alteration, moral rights and educational benefits
Base: License Agreement for the University Educational Use of Museum Digital Content
Re: ## Uses (AMICO)
Re: ## 9.2. Defined within the Curriculum (AMICO)
Re: ## 9.2.3. student assignments (AMICO)
Re: ## 9.2.3. student assignments
Keywords: distortion of work of art
Date: Fri, 07 Mar 1997 22:36:50 GMT
From: David Bearman <DavidBearman>

Mikki, This point came up often in discussions in MESL. Educators saw considerable value in letting students explore recoloring, cropping, removing or moving elements, etc. in images in order to understand the artists intent and aspects of aesthetics. On the other hand, museums feel responsible for the moral rights of artists and in general for the preservation of authenticity. In discussions, we found educators happy to agree that when students transform works in any way, they should always cite the original and provide a link by which to compare it, and we found museums willing to acknowledge the acceptability of alterations as long as NO alteration was ever permitted to the "library" copy. In a "value clarification" document currently in draft by a MESL working group, this compromise has been formulated more elegantly and explicitly. The final draft should be available soon. This kind of issue is exactly the kind we hope the AMICO discussions will surface and resolve for AMICO members within the context of this license. I can imagine, for example, that in licenses for K-12 or lifelong home learning, a different conclusion might be reached than in a license for university educational use. I hope others will react. Remember that in any case, the uses made by licensees are not available for retransmission or publication except for very confined scholarly purposes. David