Getty Joins Open Content Movement

The Getty Museum and research institute have just announced the launch of their Open Content Program, under which they intend to publish as many of their digital resources as they are legally able. In the first instance, they are release high quality digital images of all the public domain works in their collections: 4,600 photographs so far, including a few hundred of their classical sculptures, vases, and other artefacts. (A search for “Greek” within the open content images returns 261 results, and “Roman” 231.)

There is no specific common license attached to these images, but the text says they are re-usable “for any purpose” and without restriction; the objects are in the public domain, and the Getty does not assert copyright on the photographs. (I’ve only found a small number of photographs of inscriptions so far, but I’ll keep hunting!) And I very much hope many more images get added to this collection as the copyright status of further objects is resolved.

I look forward to hearing about innovative, open, and unrestricted projects, mashups, and publications that arise from this.

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