Re: [Wikimediauk-l] [Foundation-l] "sue and be damned" FOI to NPG

I agree that the WMUK shouldn't get directly involved, but if without making 
any reference to the case in hand they request the same information under the 
FOI then I would have thought they were indirectly rather than directly 
involved.

As for whether the FOI has an exemption for artwork, well I'd be interested in 
what the lawyers have to say on this as there is some legalese in the 
legislation that I can't get my head around.

However the National Portrait Gallery has its own handy 
http://www.npg.org.uk/about/foi.php section on FOI, and I don't read that as 
containing any substantial claim of exemption from the Act for the gallery. 
They also have some fine objectives including "the provision of access to the 
national collection of portraits for all sections of the population" but 
reassuringly not "the restriction of access to the national collection of 
portraits only to those who can visit the gallery in person" or "maximising of 
the commercial use of the images" ~~~~  

--- On Sat, 11/7/09, David Gerard <dgerard@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> From: David Gerard <dgerard@xxxxxxxxx>
> Subject: Re: [Wikimediauk-l] [Foundation-l] "sue and be damned" FOI to NPG
> To: wikimediauk-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Date: Saturday, 11 July, 2009, 1:00 PM
> 2009/7/11 Dahsun <dahsun@xxxxxxxxx>:
> 
> > Perhaps the air would be slightly clearer if Wikimedia
> UK were to make Freedom of Information Act requests to the
> NPG and other Publicly funded galleries for the highest def
> digital photos they have available of any artworks in their
> possession.
> 
> 
> WMUK getting directly involved in this would be very bad
> for WMUK's
> (legal) perceived separation from WMF. Of course, WMUK
> could
> meaningfully comment that "claiming copyright on something
> four
> hundred years old is more than a little odious - it's not
> like the
> painter will paint another painting if only th NPG can make
> legal
> threats."
> 
> That said, your approach is most certainly particularly
> amusing :-D I
> expect they'd claim these were commercial works and the
> core of their
> business or somesuch.
> 
> 
> - d.
> 
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> 


      

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