The thesis explores the growing impact of copyright in art museums and galleries in
the digital environment. Copyright has a great significance in these institutions but it
has not received adequate academic consideration. The aim of this thesis is to
examine the role of copyright and underline the foremost copyright challenges to
museums and galleries in order to find out the appropriate approach to deal with
them. The main argument is that copyright challenges museums and galleries to the
extent it could disturb the survival of their mission in the digital domain. It argues
that copyright provides insufficient protection to museums and galleries when they
are copyright owners of digital and contemporary artistic works in particular. Also, it
argues that copyright restricts the capacity of using artistic works by museums and
galleries as cultural institutions and therefore it obstructs their activities and mission.
Further, it argues that uncertain and deficient copyright policy and management
practices represent impediment to the continuity and progress of museums and
galleries in the digital era.
To this effect, the thesis takes analytical approach and considers the legal
primary and secondary resources of relevant laws, cases, academic commentary and
journal articles. The legal framework is focused on copyright law of the United
Kingdom as stated in the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 and its
amendments. Furthermore, the thesis incorporates a review of an empirical study
about the impact of copyright in museums and galleries and which is undertaken for
this research purposes.
The thesis concludes that it is necessary to deal with the specified copyright
challenges in a way that maintains and promotes the mission of museums and
galleries and facilitates a broader public access to their collections in the digital
environment. In order to achieve this, it is recommended that some copyright law
reform is needed concerning in particular copyright protection of artistic works and
copyright exceptions available to museums and galleries for specific purposes such
as preservation, research, and education. Also, it is proposed that museums and
galleries require enhanced understanding of copyright law, more awareness, careful
consideration and efficient management of copyright
