Museum collections / intellectual property

[Stan Blum]

At 09:32 AM 2/14/02 -0800, Barry Roth wrote:
>I would particularly like to hear from Taxacomers who as part of their
>professional duties have had to deal with this type of question.  Examples
>of museum policy (both written policy and its day-to-day application)
>would also be welcome.

A recent study of this issue was (is being?) conducted by Simon Owen and
Alison Prior of Kew Gardens.  See:
The 2000 meeting of the Taxonomic Databases Working Group;10-12 November,
2000; Senckenberg Museum, Frankfurt; Digitising biological collections

Title: Beset with pitfalls-specimens and databases, intellectual property
and copyright

Simon J. Owens and Alyson Prior, The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Richmond,
Surrey TW9 3AB, United Kingdom

Abstract
The presentation will examine, where data exist, the key
barriers in legal issues and intellectual property to the practical
implementation of a virtual Natural History specimen information
infrastructure.

http://www.tdwg.org/tdwg2000/ipr.htm

-Stan

Stanley D. Blum, Ph.D.
Research Information Manager
California Academy of Sciences
Golden Gate Park
San Francisco, CA 94118
Office: 415-750-7032
Fax:    415-750-7186
http://www.calacademy.org/