Thanks are due to Lionel Bently, Norma Dawson, Estelle Derclaye, Paul
Heald, and Andrea Stern for their comments on an earlier draft of this paper. The
usual conditions apply.
...