Author's Right, Copyright and Free Licenses for Culture on the Web/Types of Content/Texts

36. Is the format of an exhibition protectable? Who is the rights holder?
An exhibition can be considered creative and therefore an intellectual creation, to be protected and with moral and economic rights, whenever originality can be found in its relevant elements. However, the creator of the exhibition, the curator, must have made creative contributions to the projects, giving to it a different personal character rather than have it as a simple exhibition of objects. The idea of the exhibition is not the protected element: the way in which such idea is expressed could be protected. On a general level, the curator-co author is the rights holder of the relative rights, it being understood that it is advisable to rule specifically the issue of the rights in the agreement between the exhibiting entity and the curator.

37. Who is the rights holder of content done by employees, freelance, and consultants?
As a general principle, the ownership of content created depends on the kind of agreement between the commissioning party and employee/consultant/freelance (see question #7 of the Definitions).

38. Is the descriptive content of the visiting tour of an exhibition protectable by law?
The descriptive content of the tour of an exhibition may be protected by law if creative, original and new.

39. Protection of the content of an exhibition catalogue: is the author's right granted to the editing company or the author?
An exhibition catalogue is a collective work, which requires the intervention of several people who provide different contributions (photos, written texts, critical essays, etc.). Therefore, different subjects are identified, holders of different rights, such as the authors of each contribution, the person who organizes the work, the publisher who is entitled to the rights of economic use of the collective work, unless parties have agreed in a different way. The moral rights referred to the single contributions remain with respective authors, the right of economic use of the work generally belongs to the publisher, unless otherwise agreed.

40. When and is it possible to digitize the catalogue of an exhibition?
Among the activities delegated to the cultural heritage institutions, we find also communication to the public, the educational purpose, protection and conservation. The exceptions and limitations to author’s rights allow uses of the material protected by author’s right law which are intended in favour of the superior interest in information, knowledge, research, dissemination and conservation. Many of those exceptions are in favour of cultural heritage institutions, i.e. archives, museums, etc., precisely in order to allow them to perform their tasks. The digitization of works, for example, is part of these but in some cases it resulted in conflict with the author's right law, in particular, with respect to digital copies of content which is in collections and the digitization and dissemination of such content.

At the European level, many member states have established specific rules, also with regard to the change of size (for preservation purposes) or in order to prevent deterioration, but for some commentators such activity can be referred only to entities which are not for profit (as provided by art. 5(2)(c) Directive 2001/29 EC Infosoc, which refers to the reproduction made by not for profit libraries, museums, archives).

Art. 6 of Directive 2019/EU provides the exception that allows cultural heritage institutions to make copies of any works or other subject matters that are permanently in their collections, in any format or medium for purposes of preservation and to the extent necessary for such preservation. The European rule aims to allow cultural heritage institutions to preserve and enhance the assets of their collection also through the use of digitization processes.


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41. For the reproduction of artworks in a catalogue and for its digitization, is it necessary to obtain the authorisation of the rights holder?
At the international level, the need to be able to exhibit and promote artworks, for example as part of their collection, is widely recognized among the exceptions and limitations provided for by the copyright laws of the European countries, also in line with the provisions of Directive 2001/29/EC, art. 5 (3)(j) which allows Member States to provide exceptions and limitations in order to advertise a public exhibition or sale of artistic works, to the extent necessary to promote the event, excluding any other commercial use, and therefore to include works in catalogues. As to digitization, we refer to the previous explanation of the exception for the preservation of the cultural heritage provided by art. 6 of Directive 2019/790 EU.


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