1	Museums Copyright Group IPR Policies Peter Wienand Partner, Farrer & Co Chair, Museums Copyright Group National Maritime Museum, Greenwich 21 June 2005
2	IPR policies Increased interest Collections management Risk management Revenue generation Delivering strategic objectives
3	Collections management Rights in objects in collections, especially copyright can affect or restrict the fulfilment of the core mission Increasing quantities of material is copyright protected Reproduction and communication to the public of material – in some cases even over 100 years old – is often not possible without getting permission from the right-holder Acts permitted by law are of limited scope [Note: old unpublished material - if open to the public in a museum, created before 1 August 1989, and author dead for at least 50 years – but doesn’t apply to artistic works]
4	Risk management Museums are increasingly involved in projects involving large-scale use of third party IPR, some of it commissioned: for example, NOF-funded and COL-funded projects, but also other publishing and educational activities Museums do not benefit from exceptions to the same extent as libraries, archives and schools
5	Revenue generation IPR has been recognised for a while as a commercial asset that can be put to work to make money – eg in picture library operations, publishing, licensing – although care needs to be taken and there is a risk management dimension here too Control is a key theme, to ensure that: third parties do not establish rights over the museum’s assets (eg through photography of objects in the galleries) staff consultancy activity benefits the museum the museum secures ownership or usage rights in the product of museum staff work
6	Situation without a policy General position at law: copyright in work created in course of employment belongs to the employer, subject to contrary agreement. Importance of job description Position in museums: curators have in the past been allowed to retain copyright and exploit it themselves Compare position in higher education - often seen as a ‘perk’ to compensate for low salaries Unclear what rights the employer has to use the fruit of employees’ work, if any
7	What might a policy cover? statement of objectives clarification of job description definition of categories of work covered procedures to deal with approaches by third parties dealings with the media ownership of IP use rights moral rights (crediting and editing) benefit-sharing conflicts of interest plagiarism best practice in commissioning external third party work acquisitions procedure
8	Implementation Introduction of an IPR policy may well involve a change to previous custom and practice Therefore a change to terms and conditions Consultation is essential