Workshop (October 20-21): Supporting Open Culture through Open Data

Join our upcoming workshop on legal aspects related to digitisation for Galleries and Museums (GM) on October 20-21, hosted by Museo Egizio (Egyptian Museum) in Turin, Italy.

Co-organisers: reCreating Europe, GLAM-E Lab, Egyptian Museum, Serpentine Legal Lab

Other contributors: Creative Commons + Creative Commons – Italian Chapter, Wikimedia Foundation + Wikimedia Italia, Europeana, Fondazione Torino Musei, inDICEs Project, ICOM Italia

Description

The European Strategy for Data, ideally aimed at shaping Europe’s digital future through the creation of a single market for data, has a very ambitious agenda. It promises to increase the volume and the value of data as well as the number of citizens, professionals and businesses dealing with data. It also promises clear and fair rules on access and re-use of data.

However, such a promising programme faces legal challenges that pose real barriers to the achievement of these goals, especially in the context of cultural heritage, where the principle of open by design and open by default appears undermined and less inclined to flourish. Cultural Heritage institutions are in fact still struggling to overcome the legal barriers to access cultural data, and even more so in their capacity to reuse such data.

The implementation of the EU Directive on Open Data and reuse of PSI (2019/1024), despite including important exceptions for CHIs, might facilitate the re-use of data for the purpose of creating new (digital) works (especially when the institution is a co-creator) and generate new knowledge. This, however, depends on its knowledgeable transposition in the national laws of Member States and its appropriate link with the EU Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market (2019/790). Pending its national implementation, the pro-open practices and the institutional policies followed by CHIs indeed prove that steps, however small, are being taken towards it.

After attending this workshop, participants will:

• be able to understand restrictions and hidden opportunities of copyright law and the key roles of open data policies in the creation and re-use of cultural contents;
• contribute to the mapping of stakeholder practices related to copyright and open data policies;
• contribute ideas to the drafting of broader institutional policies.

Target audience:

DAY 1 and 2 – Galleries and Museums (members of staff)

DAY 2 – Researchers, educators and students, policymakers, general public

How to participate

The workshop will take place online but will be hosted by Museo Egizio in Turin, Italy. Attendance of the DAY I is limited, so please, register HERE early. To participate in DAY 2, please, register HERE.

Non-mandatory reading material will be provided to participants prior to the workshop. Short reading materials will instead be provided for those interested in participating in the breakout sessions.

Please note, that automatic Zoom closed-captioning will be enabled throughout the event to facilitate the attendance of persons with hearing impairment.

During the second day of the workshop sign-language interpretation (LIS) will be provided in the morning and simultaneous (Italian to English) interpretation limited to the roundtable of local Italian experts (approximately 1 hour).

SCHEDULE

DAY 1 (9.45-13.00)

• Welcome and introduction – Giulia Dore, reCreating Europe
• Opening Keynote 1 – Fiona Romeo, WMF
• Opening Keynote 2 – Fabio Viola, Tuo Museo
• Breakout sessions 1-6 (see descriptions below)
• Coffee Break
• Virtual tour of Museo Egizio (approximately 40 minutes)
• Plenary discussion

DAY 2 (9.45-13.00)

• Welcome and introduction – Roberto Caso, reCreating Europe
• Roundtable – Open Data | Open Culture: Highlights from Five Projects
  Chair: Brigitte Vezina, Creative Commons
  Speakers:
  • Caterina Sganga, reCreating Europe
  • Alana Kushnir, Serpentine Legal Lab
  • Andrea Wallace, GLAM-E Lab
  • Francisco Duque Lima, INDICes
  • Ariadna Matas, Europeana
• Coffee Break
• Closing roundtable – Challenges in supporting Open Culture: the case of Italy (in Italian with simultaneous interpretation in English):
  Chair: Roberto Caso
  Speakers:
  • Christian Greco, Museo Egizio
  • Deborah de Angelis, ICOM Italia DCHRG and CC IT Chapter
  • Mirco Modolo, CC IT Chapter
  • Iolanda Pensa, WM Italia
  • Elisabetta Rattalino & Dr. Anna Follo, Fondazione Torino Musei
• Closing Keynote – Emily Hudson
• Wrap-up and closing

_______

PARALLEL BREAKOUT SESSIONS (DAY 1):

1. Co-creation in contemporary art and design

This breakout session will explore the topics surrounding re-use of open cultural data to create new artistic works and works of industrial design.

Participants will discuss the applicable legal framework, particularly in terms of copyright law – exploring issues related to copyright subsistence, authorship and joint-authorship, ownership – and its interface with other areas of the law. Participants will also take a look at the opportunities presented by open policies at the international and EU level and see how these may be implemented within the given legal context.

Presenters: Estelle Derclaye, University of Nottingham; Marta Iljadica, reCreating Europe.

2. Public domain and institutional open policies

This breakout session will focus on the interrelation between cultural institutions and works belonging to the public domain. Developing and testing creative ways of promoting access to culture, CHIs carry out ever newer uses of such contents, from 2D- and 3D-reproductions of artworks to VR experiences. The very nature of the public domain casts away the possibility of restrictions being imposed by copyright law. However,  doubts may arise with regards to innovative uses and re-uses of such works as well as strategies to keep content and data openly available while amortizing the incurred costs. Participants will be invited to reflect and discuss upon the notion of public domain, its underlying goals and meaning within the evolving practices of galleries and museums, sharing their views and experiences on, among others, Article 14 of the new Copyright Directive.

Presenters: Emily Hudson, King’s College; Giulia Priora, reCreating Europe.

3. Intangible cultural heritage, traditional knowledge and cultural expressions, and digital heritage management

This breakout session will examine the roles of intellectual property and open access relating to the stewardship of traditional cultural expressions and Indigenous cultural property. Digitisation produces a reproduction that can be studied, made available online or even repatriated to the community of origin. Yet it also creates a new digital asset that revives old questions around authenticity, ownership, and control over the underlying traditional knowledge and cultural expressions and intangible cultural heritage. Participants will be introduced to the various topics and processes that should inform the management and digitisation of these materials, including the ethical and equitable dimensions to copyright, Creative Commons licenses and other labels, and open access policies.

Presenters: Brigitte Vezina, Creative Commons; Andrea Wallace, GLAM e-Lab.

4. Technology, born-digital art and preservation

This breakout session is dedicated to the overlaps of the non-fungible tokens (NFT) craze of 2021, copyright law and cultural preservation. NFTs allow the tokenization of culturally relevant expressions, and share them with others, including collectors, via digital marketplaces. This way they contribute to the circulation of born-digital art and open up new channels of preservation of cultural expressions. The goal of the panel is to present those challenges of the recent developments in this field that might be relevant for the GLAM sector.

Presenters: Péter Mezei, University of Szeged; Ioanna Lapatoura, University of Nottingham.

5. Educating the voices of the next generation: IP, value and creative agency

This breakout session will explore the relational role IP can play for creatives when working in interdisciplinary and international ways. For those starting a business, freelancing or being employed, understanding and negotiating the importance of IP is often learnt by doing. In creative education, it’s evident that many ideas extend beyond traditional business models where financial gain is a primary driver, with a focus on social, cultural and environmentally-conscious initiatives. IP can represent a creative’s agency for positive change, a way to identify their future selves and consider the ethical dimensions of their work to encourage healthy collaborations.

For those who represent the next generation of changemakers, innovators and thought leaders, this session will encourage participants to consider the centrality of IP beyond legal frameworks to a practice-led approach considering a creative’s vision, their identity and future impact on society.

Presenters: Roxanne Peters, Creative and Cultural IP Rights Specialist at UAL; Alana Kushnir, Serpentine Legal Lab

6. Data, ethics and privacy

This breakout session is dedicated to exploring the interplay of copyright, data protection and ethics in the activities of cultural heritage organizations. Digitization of collections and creation of activities and contents tailored to the online environment suggest adopting a comprehensive approach to tackle this complex interaction.

Where several issues arise in the compliance with data protection laws, considerations about ethics seem also to take a crucial role in the digital environment, e.g. considering copyright exceptions and limitations or moral rights.

Participants are invited to discuss the current scenario addressing the opportunities and obstacles under the applicable legal framework and exchange ideas on the potential future developments of the subject matter.

Presenters: Naomi Korn, University of Edinburgh; Marta Arisi, reCreating Europe

____

This project has recieved funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 870626.