The Edithorial: Roman Discipline and Dutch Enlightenment
peter.suber's bookmarks 2013-06-17
Summary:
"One of the heroes behind this open-access decision is Taco Dibbits, curator of 17th-century art at the Rijksmuseum, who has stated, in music to my ears, “We’re a public institution, and so the art and objects we have are, in a way, everyone’s property.” YES!
I wish every museum and gallery (let alone fatcat Dutch publishing houses like Elsevier) would take such an enlightened line. I have never recovered from being asked to pay the Cleveland Museum of Art $700 for rights to reproduce a single photo of an ancient Greek pot. At the time it was more than my net monthly income. The Dutch policy will also certainly pay off for the both the museum and the national economy by creating a website that everyone will want to visit...."