Skip to main
Benvenuto Tisi da Garofalo, Meditation of Saint Jerome, c. 1520-25, Samuel H. Kress Collection, New Orleans Museum of Art

Benvenuto Tisi da Garofalo, Meditation of Saint Jerome, c. 1520-25, Samuel H. Kress Collection, New Orleans Museum of Art

Kenneth D. Crews

June 2010 – 2012

Sponsored Research
Access to art images –especially images of art works in museum collections here and abroad – is essential to teaching, learning, research and scholarship in the history of art, and indeed in all the many fields engaged with the study of visual culture. Such access has been rendered both easier and more problematic by the emergence of new technologies. In 2009, the Samuel H. Kress Foundation awarded a research grant to Dr. Kenneth D. Crews, Director of the Copyright Advisory Office at Columbia University Libraries. Dr. Crews proposed to undertake a study of art museum image licensing concepts, terminology and policies, including “terms and conditions” for the use of art images. The principal objectives of this study were to gather a representative sample of art museum license agreements; to analyze their similarities and differences with respect to both terminology and policies; and to produce a systematic inventory of the range of issues addressed in and posed by such licensing agreements and the different ways in which museums have responded to these issues. This inventory and analysis has sought to provide insight into the issues of copyright and licensing that are of concern to art museums and to educational and scholarly users of art images.

Appendix 2 and Appendix 3 are articles published as a result of this research are also available for download on the Social Science Research Network at:

Appendix 2: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2120210
Appendix 3: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2026476
 
About the Author

Kenneth D. Crews is an attorney, author, professor, and international copyright consultant.  He has been a consultant to businesses, universities, and governments in many countries in all parts of the world, and has received two national awards for his leadership on copyright issues.  His practice centers on copyright, trademark, branding, and intellectual property law for diverse business, entertainment, and nonprofit clients.  Dr. Crews works closely with clients regarding the complexities of their use and ownership of intellectual property, the strategic management of IP assets, and development programs of licenses, contracts, and policy positions.  Clients include software developers, film producers, major research universities, independent authors, and publishers of books, journals, and multimedia products.  Building on his academic background and diverse experiences, he has served as an expert witness in copyright litigation involving art, software, fashion design, and fair use at research universities.  

For more than 25 years, Dr. Crews has been a national and international leader, addressing copyright issues of importance especially to universities, museums, research institutes, and publishers.  He been an invited speaker in 44 states and on six continents.  He has consulted with national governments on issues of copyright reform in all parts of the world.  The World Intellectual Property Organization (a U.N. agency) commissioned him to analyze copyright exceptions from all 189 member countries, and that study is informing current discussions in Geneva regarding possible treaty development.  Kenneth Crews has been a professor of law, information science, and business; he held a named chair in law at Indiana University and served most recently at Columbia University in New York City.  He has been a visiting professor in Paris, Munich, Bayreuth, Helsinki, and Cairo.

 
Copyright Information

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. Copyright is retained by the Author.