Belder, Lucky --- "Friends or Foes? Two Ways of Thinking on the Relation between the Tasks of Cultural Heritage Institutions and the Protection of Copyright" [2010] ELECD 794; 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 10

Section Title: Friends or Foes? Two Ways of Thinking on the Relation between the Tasks of Cultural Heritage Institutions and the Protection of Copyright

Author(s): Belder, Lucky

Number of pages: 20

Extract:

10. Friends or foes? Two ways of
thinking on the relation between
the tasks of cultural heritage
institutions and the protection of
copyright
Lucky Belder

1. INTRODUCTION

Libraries, archives and museums have the task of ensuring the preserva-
tion, documentation and communication of the cultural expressions of
our shared historical and cultural past. New technologies in the digitiza-
tion of information have resulted in a major breakthrough in the pres-
ervation of and research into this information, and in the ways in which
the public may access these data. The information contained in cultural
objects can now be saved for future generations. No less important is the
contribution to research: the digitization of collections of heritage institu-
tions will help to disclose connections and relations and give new insights
into hidden structures and meanings. And, importantly, the digitization of
cultural expressions is an important step forward in the realization of the
public task of heritage institutions and will contribute to the dissemination
of a wide variety of cultural information on a much wider scale than was
ever thought possible. Increasingly, international conventions make use of
(digital) inventories and Lists. The United Nations Educational, Scientific,
and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Convention for the Safeguarding
of the Intangible Heritage (ICH) of 2003, by example, commits states
parties to draw up, and regularly update, inventories of the intangible
heritage present in its territory (art. 12.1).1
The process of digitization involves copying and, if the digitized


1 Available at http://www.unesco.org/ ...