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Re:The Getty Makes Nearly 88,000 Art Images Free to Use Howe... by CrazyStat on Thursday March 14, 2024 @10:33PM (#39711496)
This is not true in the US. The most relevant case is Bridgeman v. Corel [1], ruling that photographic reproductions of public domain paintings could not be copyrighted.

Museums like to pretend that they hold copyrights on these photos. They do not.

(In the US).

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bridgeman_Art_Library_v._Corel....

Re:The Getty Makes Nearly 88,000 Art Images Free to Use Howe... by imgabe on Thursday March 14, 2024 @10:41PM (#39711538)
In practice, you still need the museum's cooperation to do anything commercial with it, for most people who don't have the resources to defend a lawsuit.
Re:The Getty Makes Nearly 88,000 Art Images Free to Use Howe... by autoexec on Thursday March 14, 2024 @10:44PM (#39711560)
More importantly, even though you can't copyright a photo/scan of a public domain work you also don't have to share those images with others at all, you could still paywall them off and (arguably) impose additional restrictions as a condition of getting access, and you certainly don't have to host the files online for everyone like this.
Re:The Getty Makes Nearly 88,000 Art Images Free to Use Howe... by ufocia on Friday March 15, 2024 @01:51AM (#39712431)
Yes, you could physically and contractually prohibit others from copying the original work.
Re:The Getty Makes Nearly 88,000 Art Images Free to Use Howe... by dtech on Friday March 15, 2024 @05:26AM (#39713646)
Could you though? Once you have a good image if it isn't copyrighted it sounds like any licencing agreement is void. You could just distribute not under terms of the license, but as a public domain images.
Re:The Getty Makes Nearly 88,000 Art Images Free to Use Howe... by Animats on Friday March 15, 2024 @12:28AM (#39712077)
Wikipedia has assumed, since Bridgeman vs. Corel, that images of public domain works are public domain. Once some portrait museum in the UK threatened to sue, but backed down quickly.