http://www.riches-project.eu/D2.2 Deliverable Title: Digital Copyrights Framework. RICHES project: Renewal, Innovation and Change: Heritage and European Society.RICHES is at the forefront of re-thinking the intersections between cultural heritage,
copyright and human (cultural) rights in the digitised era. The last two decades have
witnessed significant changes to the ways in which our cultural heritage is created,
used and disseminated. From the once linear, hierarchical and authoritative
relationships between memory institutions and the receiver [user] of cultural heritage
(CH), the digital era is forcing us to re-think every aspect of our cultural heritage
ecosystem. From the meaning to the making of cultural heritage, from the legal
frameworks to the roles of the Institutions, each element and each of the relationships
between elements is under scrutiny. Within this, how should we re-think the
Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) framework that supports our cultural heritage system
in order to respond to the changing and challenging times?
The purpose of this deliverable is to investigate the relationships between cultural
heritage, copyright and human (cultural) rights as they provide a platform for, and a
framework within which, cultural heritage is created, re-created and re-used in the era
of digitisation. This enquiry is set within and will inform the environment within which
these changes are taking place and the role of CH in European social, political, legal
and economic development. How the recommendations might play out in practice will
be illustrated through the case studies within the RICHES project as they develop. As
will be demonstrated, how we think about these legal environments within these
contexts will help to shape the way in which the relationships between the
stakeholders are developed and maintained, how CH is produced and consumed,
developed, accessed and preserved in this digital world. Two case studies (Task
T4.2 Co-creation and Living Heritage for Social Cohesion and Task 6.1: Digital Libraries,
Collections, Exhibitions and Users) contextualised within the shift from analogue to
digital, demonstrate how the legal framework recommended in this deliverable in
relation to CH, copyright and human (cultural) rights are played out in practice.
As set out in this deliverable, a question – and a challenge – for the RICHES project, is
as to whether the groups involved in the creation, selection and mediation of CH
within the RICHES case studies could benefit from the cultural rights articulated in the
UNESCO Conventions. The RICHES project gives the opportunity to think about the
legal environments that help to shape the way in which the relationships between
institutions and users of CH are developed and maintained, how CH is produced and
consumed, accessed and preserved in this digital world. It highlights that relationships
are changing and becoming more decentralised as digital technologies present
increasing opportunities to individuals and communities. With increasing cultural
democracy through access to computers and the internet: could the reasons for the
open strategy to culture, as recommended by RICHES, be helpful to Turkey as it
undergoes the reassessment of its authoritative ‘closed’ copyright policy? The
argument for approaching CH and IP contextualised within a Human Rights approach,
as advocated in this deliverable, may form the foundation for the challenges to cultural
hegemony that lie ahead.European Research Council (ERC)This project has received funding from the European Unions’s Seventh Framework programme for research, technological development and demonstration under grant agreement no. 61278
