Italian cultural heritage on the Wikimedia projects

Contributing to the Wikimedia projects with images and content about the Italian cultural heritage is not simple - jet (last update February 2015). Let's try to do something about it, because it is relevant for the Wikimedia projects, for the Wikimedia projects contributors and for Italy and its cultural heritage.

Wikimania Esino Lario is a chance to communicate this issue and to involve stakeholders in taking a step further in facilitating the fruitful involvement of citizens and institutions in contributing to the Wikimedia projects with images and content about the Italian cultural heritage.

Which are the issues in February 2015

• In Italy there is no Freedom of panorama. This means that to take a photo of a monument/public art in public view you need the authorization of the author/artist/architect/copyright owner (unless the rights have expired - 70 years after the death of the author/artist/architect).
• In Italy you are not allowed to take photos of relevant historical monuments for commercial purpose. The Legge Urbani only allows photos for personal use, the owner manages the rights, and the national sites are managed by the Sovrintendenza.
• In Italy you are not allowed to take photos of national cultural heritage (i.e. archeological and paleontological collections) for commercial purpose; the Sovrintendenza manages the rights.
• In Italy you are not allowed to take photos in museums for commercial purpose; the owner or the Sovrintendenza manages the rights.

How the issue is currently managed

At the moment to upload an image of Italian cultural heritage we ask for authorizations. Wiki Loves Monuments in Italy – promoted by Wikimedia Italia – has reached the astonishing result of obtaining the authorization from over 200 copyright owners between 2012 and 2014 which have allowed photos of over 4000 monuments; Wikimedia Italia has achieved also the great result of obtaining the authorization from the Sovrintendenza ai beni culturali della Lombardia to upload archeological collections. This complex process of authorizations makes "Contributing to the Wikimedia projects with images and content about the Italian cultural heritage" possible but not simple.

History

Share Your Knowledge has initiated in 2011 a system of authorizations by involving institutions in signing their agreement to release content under the Creative Commons attribution share alike license (among the institutions the civic collection of Milan – Raccolte extraeuropee del Castello Sforzesco – which has also informed the Sovrintendenza about the authorization); Wiki Loves Monuments in Italy has been managing issues about photos of historical monuments since 2012 by asking for authorizations to public administrations and copyright owners; the project Archeowiki lead by Wikimedia Italia has involved – with the support of – Raccolte extraeuropee del Castello Sforzesco – the Sovrintendenza in authorizing the upload of images of archeological collections of the Lombardy Region on Wikimedia Commons.

References

• Antonella De Robbio, Accesso aperto e diritti: un difficile equilibrio tra tutele e libertà, «Bibliotime», anno XVI, numero 3 (novembre 2013).