Dirk JungAug 20, 2023
Open Culture (Official)

The British Library Puts 1,000,000 Images into the Public Domain, Making Them Free to Reuse & Remix. ICYMI

https://www.openculture.com/2013/12/british-library-puts-1000000-images-into-public-domain.html

The British Library Puts 1,000,000 Images into the Public Domain, Making Them Free to Reuse & Remix

Earlier this week, Oxford's Bodleian Library announced that it had digitized a 550 year old copy of the Gutenberg Bible along with a number of other ancient bibles, some of them quite beautiful. Not to be outdone, the British Library came out with its own announcement on Thursday:

Open Culture
Aug 19, 2023 at 10:14pmWeb
Show threadKevin RussellAug 19, 2023

@openculture

Weird. Think about this, the image used to herald this action, mesoamerican I assume, but certainly not Saxon or Celt or Anglo.

Colonial collections of Empire, looted from every continent, innumerable cultures.

Now they are "giving away" images of and from the collection to 'the public' because they belong to humanity.

See? Weird.

They refuse to return stolen objects. It was 'collected' or 'discovered' or some other arrogance for theft you must accept.

https://www.insider.com/british-museum-accused-looted-art-says-staff-stole-gold-jewelry-2023-8

British Museum, long accused of looting art, says staff stole gold, jewelry

In recent years, activists have reinvigorated a debate around the British Museum's legacy of colonialism tied to its possession of global artifacts.

Insider
Show thread🥥 Tucker Carlson's Nuts 🥥Aug 19, 2023
@openculture
🥥 Show ALL million images here or it didn't happen! 🥥
Show thread🥥 Tucker Carlson's Nuts 🥥Aug 19, 2023
@openculture
🥥 Show ALL million images here or it didn't happen! 🥥
Show thread🥥 Tucker Carlson's Nuts 🥥Aug 19, 2023
@openculture
🥥 Show ALL the million images here or it didn't happen! 🥥
Show threadDoug Baker - Elbows Up! 🇨🇦Aug 20, 2023
@openculture Did They steal them, like the #BritishMuseum ?
Show threadlizzzzardAug 20, 2023
@openculture AI is happy to hear that.
Show threadlizzzzardAug 20, 2023

@openculture after reading the article, I have questions.

So they say that they let Microsoft scan these books. And Microsoft "generously gifted back" the images, that were then made public domain. Which, according to the press release, is good because we admittedly know little about the images and now the "crowd" can help with that.

Show threadlizzzzardAug 20, 2023

@openculture eh? What happened to the rest of the books? You know, the non-image part, the words? How is the "crowd" supposed to work its magic without a context to the images? Why is Microsoft "generously" keeping the rest of the books to themselves?

I call bullshit on that spindoctorism.

Show threadlizzzzardAug 20, 2023

@openculture also, this title image creating a shit storm was so obvious, what with the British being criticized for their colonial history for a long time now.

Choosing this image for a title is either extremely insensitive... or is on purpose, to create attention. Both are not good options.

Show threadUrsidinoj/The BjornsdottirsAug 20, 2023
@openculture Not theirs to give away or have copyright on in the first place.