{"id":77039,"date":"2025-09-10T15:06:52","date_gmt":"2025-09-10T15:06:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/?p=77039"},"modified":"2025-10-10T08:30:28","modified_gmt":"2025-10-10T08:30:28","slug":"understanding-barriers-to-accessing-heritage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/2025\/09\/10\/understanding-barriers-to-accessing-heritage\/","title":{"rendered":"Understanding Barriers to Accessing Heritage"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Landscape
“Landscape along the Seine with the Institut de France and the Pont des Arts”<\/a> by Alfred Sisley, 1875, CC0<\/a>, Art Institute of Chicago, remixed with “TAROCH balloon” by Creative Commons\/Dee Harris, 2025, CC0<\/a>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We\u2019re kicking off a three-part series leading up to the launch of the <\/span>Open Heritage Statement<\/b> in October.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Statement, developed by the <\/span>TAROCH Coalition<\/span><\/a> (Towards a Recommendation on Open Cultural Heritage), under the leadership of Creative Commons, is a collaborative, community-fueled initiative calling for equitable access to heritage in the public domain. It represents the shared values, principles, and challenges of more than 60 individual organizations and institutions across 25 countries and 13 global networks that represent multiple organizations, and sets out priorities for advancing openness at a global scale.<\/span><\/p>\n

Over this series, we\u2019ll explore:<\/span><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. The obstacles that stand in the way of equitable access to heritage in the digital environment;<\/span><\/li>\n
  2. The meaning of open in the heritage context and the benefits of equitable access, from sparking creativity to advancing human rights, and;<\/span><\/li>\n
  3. The Open Heritage Statement itself, and how it aims to shape an international framework under UNESCO\u2019s auspices.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Join our global call for equitable access to public domain heritage in the digital environment. Mark your calendars for the Open Heritage Statement Launch<\/strong> on <\/span>14 October, 14:00 UTC. <\/b>Register in advance for this meeting<\/b><\/a>.<\/b><\/p>\n

    —<\/p>\n

    In 2022, the United Kingdom\u2019s Natural History Museum <\/span>reported<\/span><\/a> that scientists had applied computer vision to over 125,000 of the museum\u2019s collection of digitized images of butterfly specimens dating back hundreds of years and found that insects are changing due to climate change\u2014hotter years produce bigger insects. The Museum explained: \u201c\u2026open access digitized collections \u2026 allow scientists from all over the globe to be able to more easily use collections, can accelerate research in a more collaborative way than ever before.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    For anyone promoting open access to heritage collections in the digital environment, the fact that digital images of butterflies made openly accessible thanks to <\/span>CC0<\/span><\/a> could help us understand and address climate change\u2014one of the greatest challenges of our times\u2014was incredibly exciting.<\/span><\/p>\n

    This example is representative of the transformative potential of open access to heritage. It shows how making the heritage collections of cultural heritage institutions (CHIs) (such as museums, archives, and libraries) equitably and openly accessible and reusable online, by anyone for any purpose, can bring immense benefits to society. It is telling of how open access epitomizes the dual mission of CHIs of both preserving heritage in the public domain and enabling their users to harness it for the public good.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    Unfortunately, not all experiences are as positive as this butterfly story. Douglas McCarthy and Andrea Wallace humorously reported at the <\/span>Icepops 2022 conference<\/span><\/a> on the \u00a3179 fee a museum charged to download a reproduction of a public domain painting by 18th-century artist William Hogarth, turning open heritage into gated access. The same year, German puzzle manufacturer Ravensburger was sued in court by a museum in Italy for the <\/span>unauthorized use of the images of Leonardo da Vinci\u2019s Vitruvian Man<\/span><\/a> (a famous drawing dated c.1490) on a series of puzzles.<\/span>
    \n<\/span><\/p>\n

    As these contrasting examples show, the possibility of accessing and reusing heritage is vital to a creative and innovative society. Open access to heritage enables human progress well beyond the confines of art and culture. Unfortunately, this is all too often compromised by a slew of unnecessary barriers\u2014from incorrect copyright claims over digital reproductions, to technological locks, all the way to prohibitive access fees (and more). As a result, people still face obstacles that prevent them from meaningfully connecting with their heritage. Critical pieces of our shared memory remain out of reach for the communities they represent and for the people eager to build bridges across them.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    To help remove these barriers and contribute to equitable sharing of heritage worldwide, a small number of trailblazing institutions, like the <\/span>UK\u2019s Natural History Museum<\/span><\/a>, the <\/span>Metropolitan Museum of Art<\/span><\/a>, the <\/span>Smithsonian Institution<\/span><\/a>, the <\/span>Rijksmuseum<\/span><\/a>, and other <\/span>pioneering institutions<\/span><\/a> have adopted open access policies, practices, and tools that harness Creative Commons licenses and public domain tools to release digital heritage objects for broad access and fresh reuse, demonstrating the real-world benefits of open sharing.<\/span><\/p>\n

    But despite growing digital capacity, motivation, and best intentions, for the near totality of the world\u2019s CHIs, providing open, equitable access remains a challenge\u2014<\/span>only about 1%<\/span><\/a> of <\/span>institutions share heritage as open access<\/span><\/a>. Without an international framework providing clear guidance on how to implement open policies and practices, many institutions are left unsure of what is possible or even where to begin. This is the gap the TAROCH Coalition aims to close by harnessing collective effort for global change.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    The Problem: Unnecessary Fences around Public Domain Heritage\u00a0<\/b><\/h2>\n

    Heritage in the public domain<\/span><\/a> should be available for anyone to access and reuse for any purpose, without copyright permission. Yet in reality, the public domain is often fenced off from the public by a swath of barriers preventing both stewards and users from fully and equitably enjoying heritage in the public domain. These barriers are of a legal, technological, financial, and geographical nature, among others. Below we outline some of the most prevalent barriers we see when it comes to CHIs and enabling open access to public domain heritage.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    Wrongful Copyright Claims<\/b><\/h3>\n

    CHIs<\/span> sometimes restrict access to public domain heritage by erecting legal barriers around it. They do so by claiming an overlay of copyright over faithful digital reproductions of the heritage in their collections. This includes asserting copyright over digitized reproductions and applying (restrictive or open) copyright licenses to limit reuse. For example, as we<\/span> reported in 2019<\/span><\/a>, the Neues Museum in Berlin released a 3D scan of the 3,000-year-old Nefertiti bust from ancient Egypt under a CC BY-NC-SA license (wrongfully implying an underlying copyright in this digital reproduction).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    Pseudo-Copyright Exclusivity<\/b><\/h3>\n

    In certain countries, CHIs lean on their country\u2019s cultural heritage laws to prevent copyright-compliant use. This raises another type of legal barrier: by invoking cultural heritage protection laws, institutions may claim a \u201c<\/span>pseudo-copyright<\/span><\/a>\u201d requiring permission and imposing a fee, thus preventing further use of public domain heritage. By looking at real-world <\/span>examples<\/span><\/a>, we notice that these laws can achieve the opposite of what they were intended for: to protect and enhance cultural heritage and promote the development of culture. These laws <\/span>should not restrict prosocial creative reuses.<\/span><\/a>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    Contractual Restrictions<\/b><\/h3>\n

    Sometimes, CHIs enforce terms and conditions (or terms of use) on their website that restrict reuse of digital heritage. These terms and conditions will often prohibit commercial uses even though this is allowed under copyright law. These terms function as contracts and can mislead users into thinking copyright restrictions apply where they do not. This erodes the integrity of the public domain.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    Technical Blocks<\/b><\/h3>\n

    Further to the above contractual barriers, some institutions use digital rights management (DRM) and technological protection measures (TPMs) or make available their heritage files with watermarks, as low-resolution files only, or in inaccessible formats. This limits how public domain heritage can be accessed and reused and ends up harming scholarly research and cultural participation. For example, <\/span>a study in Pakistan<\/span><\/a> \u201crevealed that contents preserved with Sindh Archives & Antiquities on local heritage were shared with Sindh Archives & Antiquities watermarks only. […] From an Open GLAM perspective, the watermarks on digital collections prevent citizens from using and reusing heritage collections and therefore, limit collection outreach.\u201d As <\/span>Professor Melissa Terras put it back in 2014<\/span><\/a>, \u201call I want is a clear, 300dpi image. It\u2019s no use saying \u00abthis is in the public domain!\u00bb if you only provide 72dpi\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

    Low Accessibility for People with Disabilities<\/b><\/h3>\n

    Unfortunately, public domain heritage is often not available in digital files that allow for the creation of <\/span>accessible formats for people with disabilities<\/span><\/a>, including print disabilities. This digital exclusion disproportionately affects blind and visually impaired people, as well as those with cognitive and motor impairments. People are thus disempowered from creating versions of heritage materials in accessible formats that meet the needs of everyone.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    Economic Barriers<\/b><\/h3>\n

    Finally, making heritage in the public domain available to the public requires significant resources, and many CHIs are under pressure to monetize their collections to offset funding shortfalls. Several CHIs charge the equivalent of hundreds of dollars per image for access to digitized public domain works. These fees create barriers for educators, researchers, and smaller cultural creators, particularly outside the Global North. While financial sustainability is important, unreasonable paywalls undermine the public benefit of digital access. As the Creative Commons-funded report \u201c<\/span>Open Licensing Models in the Cultural Heritage Sector<\/span><\/a>\u201d recommends, institutions should develop economic models for revenue generation that go hand in hand with the open ethos.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    The Impact of Barriers on Equitable Access to Heritage<\/b><\/h3>\n

    As the above overview of diverse barriers confirms, when CHIs fail to enable equitable access, many important elements of our shared heritage remain locked away, out of reach. And heritage that is inaccessible is at risk of being forgotten, its meaning and context lost, and its transmission to future generations jeopardized. This has repercussions on entire communities of artists and creators, educators, students, scholars, and researchers, as well as members of the public, who lose opportunities to understand, learn, and create with heritage. This also reflects poorly on CHIs: it undermines their public-interest mission of providing universal access to their collections in the digital environment and opens the door to the erosion of cultural diversity, the widening of the digital divide, the weakening of intercultural dialogue, and the loss of shared narratives that connect us to our past and inspire our future.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    The barriers that fence off our shared heritage are real, but they are not insurmountable. We believe there is a unique window of opportunity to unlock its full value and place it at the heart of what matters now.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    In our next post in this series, we\u2019ll look at these benefits in action, from advancing human rights and education to sparking creativity and scientific discovery, and why they make the case for global alignment even stronger. We will uncover how openness is key to building a future where everyone can connect with, use, and build upon our shared memory.<\/span><\/p>\n

    What’s to Come<\/h3>\n

    Join us. This October, the <\/span>TAROCH Coalition<\/span><\/a> (<\/span>Towards a Recommendation on Open Cultural Heritage<\/span><\/i>) will publish the Open Heritage Statement, a collaborative declaration that sets out shared values, challenges, and priorities for closing the global gap in equitable access to heritage. The Statement will enshrine the principles that underpin equitable access and identify concrete actions to lower barriers, enabling open heritage to nurture creativity and shape sustainable futures for all.<\/span><\/p>\n

    The Statement is designed to support UNESCO\u2019s ongoing work on cultural rights, digital transformation, and knowledge sharing for sustainable development, reinforcing its founding commitment to the free flow of ideas.<\/span><\/p>\n

    Once released, the Statement will be open for institutions and organizations to sign and promote, laying the groundwork for a future international framework on open heritage.<\/span><\/p>\n

    This blog post is an adaptation of this pre-print manuscript. <\/b><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    “Landscape along the Seine with the Institut de France and the Pont des Arts” by Alfred Sisley, 1875, CC0, Art Institute of Chicago, remixed with “TAROCH balloon” by Creative Commons\/Dee Harris, 2025, CC0. We\u2019re kicking off a three-part series leading up to the launch of the Open Heritage Statement in October. The Statement, developed by…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":77040,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[2540,3882,3899,2824,3893],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77039"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77039"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77039\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":77240,"href":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77039\/revisions\/77240"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/77040"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77039"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77039"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77039"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}