Author's Right, Copyright and Free Licenses for Culture on the Web/Introduction to the FAQs

These FAQs are practical guidance for museums, archives and libraries which aim to clarify the opportunities and legal limits related to the reuse and dissemination of digital reproductions of cultural resources on the Web.

There is a lack of knowledge among cultural heritage professionals on issues concerning the daily practice of online cultural communication but which have legal implications that require the utmost attention in the re-use of cultural content online. How to clarify to the cultural community? We will never publish a book without mentioning the author, title and date of publication. On the Web we run the risk of doing so with texts, images or audiovisual documents: on websites and social platforms it is easy to come across numerous violations of copyright or other types of rules.

But in the era of global content sharing, museums, libraries and archives and, more generally, cultural heritage institutions, do not seem to be sufficiently aware of the extraordinary opportunities in terms of cultural, social and economic development or the community that derive from the adoption of open licenses on content in the public domain. This is demonstrated by a growing number of cultural institutions that have taken this path and by an increasingly international bibliography that analyses the impact of open access on cultural institutions and the public.

Our research group works in close contact and dialogue with experts from national and international associations and stakeholders so that with a general reflection on digital cultural contents we may hope for a greater flexibility and balance between exclusive rights and freedom of reproduction.

''Important: The FAQS make reference to the European copyright law, considering - whenever possible, also for the aim of practical format of the research work - the differences among the various legal systems, if relevant. In this English translation the expression copyright will be used to refer to both authors’ right and copyright, unless otherwise noted. This document is for information and disclosure purposes and does not constitute a technical and/or legal opinion. For specific cases, we recommend seeking advice on the particular situation.''

''We could not consider all the critical issues expressed by the reviewers. Some issues require further study and writing. We will therefore prepare the first draft, which represents our positions on the matters examined in the FAQs. The work will be released in CC BY-SA on the Wikibooks platform and we therefore invite colleagues to continue the work of review and improvement. We cannot deepen the national specificity of the different countries indicated by some colleagues and therefore, we invite you to implement the shared version with the specific national situations, if you wish to do so, as we are doing for Italy. It will also be possible to create concise versions for each such jurisdiction, as some colleagues are already doing, also with a translation into the appropriate language.''

Acknowledgment. A special thanks to Thomas Margoni, Professor of Intellectual Property Law, CiTiP, Faculty of Law, KU Leuven for his continuous cooperation in the review. We thank colleagues who have helped us with important observations and suggestions during the selection and revision of these FAQs, for their valuable contribution: Alberto Garlandini, President of ICOM International; Adele Maresca, President of ICOM Italy; Alastair Dunning, Delft University of Technology; Josu Aramberri, University of the Basque Country; Marta Arosio, Wikimedia Italy; Aura Bertoni, ASK Centre Bocconi University; Nicola Barbuti, University of Bari Aldo Moro; Niccolò Caranti, Wikimedia Italy; Roberto Caso, University of Trento; Antonella De Robbio, Open Access and Public Domain study group (GOAPD) AIB Italian Libraries Association; Giulia Dore, University of Trento; Sara Di Giorgio; Pierluigi Feliciati, University of Macerata; Vincenza Ferrara, Sapienza University of Rome; Luca Martinelli, Wikimedia Italy; Guido Noto La Diega, University of Stirling; Iolanda Pensa, Wikimedia Italy; Merete Sanderhoff, SMK – the national gallery of Denmark, Copenhagen; Erica da Silva Souza Lopes, Fundação Oswaldo Cruz; Chiara Storti, BNCF; Melissa Smith Levine, Director, Copyright Office, University of Michigan Library; Brigitte Vézina; Catrin Vimercati, InFormAzionI cultural association; Benedetta Ubertazzi, University of Milan Bicocca.